With last night’s triumphant 98-82 win over the Detroit Pistons, the Cavaliers asserted themselves as the best team in the East and LeBron James asserted himself as a superstar who has taken his game to the next level. Earlier in this series, LeBron caught a lot of flak from the media about not being the guy who took the pivotal shot or someone who wasn’t taking the game into his own hands. Over these last two games, however, we’ve seen just how dominant LeBron can be.

Last night, LeBron was being double teamed by Detroit Pistons essentially from the start. Every time he touched the ball, it seemed like he would get tag teamed by two defenders like he stole something. In my opinion this is where the true superstar emerged. We saw his super human effort in game five that resulted in him scoring 29 of the last 30 Cavalier points and stealing game five in Detroit. Detroit’s answer to that was to swarm LeBron and not let him get good looks, and that’s exactly what they did. Read the rest of this entry »

On June 26, 2003, the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted the hometown kid that they felt would become their savior. Less than four years later, the Cavs are moving on to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. LeBron James’ childhood dream became reality last night with a 98-82 victory over the Pistons. King James and Co. will play for the NBA Championship. What a difference four years makes.

“This is like a dream,” James said, shaking his head. “This is probably the best feeling that I’ve ever had in my life.”

Following James’ historic performance in game five, it was pretty obvious that the Pistons would do anything to avoid a similar performance. The Pistons’ sole intention of stopping LeBron became their downfall. Sure, LBJ shot just 3-11. But he got the entire team involved, nobody more than rookie Daniel Gibson, who went 5-5 from downtown and scored 31 points. On this night, the Cavs weren’t a one man show. The only thing scarier than LeBron is LeBron and a sidekick, which is what Gibson has become.

So relax, NBA fans. The dreaded Spurs-Pistons series we all saw coming turned out to be a hoax. On Thursday night, the player that was hyped as the next You-Know-Who will make his first appearance in the NBA Finals. The city of Cleveland hasn’t won a professional sports championship in 43 years. Thanks to the heroics of LeBron James and Co., they might be able to end their decades of tragedy.

The Ottawa Senators faced basically a must win game against the Anaheim Ducks last night, and managed to come away with a victory. Entering the game, the Senators were down two games to none and did not look like a Stanley Cup Finals team. That all changed last night when the Senators pulled off an impressive 5-3 victory at home over the Ducks.

The Senators had to battle back despite being down by a goal on three different occasions. That is exactly what you need to see out of a team to assume they have any chance of winning the series. At home, the Senators were able to rally the fans behind them and make this comeback. They were spurred on by a cheap shot in the second period by defenseman Chris Pronger. Pronger attacked a Senators player, and after a cheap shot to the head which somehow wasn’t called a penalty, the Senators really came out for blood. There were a series of brawls and the hitting really stepped up. The Senators got a goal off what appeared to have been a kick in, but upon review the referees ruled it clean, and that’s good enough to get them a win.

The Senators will look to capitalize on their success and win their next game at home to even up the series. Before the year even began, a lot of people were crowning the Ducks the champions, and when the finals matchup was announced I think most people just assumed they would win. With a few more performances like last night, the Senators are going to make sure that doesn’t happen too easily.

I don’t usually throw around lofty claims of “historical” performances. But last night, LeBron James delivered one of the best performances in NBA history. Last night, all the hype you heard about him when he was a 16 year old kid in high school all began to make sense. In the biggest game of the year, LeBron James really did look like Michael Jordan.

“Somebody told me that in the locker room that he scored 29 of our last 30 points and I could not believe it,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said. “Everybody keeps asking for more, and he keeps giving more.

Despite three of his teammates fouling out and despite playing on the road, James didn’t seem to give a damn. He was going to will the Cavs to a win. LeBron made a good defensive team look horrid last night. When they got in his face, he drove by them. When they gave him space, he hit three pointers in their eye. It was something out of a video game.

Within minutes of the final buzzer, I had placed an order with Amazon.com: one LeBron James jersey. I’ve always liked to watch the guy play but last night was more than a game. It was a show, a performance. The Cavs are just a win away from the NBA Finals and now head home to try and clinch the series. Game six is Saturday and trust me, you do not want to miss it.

Following the Pistons’ win over the Cavs in game two of the Eastern Conference Finals on Thursday, I came to LeBron James’ defense. He made a valiant effort to get his teammates involved because he knew he couldn’t beat the Pistons alone. Well, it turns out that he might be able to. LBJ scored 32 points in the Cavs’ win last night.

“You learn from mistakes, you learn from losses, but this game doesn’t put something on me where it’s, ‘Hey, I’ve finally done it,”‘ James said. “This was a big game. We won it and we have to move on.”

With all of the criticism pointed at James during the first two games of the series, he knew he had to be assertive. After all, he’s one of the game’s brightest talents and a player that’s capable of taking over any game he plays in. His 32 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists will quiet his critics. Instead of trying to involve his teammates early, James asserted himself early. He took the game into his own hands and got everyone else involved as a result.

Although I hate making the comparisons, LeBron looked rather…Jordanish…last night. Between the fade-away three and dunk on Rasheed Wallace, you simply got the feeling that he wasn’t going to let his team lose. That was Michael Jordan’s best trait, his will to win. If LBJ can show that trait again in game four, we could be heading back to Detroit tied at two games apiece.

With the Detroit Pistons narrow win over the Cavaliers last night, we’re moving closer and closer to the dreaded Spurs-Pistons matchup in the NBA Finals. And with the inevitable demise of LeBron James and the Cavs, we’re hearing the same criticisms we’ve heard through much of LBJ’s career. His 19 points and clank on the potential game-winner will do nothing to quiet his critics. And I think it’s unfair.

Since everyone is so quick to compare James to His Airness, Michael Jordan, let’s take a look at MJ’s career resume. It took Jordan three years to win a playoff series and three years after that to conquer the Detroit Pistons. If you remember Kobe Bryant’s early days, it took his Lakers several years to beat the Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs and they didn’t even do that until Phil Jackson came along. Jordan didn’t win much until he matured along with his team and Bryant was the same way (even though Shaq had a hell of a lot to do with it.)

In game one of this series, LeBron James found an open man, Donyell Marshall, for the game winning shot. Being Donyell Marshall, he missed. He received criticism for passing up the game-winning shot but if you look at the replay, Marshall was wide open and LeBron found him. The blame should shift from James to Marshall. In game two, LeBron missed a game-winner and is now receiving criticism.

So here’s what we’re looking at. If LeBron James plays team basketball and passes, he’s a sackless Jordan wanna-be, even though Jordan did the same thing with guys like Steve Kerr and John Paxson. The only difference? MJ’s supporting cast had balls. LeBron’s doesn’t. I’m not promoting the blasphemy that James is superior to Jordan but let’s remember that he’s essentially a one-man team, no matter how hard he tries to get others involved.