What words are there to describe it?

It was at least 25 minutes later. My jaw still hung open. The only real words I could muster continually were, "Wow," and "I can't believe what I just saw." Later, on the drive home from the sports bar, I truly felt that I had just witnessed something historic. A defining moment in a player's career, and in a franchise's history. I witnessed it. Someday, I can tell my kids about the night LeBron simply picked up his team, strapped it onto his broad shoulders, and willed it to a victory in the most important game the franchise had EVER played.

Windhorst does well to sum it up, but still can't do it complete justice:

Behind the shoe deals, the millions and the criticism was the promise -- the promise of greatness.

LeBron James kept it in historic fashion on a hot and forever memorable Thursday evening in the Eastern Conference finals. Playing perhaps the greatest game of his career in the biggest game in the history of the Cavaliers franchise, James totally, completely and amazingly took the Cavs to a 109-107 double-overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons.
...
James' dominance and sense of purpose was so wide-ranging, detailing all his majestic moves and clutch deliveries is nearly impossible.

That's really only lip-service. Words like: amazing, dominating, transcendent, virtuoso, jaw-dropping, breath-taking, awe-inspiring, defining, UNREAL.... none of these phrases (nor highlight clips on ESPN) could sum up what LeBron James did last night to someone who didn't see it. You truly had to see it to really appreciate it. Even to believe it.

In his blog, Windhorst does a little better at trying to quantify what we saw last night:

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 [sic] 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.

A commenter on the "FreeDarko" blog (worth checking out if you love the potential intersection of intellectual discussion and hoops, which I am all of a sudden starting to!) says exactly what I was thinking/feeling: "This really is the reason I love sports. To see will manifest into flesh. It's astonishing that men can do such things."

He was everywhere. He was everything. He single-handedly carried the Cavs to the biggest win in the history of their franchise. The Pistons

simply

COULD

NOT

STOP

HIM.

James scored 48 points in a double-overtime game, including 29 of those points in the final quarter and two overtime periods. He literally scored ALL of his team's points in both overtimes. He scored the last 25 points of the game for the Cavs, and 29 of their last 30 points (the only other being one free-throw by Drew Gooden).

He did it in every way imagineable. He drove. He dunked. He broke people down on the dribble. He nailed runners and sick, cold-blooded fade-aways, each and every one a dagger in the heart of a Pistons team that was trying to match him shot-for-shot. What appeared to be the exclamation point was the just plain filthy three-pointer he made running off of a double team to his left, hoisting the shot while still almost in motion... literally 15 seconds after the Pistons had been handed a three-point lead with 90 seconds to go in double overtime--on a touch foul to Chris Webber, who, even though he'd clearly taken 2.5 steps to get his shot up and was essentially only hand-checked by Z (which fouled him out of the game), got the continuation and the and-1 foul shot.

It was almost as if James decided that it didn't matter what obstacles were put in his way. He was winning this game for his team. The purest definition of "will" that I have ever seen in basketball since the days of Michael Jordan.

James played defense. He rebounded (tied for the team lead with 9). And, with less than 10 seconds in the second overtime and a tied-at-107 score, he stood at the top of the key with the ball under his arm, watched the clock roll down, and then essentially took it straight to the rack on their entire fucking squad. He went up for a layup, displaying amazing strength and body control as he was fouled fairly hard by Jason Maxiell while going up, and still had the ability to softly and easily lay it in with 2.2 seconds to go.

In sports, words like "will" and "determination" and "domination" get used and thrown around sometimes far too often. But what LeBron James did last night defines all of them. This was a game the Cavs HAD to win, purely and simply. And, midway through the fourth quarter, James simply decided that there was no way his team was losing this game... not while he was still in it. Each and every possession, his teammates gave him the ball at the top of the key and simply got out of his way. The Pistons ran everyone and anyone they had at him.

Everyone in the building (and for that matter, in any building with a TV set tuned in to this game) knew he was taking every shot down the stretch and in the overtimes. Everyone in the building knew that the Cavs were hitching their wagon to their superstar. Everyone in the building knew that if the Pistons wanted to win that game, they were going to have to do whatever it took to stop James.

And they still could NOT stop him.

They had no answers.

"This is the single best game I've ever seen at this level in this atmosphere, hands down," Cavs coach Mike Brown said. "I don't know what he can't do."

58 minutes of basketball, three Cavaliers players fouled out... James just seemed to get stronger. As if through sheer will, he slowly wore down the Pistons to the point where they could do nothing but accept their fate that, on this night, there was nothing they could do to stem the tide, to stop the flood.


Pistons fans can argue--rightfully so--that the same thing happened last year. The Cavs lost the first two games only to win three straight (including game 5 in Detroit, again) only to have Detroit come into Cleveland for game 6 and dash the Cavs' hopes. Piston fans will argue that they still haven't played their A-game. Chauncey Billups told us on Wednesday that: "[the Cavs'] A-game is not like our A-game, and we haven't played our A-game yet."

He's right. Even the Pistons on their best night (and last night was by far the best the Pistons' team has played in this series) aren't enough to stop LeBron James when he plays his absolute "A-game". It would be insane to expect the James will do again in game 6 what he did last night, but I'm still waiting for the Pistons to "turn it on" like they have been documented to do so well.

The fact is, this year's teams are completely different from last year's teams. The Pistons are not the same team they were last year. They seem a step slower, less organized, and less fluid as a team. Likewise, the Cavs have so much more confidence, and more players willing to stand up and contribute than they did last season. I don't expect the Pistons simply to roll over and let game 6 go, but I also don't think the Cavs will be as overwhelmed this year as they were last year.

In short, this series is NOT over. But, just the same, for Detroit or its fans simply to rest on the idea that, "hey, the same thing happened last season," would be foolish. The Cavs no longer have the "we're just happy to be here" mentality. James himself said, "[W]e have a goal; we can't dwell on this tonight when we have another game on Saturday. We have got to do our best to try to win that ballgame and get where we wanted to be all year."

Focus. James showed it in the closing moments of game 4. He broke the mold of it in game 5. And, even after what had to be the most physically draining and yet personally gratifying performance of his young career, he still has it. This team isn't just happy to be here. They honestly believe they can win it, and they have a singular goal of trying to win a championship.

It's cliche to say that you can see the Cavs growing up in this series right before our eyes, but it's absolutely true. From the end of game 1 until the end of last night's game, these Cavs have matured. They have learned that they can play with the "big boys" of the East.

Here's hoping they earn the chance on Saturday night to find out if they can play with anyone, and if they truly believe they can win a championship.