DownSwinging.com

Tuesday night in Orlando, Florida the hometown Magic won Game 4 in overtime and pushed the Eastern Conference Finals to an impressive 3-1 series lead.  The victory saw the NBA-best Cavaliers edge ever closer to elimination.  While many saw this as a coming of age night for the young Magic, I saw it as something completely different.

It seems as though LeBron James uses almost every game to prove something new about himself.  And while he has, expectantly, dominated Cleveland’s offensive numbers so far this series, he has also been mostly to blame in the three defeats.  Not that he hasn’t produced enough, but in the sense that he hasn’t produced at the right time.  Invariably, LeBron has been and will be at the center of every fourth quarter offensive possession for the remainder of the series.  And seeing that Cleveland is almost completely devoid of any other clutch shooter, with the possible exception of Mo Williams; who waited until Game 5 to start playing.  Therefore, the 3-1 hole, which has been swiftly downgraded to a 3-2 hole, is nothing more than a stage upon which LeBron can make his final step into super stardom.  For how much can a basketball player do than to single-handedly pull his team out of a 3-1 hole and into the NBA Finals?

Let’s look at Game 5, for instance.  LeBron’s line: 46 minutes played, 37 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists.  Impressive, yes, but is it really that special from an MVP, who has to carry his team offensively? Perhaps not.  What about the fact that 17 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists came in the fourth quarter?  That is the performance that the stage called for.  Simply put, the more desperate the Cavs become, the more lethal LeBron’s performances seem to be.  A word of warning to the Magic, the Cavaliers won’t be any more desperate than they will be in a hostile Game 6 on the road.