Former Boston Celtics champion Eddie House had some strong words for his ex-teammate LeBron James. House, who played with James on the Miami Heat during the 2010-11 season, singled out the Los Angeles Lakers star for failing to deliver during the 2011 NBA Finals.
“If we gonna point the finger, we’ll point the finger at the fourth-quarter collapse every game that we had,” House said on the April 16 episode of “The Carton Show.” “It was 1-1 Game 2, we were up, we collapsed in the fourth quarter. They tied it up. We win Game 3. We go up 2-1 [and] we didn’t win another game. If we’re gonna play the blame game, I wasn’t out on the court.”
House is referencing how James was at fault for the Heat’s failure to beat the Dallas Mavericks. Despite James’ individual dominance, that particular series has been regarded as one of his very worst performances.
In six games, James averaged 17.8 points to go with four turnovers a game. He also shot 47.8% from the field and 32.1% from three. James and the Heat would go on to win back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013.
House won a title with the Celtics in 2008. After they traded him midseason in 2010, he signed with the Heat the same offseason James did. That was also House’s last NBA season.
Eddie House Responded to LeBron James’ Comments
House’s words were in response to James claiming that the 2010-11 Heat did not have a strong supporting cast. James said as much on the April 5 episode of “Mind the Game Pod.”
“We had to build our team around all (veteran’s) minimum guys, which was still okay, but we didn’t fill out the complementary guys enough. Yeah, we had (Mario Chalmers), we had Udonis (Haslem), but we didn’t have enough as far as enough complementary guys to actually make it all work, and we still made it to the finals.”
House was among the new players who joined the Heat that season, along with James, Chris Bosh, Mike Miller, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Erick Dampier.
As James said, despite what he perceives as a weak supporting cast, the Heat still almost won a title that season.
Eddie House Believes Knicks are Celtics’ Biggest Threat
On the April 15 episode of “The Carton Show,” House believes that the New York Knicks are the Celtics’ biggest challenger in the Eastern Conference.
“They’re the biggest threat,” House said. “I had a conversation with Brian Scalabrine… He said the Knicks were the biggest threat to the Celtics, and I was like, ‘I don’t see it.’ And then, when they went out there and put their big foot up their (expletive)… The way they’ve been playing. The way (Tom Thibodeau) has them playing. They believe Jalen Brunson has went to a whole other level. A super baller.”
The Knicks are the No. 2 seed behind the Celtics. Despite missing Julius Randle since January, they managed to stay the course as one of the conference’s top seeds. The only way the Celtics would face them would be if they met up in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Knicks have not made it that far since 1999.
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