Miami Heat: Are LeBron James and Dwyane Wade The Best 1-2 Punch In The NBA?

Dwyane Wade and LeBron James (right) are arguably the deadliest duo in the NBA. Photo Credit: Keith Allison, Flickr.com

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Karl Malone and John Stockton. The list goes on. Throughout the history of the NBA, there have been lethal combos that took the league by storm. Now, there’s LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

When the Big Three Era commenced in 2010, many wondered whether James and Wade could coexist, seeing as they have similar styles of play. We didn’t know who would take the lead role and how exactly the team would function, especially in crunch time when the Heat needed a basket. Who would be the alpha dog?

After all, this was initially Wade’s team, yet everyone knew LeBron was the better player. And no disrespect to Chris Bosh, but he’s kind of a third wheel to Wade and King James.

However, three consecutive trips to the Eastern Conference Finals (and possibly the NBA Finals) later, I think it’s safe to say all the chemistry questions have been answered.

The quick solution at the time was to simply take turns. Now fast forward to 2013 and this is well and truly King James’ team with Wade playing Robin to James’ Batman. When Miami is in need of a basket, they turn to the reigning MVP and he’s stepped up.

LeBron has dropped the “LeChoke” moniker and come into his own as a clutch player. In the regular season, in the last 30 seconds of games/overtime when the points differential was less than three points, James hit 48 percent of his 17 attempted field goals and racked up 27 points for Miami. That’s tied with Chris Paul for the most points in that time span.

Now on to the question: Are LeBron James and Dwyane Wade the best 1-2 punch in the NBA? In my opinion, no, they’re not. That honor goes to Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

Russell Westbrook went down with a torn meniscus, thus ending Oklahoma City’s championship hopes and the whole world found out his worth. Say what you will about Westbrook being a selfish player, but the fact of the matter is he and Durant complement each other. And as the playoffs have shown us, one (certainly Durant) can’t function without the other.

I don’t feel the same can be said about Wade and James.

LeBron James has developed into such a force and Miami is so loaded that I genuinely believe he doesn’t need Dwayne Wade as his sidekick anymore.

With that said, I’m not in any way trying to disrespect Dwyane Wade because he still a great player both offensively and defensively. Plus he’s a two-time NBA champion and he wasn’t a passenger at all in winning those two championship rings.

This season has been far from his individual best prime in terms of scoring as he recorded the second-lowest scoring average of his career (21.2 points per game), but by no means has he lost it. Flash is still a force to be reckoned with both offensively and defensively as he shot a career high 52 percent from the field and was again the top shot blocker among guards.

Also, even when he’s a terrible night scoring, Wade still leave his print on the game as he showed in Game 3 of the first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks. The Marquette product went 1-for-12 from the field, ending up with just four points, yet he nearly finished with a double-double as he recorded 11 assists and nine rebounds. He also had five steals and two blocks. I guess it’s true that scoring isn’t everything.

At this point, the Wade-LeBron marriage has grown to the point where the pair pretty much knows what the other is thinking and that will lead to even more spectacular plays.

Thank you, Pat Riley, for giving us this awesome duo.