King Kaufman's Sports Daily
It's going to be a bad series for the Cavaliers if LeBron James is going to play like Dirk Nowitzki.
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May 22, 2007 | It has to be said: LeBron James pulled a Dirk Nowitzki in Detroit Monday night.
The Cleveland Cavaliers superstar passed up what looked like a good chance at a game-tying layup in the final seconds of Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals against the Detroit Pistons, instead throwing a pass to a wide-open Donyell Marshall in the right corner. Marshall's 3-pointer would have given Cleveland the lead, but he missed.
The Pistons hung on to win by the decidedly Eastern Conference score of 79-76.
James, playing in the biggest game of his career so far, came up a little Dirky, a little small. He scored only 10 points in 45 minutes, though with 10 rebounds and nine assists, he almost turned in what might have been history's most empty triple-double. He took only 15 shots. Sasha Pavlovic, who let's just say is not the kind of guy who can carry a team, took 14.
LeBron's size 16s never toed the free-throw line, though that was only partly the result of his game-long passivity. The wheel of fortune in the officials' dressing room must have landed on "No foul calls on anyone guarding LeBron."
Still, that kind of output from LeBron James just can't happen. Not if the Cavaliers hope to beat the Pistons. Cleveland can't match up with Detroit, which lacks a superstar but has stars at every position, only one of whom, Chris Webber, is more reputation than performance at this stage of his career. The advantage the Cavs have is that the best player in the series, by a lot, is their guy, LeBron James.
With Detroit leading 78-76 and 12.2 seconds left, James took an inbounds pass between the circles and drove with a left-hand dribble on Tayshaun Prince. The Cavs cleared out the lane as James got a step on Prince and went down the left side of the lane.
Richard Hamilton, near the baseline on the strong side, took two slide steps toward James, but clearly wasn't quick or aggressive enough to cause James any trouble. He was already stopping short as James jumped toward the rim. Meanwhile, Rasheed Wallace, ignoring Marshall in the right corner, raced in from the weak side, but he wasn't nearly in time.
As James floated toward the basket, Wallace was still flat-footed underneath. After the game, Wallace said he'd been positioning himself for a rebound, not trying to help on defense.
The Pistons had a foul to give but later said they weren't going to risk fouling James on the drive and setting up a three-point play because he hadn't been to the line all night and was due to get a call. Nobody can read the mind of an NBA referee, but if anyone was due for a call it was James, who spent the second half getting mauled with nary a whistle in his favor.
Next page: There's always a logical explanation for the kind of plays that lose games