LeBron James Saved Christmas With These Two Dunks

Usually, a LeBron James dunk is a thing of power, grace, and a little too much efficiency. All the power of a locomotive, and all the creativity of one as well. So when LeBron and Dwyane Wade interrupted whatever idle conversations you were having with your relatives yesterday with two preposterous alley-oops, the kind that if you missed them the first time through, a cousin dragged you in front of the TV to catch on replay, it was kind of an awesome Christmas gift for an NBA fan.

It was mostly Dwyane's fault LeBron had to be exciting. Wade, who in his athletic decline has turned himself into one of the NBA's most skilled and efficient fluffers, actually threw a couple passes that required LeBron to do a little more than simply jump impossibly high and shove the ball into the basket.

The first dunk (first highlight in the video) has Wade throwing the ball a little farther from the basket than usual, something Chris Paul does for Blake and DeAndre to give them a little more room for flair. But the second dunk, which starts at about 0:55 in the video above, is just not possible. LeBron takes a rebound at his own foul line, passes out to Wade on the right wing, and runs the floor so fast that Dwyane has time for one dribble before putting it off the glass for James to oop home. Except the timing is all off, James is on top of Wade before he's put the ball up, and the angle is too wide to throw a decent pass, and everything is just happening too damn fast. At full speed, it's comical. LeBron and the Heat left a trail of shock and awe that had to turn at least a few, hmm, let's call them NBA-hating uncles, onto the league.

By the next highlight, LeBron was back to his boring self. (Seriously, look at his best plays from 2013. He's basically brutalist architecture.) But that doesn't matter. LeBron was exciting for day. It was a Christmas Miracle.