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There's never been a professional athlete under more pressure from day one than LeBron James. His ascent to the NBA was the eye of a perfect storm. No more Jordan had the Association lacking a transcendant star, the explosion of high school to NBA players had him on ESPN and the cover of Sports Illustrated before prom night and he was expected to carry a professional team from the age of 18. And he did it. He broke in with nightly averages of 20-5-6 and has kept getting better while the pressure and the questions just kept coming. How come it took him three years to make the playoffs? How come he couldn't take out the Pistons last spring? Why aren't the Cavaliers running roughshod over the Eastern Conference? Where did he go in the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals? Will he ever make the leap from great player to whatever platform Jordan, Magic and Bird played atop?
Yes, yes he will and he made his move to that level last night. If you saw the game you probably are still putting your eyeballs back in their sockets. If you didn't see it, shame on you because you missed the best single performance in the NBA since #23 retired for the second time. Everyone in Detroit, Auburn Hills, West Bloomfield, Ann Arbor and Traverse City knew that James was going to have the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter and both overtimes, everyone knew that he was going to be taking the shots and everyone knew that stopping him twice would likely earn the Pistons a crucial win. But none of those everyones could do a thing about it because there was simply no stopping James. He scored the last 25 points for Cleveland to give them a 109-107 win. Just so you have it straight, he scored 25 STRAIGHT POINTS in the fourth quarter and two overtimes of Game Five of the Conference Finals.
Our favorite sequence came at the end of regulation. James drove and dunked out of a halfcourt set to give the Cavs an 89-88 lead. Chauncey Billups, AWOL all series until last night, drained a deep three with 22 seconds to play on the next Detroit possession. Again the Cavs worked their halfcourt offense to get James the ball and again he took it to the rack and wouldn't be denied. He elevated and thundered home another dunk to force overtime. That drive and finish was something but the winning shot with two seconds left in the second overtime was one that will be a part of every James highlight video ever made. Three Pistons were hanging all over him as he drove and scooped in a lay-up. Billups missed at the buzzer and James' masterpiece was complete.
Now, of course, comes Game Six and there's always a chance he could turn around and throw up the stinkers of Games One and Two and make everyone start questioning him again. That's a pretty slim hope for the Pistons to hang their hats on, though. The Q will be crazy and the Pistons can't stop James from going about his business so the only hope they have is to step up their own offensive game. That won't be easy as underneath James' leap has been a standout defensive effort by Cleveland that's kept the Pistons under wraps. Frankly, after last night it's hard to imagine a non-partisan basketball fan who would want to see the Pistons win anyway. It might not work out for Cleveland against San Anonio but could anyone really want something other than, at the very least, four more nights of watching LeBron James?
What I can say is I've watched LeBron play roughly 500 games in person from places like Rehobeth Beach, Del., to Sapporo, Japan, to Bakersfield, Calif., to something like 17 times at the Palace of Auburn Hills now. Never have a seen a performance like that from him and never have I seen him be so calm. He wasn't demonstrative and making all those primal faces, he was just coldly killing the Pistons. It isn't often you know you are experiencing history at the moment it is happening. It doesn't matter which team you cover as a journalist or which team you root for as a fan, there was no way you could watch LeBron score 25 straight points and think you weren't being given a gift of an experience. (Brian Windhorst)
Amass every superlative ever used in describing a clutch playoff performance, and it would still fall a few adjectives shy of accurately portraying LeBron James' legendary, yes, legendary effort in what was already a memorable night at the Palace. (Drew Sharp, Detroit Free-Press)
This feels like the ascension. The series is not over, and there is still the matter of the NBA Finals to be played, but we have now seen the real LeBron on the big (cable TV late on a weeknight) stage. Forget about all of the marketing, the money, the people that have made lives and careers off of the business of LeBron. This was strictly for the fans, his legacy, and history. (Sam Rubenstein, Slam Online)
Besides Jordan that 1st and 2nd Overtime was the best 10 minute performance I may have ever seen. Just ridiculous. I'm in shock. (Awful Announcing, which also has some great video clips)
I stand before you more convinced than ever that the league can once again foster greatness. That the stars can come home to roost. That Kobe will yet find his redemption, McGrady will hit the three that sends the Rockets into round two, Melo and AI will execute a perfect two-mean weave while fixing their braids, and Amare will one day block his own dunk and get credit for both acts. What LeBron did tonight was unlock all that we have strived for, and remind me why I've been piling up all these syllables for almost three seasons now. (Free Darko)
Double-teaming him doesn’t work, man-to-man doesn’t work. There is no fair way to stop this man. After watching the play, my immediate reaction (after picking my jaw up off the floor holding back some tears) was that I wish someone had put him on the floor and made him earn it from the line. Not just a hard foul which might have resulted in a three-point play; no, I wanted somebody to hurt the guy. Yes, physically hurt him, go beyond the rules of the game and give him a bruise in two different places: on his face from where someone would shove the ball into his huge nose and on his ass from when he would fall out of orbit and back to earth. Needless to say, my head was in a bad place. (Detroit Bad Boys)
(AFP/Getty Images/Gregory Shamus)
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