Mark Cuban explains how the Mavs stopped LeBron in the 2011 Finals.
In one of the greatest upsets in sports history, the Dallas Mavericks bested the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals to win the 2011 championship. To this day, it’s a moment that some fans struggle to understand given the matchup at play.
But as Mavericks governor Mark Cuban revealed in an appearance on the Pat Bev podcast, certain strategies are more effective than others when trying to beat a LeBron James-led team.
“Throw a zone against LeBron,” said Cuban. “All you have to do is get him to hesitate. He always wants to make the right basketball play. When you’re facing a zone and you have to read what they’re doing. That slowed him down, that gave us an edge.”
The 2011 playoffs are considered by many to be the lowest point of LeBron’s career. After making such a big show of his move to Miami the summer before, everybody was expecting him to roll through the Mavs en route to his first championship win.
Instead, James had one of his worst series ever with averages of just 17.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists through six games. That blunder is a mark that LeBron still carries to this day, even despite the fact that he’d go on to win two championships before leaving the franchise in 2014.
While LeBron’s struggles were partly in his own head, you have to give credit to the Mavericks for employing zone defense throughout the series and making LeBron hesitant to make decisions on the court.
2011 NBA Finals Are A Blemish On LeBron’s Career
The Mavs knew they could never stop LeBron completely, but the effectiveness of their strategy caught many by surprise and it seemed to really limit what James could do on the court.
“The game plan was just to give him different looks and different bodies. We just tried to make it tough for LeBron. He’s gonna score, he’s gonna get his attempts but you just can’t give him freebies because if you give him freebies,” said Jason Kidd on facing LeBron in 2011,” that’s where he can hurt you.”
Interestingly, James would use his shortcomings in 2011 as motivation to fuel what followed, and by the very next summer, he made up for it completely with a dominant performance to win the 2012 Finals against OKC.
Even so, the loss vs. Dallas that year will never be forgotten, especially when you start comparing LeBron’s career to Michael Jordan’s, who had very few mistakes in the postseason.
