Where LeBron James Is King

LeBron James posted a pedestrian line of 33 points on 14-24 shooting, 1-2 treys, 4-6 from the line, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, a steal, 2 blocks, and 4 turnovers. And when I say pedestrian, I mean pedestrian to LeBron James. He really didn't do anything that overwhelming. He contributed in every single category (except FT and TO, but you take the good [really really good] with the bad [not that bad]) Actually, he's so good that when posts lines like these (you know if any of your other players did it, you'd be jumping up and down with joy), nobody really notices since he seems to do it all the time. I mean, you've seen him play, right? He takes 4 to 5 steps without dribbling towards the rim and finishes with a thunderous dunk. No wonder he scores as much as he does and as efficiently as he does. He's probably one of the most athletic athletes the history of sports has ever seen so it shouldn't be a problem for him to chase down at least 7 missed shots and 1 loose ball in a game. He has the ball in his hands so much and multiple defenders guard him at the same time, so it shouldn't be that difficult to find an open teammate for a high percentage shot at least 7 times in a game. Pretty easy, right?

The most intriguing thing that I noticed tonight was Dwight Howard's shooting in the Magic's game at Phoenix. He shot 1-1 from the field and 8-17 from the line. Come on, that's a pretty funny line, am I right? I don't even need to watch this game to know what happened. Every time D12 had the ball down low, the Suns fouled him, forcing him to earn his points from the stripe. That 1-1, I can assume, signifies the one time that the Suns fouled him, and he still made it, for a continuation and an And-1. That probably accounts for the odd number of free throw attempts (17) he took, and I know he didn't get fouled attempting a trey (3 foul shots). And he definitely wasn't the best foul shooter in the team to shoot a technical foul shot. He really should work on his free throws, which brings me to his opponent tonight who made the game-winning shot...

... Amare Stoudemire (28 and 10, on 12-21 shooting). I remember when Amare was a rookie for the young Run-N'-Gun Suns. He averaged 6 foul shots per game and only converted 2/3rd (66%) of them. That summer, he vowed to improve his shooting. So every single day, he went to the gym and worked diligently on his jump shot. Not only did he improve his free shooting to 80% (in about 8 attempts per game) over the past 3 years (making him difficult to foul), but he also added the 20-foot jumper to his arsenal, making him one of the most lethal offensive juggernauts (it's very difficult to guard an explosive Big who can make the open jump shot and finish strong near the rim) the league has ever seen, finishing 2nd overall behind Chris Paul 2 years ago in Yahoo! Fantasy Rankings. It is for this reason (good shooting) that Amare is one of the top big men (ahead of Howard by a wide margin) in fantasy. In terms of real life defense, well- that's another story.

So, Dwight, take a page out of Amare's book and practice shooting. It's possible to get good at it. Look at guys like Yao Ming, Pau Gasol and Brook Lopez. They're three Bigs who can shoot FTs at a 80% clip or better.

Trust me. If you can shoot free throws like Yao, I guarantee you that every single fantasy manager (in the right mind) will choose you first overall in every single draft, every single format. Not only that, you will surpass one Shaquille O'neal as the most dominant center basketball has ever seen.

Oh, and you'll make Abraham (a [not so] proud Dwight Howard owner) very ([probably] ecstatically) happy.