NBA Finals 2007

San Antonio's Bruce Bowen's matchup with LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers is billed as the top confrontation to watch in the upcoming NBA Finals - the Spurs are looking for their third title in five years.

Cleveland's LeBron James is averaging 25.8 points this postseason including 48 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals against Detroit. San Antonio's Bruce Bowen has been runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year the last three seasons.

This will be a real battle.

LeBRON and CAVALIERS PREVAIL

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.

Spurs Beat Suns

A town pumped on rage seemed to inspire a team fueled on passion. While Phoenix fumed, the Suns sizzled.

But ultimately, the San Antonio Spurs rode out the waves of emotions generated by the one-game suspensions of the Suns' Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw. They doggedly chased down the Suns late in the fourth quarter and hung on for an 88-85 victory Wednesday night at US Airways Center in Game 5 of their Western Conference semifinal series.

The victory gives San Antonio a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series with Game 6 scheduled for Friday night in San Antonio.

"We probably didn't have enough juice to get over the hump," said Phoenix Coach Mike D'Antoni. "This was about trying to gut it out."

San Antonio was led by Manu Ginobili, who had 26 points and 10 rebounds, and Tim Duncan, with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Shawn Marion had a team-high 24 points and 17 rebounds for Phoenix. Steve Nash had 19 points and 12 assists, but hit only 6 of 19 from the floor.

Stoudemire and Diaw were suspended for leaving the bench after San Antonio's Robert Horry slammed Nash into the scorer's table near the end of Game 4. Horry was given a two-game suspension.

The loss of Stoudemire and Diaw caused outrage in Phoenix.

"It feels strange," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said before the game. "It doesn't feel like a normal Game 5."

Anyone spending the day in Phoenix could feel it.

It was reflected in the headline on the editorial page of Wednesday's Arizona Republic: "NBA to Suns: Drop Dead."

It could be seen in the street vendors' T-shirts that read "Free Amare" and directed insults at Stu Jackson, the NBA official who handed down the ruling on Stoudemire and Diaw.

It could be heard in the pregame news conference when D'Antoni said of his team: "Instead of being upset, I'm kind of proud. They know what's right and wrong."

In a charged atmosphere in front of a sellout crowd, the Suns, after falling behind 9-4, caught fire, going on a 20-2 run, including 16 straight points.

"Everybody was so excited, so pumped up," Ginobili said. "There's so much passion. It was hard for us not to get fired up in that atmosphere."