Coming into Wednesday’s contest against the Washington Wizards, LeBron James scoffed at the notion that the Miami Heat were coasting this season.
In fact, he even made a bold statement to follow up his claim that neither he nor the Heat were coasting, from Tom Haberstroh of ESPN:
With two days off this weekend and a refreshing visit to the White House on Tuesday, James promises we’ll see a different James against the 17-19 Washington Wizards. “We’ll see Wednesday how I’m coasting,” James said jokingly as he made his way into the Heat locker room on Monday. “You’ll see the numbers I’ll put up on Wednesday. Just watch.”
Unfortunately for James, his words were quite ill-timed. Against the Wizards, the Heat came out flat and were outscored 43-18. They eventually lost the game 114-97 in what could be considered one of the worst losses of the season. James managed to put up 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists – right about what he averages on the season.
Dwyane Wade was particularly bad in this one, scoring just eight points on four-of-11 shooting from the field to go with six rebounds and five assists, while allowing Bradley Beal to score 19 points on seven-of-13 shooting.
After the contest, Wade credited the Wizards but was also hard on himself:
Tough 1 tonite..give Washington credit they put it on us..I must play alot better and we must play better..
— THREE (@DwyaneWade) January 16, 2014
The Heat have now lost three consecutive games for the first time since April of 2012.
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James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.