By Ethan J. Skolnick Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 11:13?p.m.?Saturday,?Dec.?31,?2011
Posted: 5:33?p.m.?Saturday,?Dec.?31,?2011
Everything is working for LeBron James at the moment, so you might as well assume his memory is functioning at a high level, too.
"I can't remember when I have had a stretch like this," James said Friday, following his latest exhibition in offensive efficiency and overall versatility, a performance that carried Miami to a two-point victory at Minnesota.
He certainly hasn't had a similar one to start any of his previous eight seasons, not his seven in Cleveland or first in Miami. While it isn't fair to say he's ever been icy out of the gate, he's hardly been scorching, either. In five of those seasons, he shot less than 45 percent through the first four games, and he'd never been better than the 50 percent he posted through four contests of the 2005-06 campaign.
So far in 2011-12, he's at 59.8 percent, good for seventh in the NBA through Friday's play, and he leads the NBA in scoring average at 33.0. What's most remarkable is not the rate or clip at which he's been connecting, especially considering the small sample size. Rather, it's the degree of difficulty of many of his attempts.
Simply, James has never scored in quite this way before.
He never scored quite like this even when he felt good about himself, as he says he does again - and is showing through the smile he is flashing more frequently than during his mentally and emotionally exhausting 2010-11 season. So while he attributes his early excellence in part to his "mental mind state," it's at least as much about something else:
"Just the work I put into it in the off-season," James said.
He put much into his back-to-the-basket arsenal, even toiling with low-post legend Hakeem Olajuwon for a week in Houston. Yet while James has set up shop in the block a bit more, he's been more prone to fade away into difficult 17-footers than to drive toward easier opportunities near the hoop. For the most part, he's relied upon old standbys: his skills facing the basket, whether shooting at it from outside or driving toward it in the half court or soaring toward it in transition.
In particular, James feels "really comfortable" with what he called "my mid-range game." Yet not every observer will feel comfortable calling most of his shots "mid-range," since mid-range is typically defined as halfway between the basket and the three-point arc.
That's roughly 12 feet.
That's hardly the spot from which James is firing most. On Friday, for instance, only one of his 23 shot attempts came from between 10 and 15 feet, and, according to HoopData.com, he's made only 3 of 8 attempts from that distance on the season. That's roughly the same number of attempts per game as last season.
Instead, he's become enamored with a shooting distance that many coaches dread, because it counts for two points rather than three, yet is nearly equally challenging:
That's 16 to 23 feet.
That's where James set a career high last season by knocking down 45 percent, which is the same as he's started this season. Yet his attempts, which have been 5.7, 5.7, 5.5, 5.4, 5.4 the past five seasons, have jumped to nine per night. That would seem a dangerous trend. Still, coach Erik Spoelstra, who often advocates such an advanced statistical approach to risk and reward, said Friday he isn't concerned.
"I think that's probably where people Moneyball it a little too much," Spoelstra said, referring to the book and movie about baseball's stats-based revolution. "And if you're wide open and in rhythm and it's a critical turning point in the game, I don't think people want to give him that look, either."
Spoelstra added it is necessary to take and make enough to keep defenses honest, and "I think we're doing a good job of taking what's given to us right now. We can't have everything at the rim, but as long as we're getting a lot of opportunities at the free-throw line, at the rim, putting pressure on."
James understands the risk of overreliance on the long two-point jumper, but he believes it's fine as "long as I'm on balance. As long as I'm not taking too many fadeaway shots - which we will, which I will, because it's a part of my arsenal - but being able to stay in my mid-range game and make shots count, is just a testament to what I was able to do in the off-season."
What he still does best is attack, and the stats show he's doing more short-range damage than ever. Aided by fleet rookie point guard Norris Cole, who fed him for two fast-break flushes Friday, James is 24-for-30 (80 percent) at the rim, several percentage points higher than his stable career standard.
Add all this up, and the sum has been special, even for him.
"I'm more comfortable with the guys and the system," he said.
That comfort showed in his smile - one he hopes to keep in the short-range, mid-range and long-range future.
Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/heat/miami-heats-lebron-james-enjoying-best-offensive-start-2071631.html?cxtype=rss_heat_17245
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