Add another bit of history to the LeBron James career highlight reel, which will some day challenge Mike, Vince, Kobe, Barry Sanders and Reggie Bush (the stuff he did in high school and college was just unreal) as the greatest in the history of sports highlight reels. After Hedo Turkoglu hit a tough jumper over Sasha Pavlovic to put Orlando up by two with exactly one second left in last night’s conference finals Game 2, the Cavs had one chance to avoid an 0-2 series deficit as everybody in Cleveland was nauseous on John Elway flashbacks. Mo Williams was the inbound passer — as Mike Brown flagrantly ignored the lessons of George Karl — and held it for 4.5 seconds before LeBron popped open at the top of the key. Read More »

Can’t chalk it up to rust; the Cavs came out firing on all cylinders right from the get-go, and dominated the Magic for most of the first three quarters. Can’t chalk it up to lack of focus; LeBron in particular was completely locked in, about as intense as we’ve ever seen him in a game. And you definitely can’t chalk it up to the zebras; Cleveland (and again, LeBron in particular) got just about every call that could’ve gone their way … No, the Cavs just lost, blowing a game they controlled most of the way in a building where they’ve been almost invincible this season, dropping Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals for their first loss of the postseason and only their third loss at home … Read More »

Game 7 of Hawks/Heat ended up being a(nother) blowout, but it at least offered a helpful reminder of how small the margin for error can be in the playoffs. Early in the second quarter, Atlanta was up by two in what had been a back-and-forth game. Then Flip Murray hit a wide-open three off a scramble for a loose ball, Joe Johnson drained a trey from one step behind the arc, then J.J. pulled up for another triple waaay behind the arc. In the course of about one minute the Hawks went from up being two, to being up 11, and after that it was just target practice. Read More »