Getty LeBron James of the Lakers takes a hit from Miami Heat forward Jae Crowder
There were plenty of moments during Tuesday night’s Game 4 of the NBA Finals in which the tenor of the action got a little heated. Little wonder—the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers have been battling for a week now, the two teams trying to make this whole three-month NBA bubble experiment worthwhile with a championship.
But at almost every turn, it was Miami forward Jae Crowder who was at the center of the tension, and LeBron James at the receiving end. That led some to speculate whether Crowder was still holding over some bitterness toward James for having him traded from an NBA Finals contender in Cleveland in 2018 to Utah, where Crowder played for parts of two seasons.
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Crowder, who was traded from Memphis to Miami this year ahead of the trade deadline, proved to be a master of annoyance in the first half, when he attempted to intervene in a conversation between coach Frank Vogel and Lakers big man Markieff Morris.
Crowder got in on Morris’ huddle 😅
Later, there was this, too, late in the fourth quarter with the Lakers clinging to a three-point lead:
Which, of course, led to this:
Jae Crowder still mad Bron sent him to Salt Lake City
And this:
Jae Crowder & LeBron James: 53 Games as Teammates
Crowder did spend 53 games as a teammate of James in Cleveland, after being part of the trade that sent Kyrie Irving to Boston in 2017. He struggled as a Cavalier, though, averaging 8.6 points and knocking down only 32.8% of his 3-pointers.
In his time with the Heat, though, Crowder has completely changed his fortunes and for a while looked like the second coming of Ray Allen. He made 44.5% of his 3s for Miami in 20 regular-season games, then started the postseason by making 41.7% from the arc in his first 10 games.
Alas, water and 3-point percentages always find their proper levels, and Crowder, lately, has backtracked to his usual identity as an inconsistent perimeter shooting. In his last nine games, he is making only 27.0% from the arc.
Crowder: NBA Championships Always Go Through LeBron James
Crowder has spent much of this series guarding Anthony Davis, though he has spent time on James, as well. He also guarded James plenty of times when he was with the Celtics, having faced off against Cleveland in the postseason twice when in Boston.
Crowder knows that in today’s NBA, all championship hopes run through James. As he said in a press conference this week:
I mean, if you’re trying to get to the top of the food chain, you’ve got to go through him,. I just always viewed it as that. Obviously I joined him, and I just took from joining him just his approach to the game, whether it be physically, whether it be mentally, just as a total approach is high level. I think you respect that as a player in our league, you just respect what he puts into his craft. And like I said, playing against him, he’s just — there’s no way around it. At some point if you’re trying to get to the top, you’ve got to go through him. That’s just what it is.
I like that as a competitor. You’ve just got to — you want to beat the best. You don’t want anything to be handed to you, and I feel like this is where it has come to. This is the Finals and you’ve got to go through him to get to where you want to be, and that’s winning a championship.
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