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Cavaliers to play winner of tonight’s West game seven when defending champion Golden State plays in Houston
By Arnie Leshin
He doesn’t leap over tall buildings. He doesn’t fly. He doesn’t carry lighting in a bottle. All he does is prove he’s the greatest basketball player ever.
No bragging, he just pounds his chest, whether home or away, and Monday night in Boston he stunned the Celtic faithful with just another night of magic that carried his underdog Cleveland Cavaliers into yet another NBA final and the eighth-straight time for the 6-foot-9 machine.
It has happened before. Why, well because he always finds a way to carry his team on his back, winning three NBA championships but down the list of those who have won more (Michael Jordan with six, Kobe Bryant with five, and Bill Russell on top of the heap with 11).
No matter, for someone who’s followed basketball since the 60s, there’s no one on the charts who played like James does. Name it, he does it. He’s the point guard, the rebounder, the assist man, the all-everything and the leader who again did the amazing in the stirring 87-79 win over the young team that had been undefeated at home in these playoffs.
But James silenced the rowdy Boston fans and showed their team the exit despite missing starting 6-10 forward Kevin Love (concussion) but just letting James run the show. He scored 35 points, brought down 13 rebounds, dished out nine assists, blocked two shots, and came away with five steals.
Ho hum, just another James spectacular. He’s had even better statistics in the first six games of this East final, but this time he found a way to finally get past Boston in Celtic nation.
He played every minute in his 100th consecutive game of the season. He played his third game in five days. He required round-the-clock treatment on his right leg after playing 46 minutes in Cleveland to stave off elimination 48 hours earlier. So he played 48 minutes in a playoff game for the first time since 2006, when he was 21 years old.
That’s 3,757 minutes this season, more than anyone else in the entire NBA. But he had plenty left in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, hitting on 4 of 6 shots from the floor, bringing down three rebounds, and handing out four assists.
For those who were around James, for those who see him in the hours after a game or before he gets on the message table or after he gets off the plane in the middle of the night, they can’t believe he rises to the occasion again and again.
Well, believe it. He’s not perfect, doesn’t win every game, but the bigger the stage, the bigger the player, he’s been doing it since he began his remarkable pro career 11 years ago. Yes, you always want to go into game 7 with the best player, and that’s super James to the rescue again, delivering again.
With the final seconds ticking down, he turned to his sideline and exchanged quick hugs, high fives and bumped knuckles. When the final buzzer sounded, he celebrated with his teammates and then found about a dozen Celtics to whisper positive things to, and to exchange hugs.
No doubt he heard only kind things from them. That’s given credit where credit is due, and he’s deserving of all of it.
He’s a class act on and off the court.
The trials of this season, the details surrounding the weakening of his team and the weekly challenges that he had to navigate while shouldering an incredible burden brought to him in a preposterous position in this game seven. The Cavs had no business being there, by all rights they should have lost to the Indiana Pacers a month ago.
But for them, it became a long celebration in the locker room after the contest. Teams haven’t gotten to celebrate much on this (green) patch of land, let it be TD Garden or in the adjacent lot where the Boston Garden once stood. And James has had some of this darkest moments in that locker room.
“It’s been roses,” he said, “there have been thorns. There’s been everything that you can ask for. I’ve said this has been one of the most challenging seasons I’ve had.”
Okay, not a championship in name, but it smelled just the same.
James has now won six game sevens in a row over the last 10 years, two of them on the road. He has won seven of the past eight elimination games he’s been in, including three this postseason. And he has now come from 0-2 down to win a series for the third time in his stellar career, and that has happened only 20 times in a seven-game series in NBA history.
No matter whether Cleveland gets defending champion and familiar playoff foe Golden State or the top-seeded Houston Rockets, it will go into the finals as an underdog.
But don’t bet against James, don’t doubt him, he loves the game, plays it like nobody else, and it brings results.
And in Cleveland last night, the Indians turned back the world champion Houston Astros before a large crowd with radios, small TVs, and cheers every time their Cavs scored.
When their game ended, the majority of these fans rushed to their cars to hear the final quarter of the basketball game, and thanks to James and quality play from his teammates, it was a good night in Cleveland.
Tonight, Golden State at Houston, the winner will play the first two games in the finals at home, but to LeBron James it’s just another time to put the uniform on, take the court, any court, and do what he does best, deliver.
