Associated Press
ATLANTA ó When LeBron James has one of those nights, everyone else turns into fans.
His teammates? Yep. Even his coach.
“I try as much as possible,” Cleveland’s Mike Brown said Sunday, “to stay out of the way.”
With one of his best performances ever, James carried the Cavaliers to the brink of another playoff sweep. The Atlanta Hawks sure know what they’re up against, having watched their most inspired showing of the series turned into just another loss by the MVP’s 47 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
“Right now, he’s playing at such a high level,” said Hawks coach Mike Woodson, sounding a bit disheartened as his team heads into Game 4 Monday night. “Man, it’s crazy how good he’s playing. It really is.”
James has that look Michael Jordan used to bring out at playoff time, a steely eyed determination to win a championship no matter what’s in the way. If that means taking every big shot, so be it. If that means turning the game into me against them, well, that’s the way it has to be.
James has played 108 minutes in this series ó and scored 108 points.
As Brown said, stay out of the way.
“He is making so many special plays,” teammate Mo Williams said, meeting with the media on a patio at the team’s luxury hotel on warm, sunny off day. “We just try to give him some space.”
While James’ performance in a 97-82 victory Saturday night didn’t quite reach the level of his 48-point effort against Detroit in the 2007 Eastern Conference finals ó that was the one where he scored his team’s last 25 points in a double-overtime victory, on the way to Cleveland’s first appearance in the NBA championship series ó it certainly ranked in the top five.
James made 15 of 25 shots, including 5 of 10 from 3-point range. He drew one foul after another, going 12 of 16 at the free-throw line (compared with Atlanta’s 7-of-11 showing as a team). He led all rebounders with 12, leading the Cavaliers to a mammoth 46-23 edge on the boards. On those rare occasions when he couldn’t create a shot of his own, he dished out eight assists. He also had a steal, as well as a blocked shot.
Amazingly for someone who had the ball in his hands so much, he turned it over all of one time.
“Our guys did the best they could to guard him,” Atlanta’s Flip Murray said.