DALLAS — For nearly a year, LeBron James has shaken off the criticism, laughed off the trash talk.
None of it mattered to James, not as long as the Miami Heat remained on the route to a championship.
But when that pursuit became threatened in part by his own poor play, James couldn’t ignore the only critic that matters: himself.
James said Wednesday he “didn’t play well” in Game 4, when the Dallas Mavericks edged the Heat 86-83 to even the series at two games apiece after the two-time MVP failed to make an impact offensively.
“I didn’t do that (Tuesday) night,” James said. “Those are the things that I pride myself on that hurt me the most. I’ll just be hard on myself and figure out a way to do it better the next game.”
James scored only eight points, held in single digits for the first time in 90 career playoff games, and attempted only 11 shots. James said he criticized himself all night, taking solace that he had at least two more chances to turn things around for himself and his team.
“If it was the Super Bowl, I would be kicking myself in the foot. We have one game. That’s it,” James said. “The great thing about this, it’s a series. No matter if you can have a bad game, you can always make an imprint on the next game.”
Mavericks reserve guard Jason Terry wondered aloud if James could defend him for seven games. DeShawn Stevenson took things further when he said James “checked out” late in Game 4.
And while James has come under increased scrutiny for his passive play, Dirk Nowitzki is cementing his reputation by overcoming injury and illness to rally Dallas to victories in two of the last three games.
“Really, are there two guys that get more compared to Superman than Dwyane Wade and LeBron James? Think about it,” Mavericks president Donnie Nelson said. “Then our guy was the superstar that never really was a superstar because he was from Europe, or he was soft, or he couldn’t win the big game.”
Not anymore. Not after Nowitzki made the go-ahead layup with a left hand that had a torn tendon in his middle finger with 3.6 seconds left in Game 2, and certainly not after fighting through a fever of 101 degrees to score 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter of Game 4.
He felt better Wednesday morning, saying the fever had broke, though precautions were being made to make sure he didn’t get anyone else sick. The microphone Nowitzki used for interviews was immediately replaced — teammate Tyson Chandler followed him and joked to “burn that mike!” — but the big German was already planning a workout later in the evening.
“I think we have to be ready for anything,” he said.
Averaging 15.5 million viewers on ABC, the series is drawing the most since 2004, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s last year together with the Lakers.
“It’s kind of ‘The Little Train That Could,’ that hasn’t quite done it yet, and then you’ve got these known commodities, household names. . . . It makes for interesting theater,” Nelson said.
