First things first, in the words of Shaquille O'Neal and his son, LeBron James has been a video game cheat code this playoffs. He is averaging an absolutely absurd 42.3 points, 7.3 assists, 7.3 boards, and 2.8 combined steals/blocks per game thus far in the Eastern Conference Finals. He is making 51|PERCENT| of his shots. His turnovers (4.5) and free throw percentage (75|PERCENT|) haven't been ideal, but it's extremely hard to nitpick someone who is obliterating the stat sheet nor give him much blame in his team being down 3 to 1 in the series.
Meanwhile, the Cavs supporting scorers of Mo "Mr. Guarantee" Williams, Delonte West and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are all struggling. Their combined point totals aren't much off their regular season averages (41.1 ppg ECF, 42.4 ppg season), but their shooting percentages are hideous. Ilgauskas is down from 47.2|PERCENT| to 41.9|PERCENT|, West from 45.7|PERCENT| down to 43.5|PERCENT|, and Williams has fallen through the basement from 46.7|PERCENT| all the way down to 32.4|PERCENT| shooting from the field in the ECF.
On the surface it looks like LeBron is carrying a team that isn't giving him any support...but is it all their fault? Former coach and current NBA analyst Hubie Brown had an interesting observation after game 4, pointing out that the vast majority of the Cavs offense consists of either LeBron isolated off the dribble, LeBron off the dribble using a pick, or a play set to deliver the ball to LeBron in a certain location. None of the other players are really getting any plays run for them. Brown said that the offense that the Cavs are running is similar to what you would see on the playground, when one player is hot and you just let that guy create on every possession. That can be a good thing for the scorer and spot-up shooters, but Brown points out that this prevents the offense from being able to choose who gets the shot, it's all determined by what the defense gives. The problem with that, though, is that the secondary scorers rarely get the ball in their scoring zones so they have to force it to get shots. Plus, with their shots and ball-handling chances coming few and far between it is hard for them to get into any kind of rhythm.
Do you buy this? I can't completely excuse the other Cavs scorers because I can remember each of them missing quite a few wide open shots that were created by LeBron collapsing the defense. And nothing can excuse an All Star guard with the confidence to make guarantees from shooting 32|PERCENT| from the field. On the other hand, there has been a lot of groundswell against Allen Iverson this year in the wake of replacing his ball-dominating offense with Chauncey Billups' unselfish leadership (and some advanced stats like Wins Produced have been screaming for years that Iverson's stats don't translate to wins). As of now, Kobe Bryant has never won a title as a first option ball-dominant perimeter scorer. Vince Carter has never reached the top. Tracy McGrady never got out of the first round. In fact, since Michael Jordan, no dominant perimeter scorer that runs the majority of their team's offense (with the possible exception of Dwyane Wade in 2006) has led their team to a title. And honestly, off the top of my head, I can't think of very many dominant perimeter scorers that ran the offense that have EVER won the title outside of Jordan. Even Jordan, it an be argued, didn't start having playoff success until they started letting Scottie Pippen play more point forward with Jordan playing a bit more off the ball.
It raises an interesting question...is this a non-intuitive side effect of the Jordan legacy? Is it possible for a player, especially a perimeter player that handles the ball a lot and controls the offense, to be TOO productive as a scorer? I'd have thought that efficiency was the key, but LeBron is scoring very efficiently so if you buy this theory then that isn't enough. What do you think? Is it all the supporting cast's fault for not stepping up, or is the Cavs' reliance on LeBron's brilliance actually holding some of his teammates back?