By: Alex LaGrone
The Miami Heat is unhappy over fouls against LeBron James. James physical pounding on court often goes unnoticed. Charlotte Bobcats forward, Josh McDaniels, planted his elbow into James throat and chin area during a playoff game last week. James said the hard fouls won't change the way he plays. The Heat are increasingly frustrated by how aggressively opponents are permitted to play him.
"If you watched the play there was no hit, there was no attempt to hurt anyone" said Bobcats coach, Steve Clifford, who added that McRoberts was late with help defense on the play and was bracing himself for the impact with James who is 6'8 and 250 lbs. James commented, "I already know people will say LeBron is crying for fouls. That's not me. I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that at all". Still LeBron has been known to flop time to time. But this was no flop.
James often takes a pounding on his drives to the basket. The Heat and coach Erik Spoelstra is not pleased that the physical plays against his team haven't been called flagrant fouls. McDaniels was fined $20,000.00 dollars, but no suspension ("there's not going to be retaliation, but we will still be aggressive going to the basket). James stated, "if this was the 1980s, I would come out swinging. It's not. I mean too much to our team."
It was only a few months ago, that James sustained a broken nose while dunking over Oklahoma's City Thunder forward, Serge Ibaka. But, there is caution in feeling sorry for LeBron. The Heat has won back to back championships and other teams in the league are sick and tired of them winning.
The Heat's opponents will do whatever it takes to knock them out. I mean to knock them off. There are some very good teams in these rugged NBA playoff series. Several teams are determined to win a championship by any means necessary. Stay tuned.
