Cleveland in Charge

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CLEVELAND -- At a certain point in the fourth quarter, after the eventual outcome had already become clear, it became a case of pathetic vs. prophetic.



The former part was played by the Boston Celtics, who were resorting to a Hack-a-Ben strategy past the midpoint of the period and refusing to knock it off -- even as the strategy was failing to cut into their deficit.



It was during that sequence that LeBron James dribbled upcourt, approached the midcourt line and glanced to his left, knowing what was coming -- another intentional foul against Wallace.



That's when the prophesy part came in, although LeBron was off by a split-second.



Just after Wallace was grabbed, James tossed up a 40-footer that banked in. If he had timed it just a little better, it had a chance to be the rarest of four-point plays -- a 3 by one player, and the and-one by someone else.



"Body would have made the free throw, I made the 3. I planned it right on time, but they've probably never seen anything like that, so they didn't know what to do," James said.



There was a lot of 'never seen anything like that' going at the Q Arena on Friday night, beginning with fact that the once-mighty and seemingly invincible Boston Celtics now sit in third place -- that's right, third place, not second, which belongs to Orlando -- in an Eastern Conference race in which the Cavaliers are now looking down at their pursuers (maybe even looking down on them, too?) and feeling as confident about themselves as they have all season.



Led by James' 38 points, seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and three blocks, the Cavs put a humiliating hurting on the Celtics in a 98-83 victory Friday night.



This was a game James had unabashedly admitted he had circled on his calendar long ago, an admission that one would never hear from a Celtics' locker room in which the oft-repeated mantra is that they never look past their next opponent. James, however, was so focused on this particular opponent (safe to say the Celtics have surpassed the Pistons on his enemies list?) that he was able, three weeks ago, to rattle off each of the Celtics' remaining opponents heading into their biggest game of the season.



Many of the Celtics players were undoubtedly looking forward to this one more than every other game they'd played since Christmas, but none would admit as much as candidly as James had.

[+] EnlargeDavid Liam Kyle/NBAE/Getty Images
The Cavs appear to have some of the ubuntu spirit the champs are famous for."Why is it different with me? I don't know. I'm a different type of guy," James said.



Yes he is, and his team is at a whole different level as they approach the midpoint of a season that now includes a 19-0 home record, a 29-6 overall record and a 15-point victory over the defending champs that could catapult them into a ferocious second half of the season. (A year ago, mind you, the Cavs were 18-17).



Then again, the Celtics were similarly situated atop the basketball world when they headed West on Christmas Eve sporting a 27-2 record going into their NBA Finals rematch against the Los Angeles Lakers.



But what followed has been a loss to the Lakers, a collapse against Golden State, a win at Sacramento and a tough defeat at Portland to finish the four-game trip, then a victory against the hapless Wizards prior to their current four-game losing streak against New York, Charlotte, Houston and now Cleveland.



"We good, man. I'm telling you the truth. That's the honest truth," Pierce insisted afterward. "We talk after every game, we talk after every loss about what we need to do better. The mood is real positive, that's been our strength and that's going to continue to be our strength. We know we're going to get through this tough stretch."



"Nobody's happy when you lose. You get down, you start thinking about the little things, but the strength of this team -- I'm going to continue to tell y'all -- we continue to stay together, talk it out, everyone can accept criticism from one another, and it is what it is and we leave it here in the locker room and move on to the next game," Pierce said.



But the Celtics as presently constituted are not at all used to this level of adversity (they didn't have any last season until the first two rounds of the playoffs), though we're not so certain they're in denial as much as they were a week ago when Rajon Rondo would not even concede they were in a slump.



A lot can happen between now and the next time these teams see each other March 6 in Boston, and the Celtics won't be back here at the Q until the final weekend of the regular season when the stakes might be even higher and the atmosphere even more electric.

This one had the intensity and feel of a playoff game right from the get-go, and the Cavs were the aggressor from the outset as they made their first six shots and dropped 33 points on Boston in the first period.



A telling stretch -- one that Boston coach Doc Rivers pointed to as the turning point of the game -- came midway through the third quarter.



James sped in from behind and blocked Ray Allen's fast-break layup attempt, then turned it into a three-point play at the other end. After a timeout, Pierce had the ball isolated against James just inside the foul line but had already picked up his dribble, and he stood twirling on his pivot foot looking for help, the look on his face growing more beleaguered by the second as he realized none was coming. Pierce took a shot and missed, Cleveland turned it into two more transition points, and James then answered a Boston basket with his deepest 3-pointer of the night -- his deepest one that counted, anyway -- to put Cleveland ahead 69-58.



It was never close in a fourth quarter that was highlighted by James stealing the ball from Pierce and then converting a one-on-two break with a left-handed underhand scoop shot, and the Hack-a-Ben strategy -- especially Rivers' refusal to abandon it when it was clear it wasn't having the desired effect -- really did seem pathetic as it continued past the point when it should have been abandoned.



The final couple minutes were garbage time, and J.J. Hickson had a long, gold streamer that had been dropped from the rafters stuck to his sneaker as he made the happy walk to the Cleveland locker room.



"All the good teams approach each game as its own, but every good team also knows when that good team come up where you really have to be focused, and you approach that game a little differently," James said. "You don't want to take a step back, because we've got a big picture and a goal. You don't want to waste a game and not get better, but we got really better tonight."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=sheridan_chris&page=cavscelts-090110

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