NBA Laboratory: Can LeBron Do It All By Himself?

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By Jon Bois - Featured Contributor

In this episode of NBA Laboratory, we use the video game NBA 2K12 to see what would happen to the Heat if LeBron James had to take all the shots. And, uh, if all his teammates were five feet tall.

Jan 19, 2012 - Hello, and welcome to the first NBA Laboratory of 2012. As usual, we will use this space to plumb the depths of NBA 2K12, the greatest basketball game ever made.

As of this writing, the Miami Heat lead the league in scoring this season, and LeBron James ranks second in individual scoring (29.8 points per game). He has plenty of help, of course, in Chris Bosh (20.0), Dwyane Wade (19.6), and Mike Miller (18.0).

THE EXPERIMENT: What if LeBron's teammates stopped shooting? What would his numbers look like? What would happen to the Heat?

And, of course, there's the most compelling question: can the perpetually-maligned LeBron James somehow find a way to bring a championship to Miami without anyone's help?

I made a few ... uh ... adjustments to his teammates, and then let it rip. Let's see what happens:

NBA Laboratory: Can LeBron Do It All By Himself? from Jon Bois on Vimeo.

A postscript: Zydrunas Ilgauskas has been retired for months, but he was on the original roster that shipped with NBA 2K12. After careful consideration, I decided to keep him on the Heat because the idea of a 5'3" Ilgauskas cracked me up. Science.

If you have any suggestions for a future NBA Laboratory experiment, I would, of course, love to hear them.

Previous adventures in NBA Laboratory:
Is being tall the only thing that matters in basketball?
Let's make Kobe Bryant super-mad

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Jon Bois

Featured Contributor

You have never read a sportswriter more recently than Jon Bois. He is an associate editor at SB Nation, he is an enthusiast of the Chiefs, Braves, and Royals, and he lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Comments

I’m dying.

FearTheSword, SBNation's Cleveland Cavaliers blog

by Conrad Kaczmarek on Jan 19, 2012 2:05 PM EST reply actions

+1

"We're not talking about me and Darko in the same sentence." - Chris Webber vs KAHN!

by caseycheesecake on Jan 19, 2012 5:45 PM EST up reply actions

SO. MUCH. WIN.

by smk73 on Jan 19, 2012 2:11 PM EST reply actions

This is fantastic.

I think it's fine.

by NetsMets4Life on Jan 19, 2012 2:33 PM EST reply actions

So, so good. I wish there was a regularly-updated “This week in Robert Awful” post.

I've got these tiny hands!
-Alex Smith

by Swamp Thing on Jan 19, 2012 3:38 PM EST reply actions

This is brilliant

Arizona Cardinals/Chicago Bears fan
Phoenix Suns, Arizona Diamondbacks, Phoenix Coyotes, Arizona Rattlers fan
[I have always lived in Arizona, dad is from Chicago].

Leading the NFL in swagtangibles

by JoeCB1991 on Jan 19, 2012 4:27 PM EST reply actions

Being from the moon explains LeBron's out of this world slams and jams!

Also, I would love to see how a team that only shot three pointers would do over a full season. Like, in theory if they shoot at least 37% and managed 100 attempts a game, they could easily outscore their opponents on most nights. The problems, of course, are having to rebound and defend in transition well enough with all those missed shots, and somehow managing to get that many threes up and have them be good enough shots.

I know together we'll make the possible totally impossible

by Andrew Reifschneider on Jan 19, 2012 5:06 PM EST reply actions 1 recs