Sports Page

AUBURN HILLS, MI — Greatness. It’s what the NBA and the media said we could expect from one young player named LeBron James when he entered the league 4 years ago as an 18-year-old rookie. A week ago that “greatness” label was in serious doubt. LeBron was struggling with his late-game confidence, searching to find himself. Thursday night in Detroit he found that intangible something that separates great athletes from great players. No cliché would be adequate to describe James’ performance Thursday night. He was unstoppable. He cut, sliced, spun and soared over Detroit’s defense to score 29 of Cleveland’s final 30 points —- it has never been done — and 48 points in all, to lead the Cavaliers to the greatest win in franchise history, a 109-107 double-overtime victory in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals in Detroit.

     The victory gives the Cavs a 3-2 series lead with Game 6 coming up Saturday in Cleveland.

     As James walked off the court, a towel draped over his head, the crowd of 22,076 in attendance at The Palace of Auburn Hills was remarkably quiet and subdued. The double-OT had been exasperating. James was exhausted. It wasn’t only his athletic brilliance, but his dogged, fearless determination that characterized the classic nature of this performance. He had been pecked, swiped, shoved, slapped, tripped — dogged constantly by the Pistons’ defenders — an elite starting 5 — but nothing they could do would stop James, or even slow him down. He hit turn-around, off-balance, twisting jump shots; he cut through Pistons’ defenders for running slam-dunks; he launched improbable 3-pointers with regulation clock running out. He had every offensive move you can think of, and he used every one of them to simply torment Detroit. All the Pistons could do was watch it happen.

     “I feel terrible right now,” James said with a laugh, wiping his face with his towel — physically spent from the effort. “I’m just blessed to have the athletic ability to do what I did out there tonight.”

     “That’s the single best game I’ve ever seen from anyone, hands down, and I’ve been around some great players,” said Cleveland coach Mike Brown.

     Surely the Pistons helped to dig their own grave in the game, committing a list of fatal errors that couldn’t all be attributed to LeBron James. Detroit turned the ball over and went scoreless for a 3 minute stretch to end the first overtime. At the end of regulation, Cleveland cut away an 86-81 lead after Detroit had gone on a 7-0 run. James drilled a 3-pointer with 2:00 remaining to pull Cleveland within one, 88-87. Chauncey Billups hit a clutch 3 from the left side with 22.9 in regulation to put the Pistons up 91-89, but James countered by dancing down the lane, elevating for a one-handed slam dunk to tie the score at 91 and force overtime.

      In the second overtime, it was all James for Cleveland, until he missed with 6.6 seconds left and the Cavs up 100-98. The Pistons somehow survived a scoring lapse in which they relied on free throws to keep it close. Billups finished 2-2 at the free-throw line to tie the score at 100 at the end of the first OT.

     James appeared to be tiring and losing steam, but he kept on going, appearing more and more like a heavyweight fighter heading into the final round. Perhaps it was his final shot in the second overtime, with the score tied at 107 with 11 seconds left, in which he simply blew past Billups for a lay-up to put Cleveland ahead for the win, that will forever make this game special for the Cavs — and a horror for the Pistons, who were simply bystanders on James’ final driving lay-up.

     We’ve seen Kobe Bryant have games like this. And Dwyane Wade did it in the finals last year to lead Miami to its first NBA title. Thursday night LeBron James showed he is no longer hype, no longer a player of the future, he is all about this team, right now. Now we’ll see if he can carry the Cavs’ franchise further than it has ever been, into the NBA finals, with an elimination game coming up against Detroit Saturday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.