LeBron James had possibly the best game of career by scoring a monster 48 points for the Cleveland Cavaliers to beat the Detroit Pistons 109-107 in a double-overtime thriller to take a 3-2 lead in their NBA play-off series.
James, who also led the Cavs with nine rebounds and seven assists, scored a layup with two seconds left on the clock in the second extra period to seal a thrilling win for the Cavs.
A slam dunk from James tied the game in regulation with around 10 seconds to go at 91-91, and in overtime he scored all of Cleveland's points. In fact, of the last 30 points that Cleveland scored, James got 29 of them.
"Somebody told me in the locker room that he scored 29 of our last 30 points and I could not believe it," said Cavs coach Mike Brown afterwards.
"Everybody keeps asking for more, and he keeps giving more. "I feel bad that my words don't do justice for what he did."
Chauncey Billups on the other hand, had a mixed night for the Pistons. While he missed what would have been the game-winning shot in the last second of regulation, he did nail two free throws with three seconds on the clock in the first overtime to tie the game up at 100-100 and send it into a second period. In the final play of the game, Billups then missed another shot that would have sent one of the most dramatic games the playoffs has ever seen into a third extra period.
Without James the Cavaliers would have been dead and buried. Only Zyndrunas Ilgauskas (16) and Daniel Gibson (11) got into double figures.
While the Pistons' bench scored a sum total of 13 points, all five of Detroit's starters got into double figures, led by Richard Hamilton's 26 points, Billups' 21 and Rasheed Wallace's 17.
The Pistons were perhaps hamstrung when Antonio McDyess was ejected from the court for a hard foul on Anderson Varejao, but could they have stopped James? Probably not.
Game six is in Cleveland on Saturday night.
Labels: cavaliers, lebron james, nba, nba playoffs
