The James Gang

The whole cliche of putting a team on your back presupposes there's a team willing to be led, and and perform when called upon. The difference in the NBA ECF last night was clearly Lebron, but it was Daniel Gibson, the rookie out of Texas, who I thought made key contributions in the second half that helped put the Cavs over the top. James had his gang show up last night.

All along the conventional wisdom has been that James needed a couple of other folks to step up and eliminate the one on five mentality the Pistons were taking when guarding him. Drew Gooden was a part of the gang early, but by the fourth quarter was taking bad shots and getting too emotionally involved with the refereeing, getting a technical late in the fourth. When Gibson was in the game, the Pistons tried to exploit him on both offense and defense...and failed. He was able to withstand Billups' repeated attempts to post him up, and hit a couple of big shots when the ball was rotated to him. It will be interesting to see his development, since Cleveland paid big money to Larry Hughes to run the point.

Lebron was the show though, and his dunk late in the fourth was a highlight to last his entire career. He's undergone some of the same criticism KG has during his career; the difference is at 22, Lebron listened, KG really hasn't. King James' aggressiveness and refuse to lose posture last night got them three more baskets than Detroit. Just about everything else stats-wise was roughly similar. The superstar rose to the occasion. It's what we've been begging KG to do for years--go hard to the basket, try and get easy baskets or get to the line. The NBA rewards aggressiveness.

In the end we see a contrast between winning and losing teams: superstars needing other players to step up, when they do, the superstar then fiercely and aggressively leads the team into competition. No excuses; it's clear what the pecking order is. If Lebron can perform at that level the rest of the series, for the Cavs to win his gang will need to show up. If the Wolves are going to regain respectability, if a team can be assembled around him (a BIG if), he must approach leadership with a fierceness that he hasn't displayed, despite all the talk to the contrary.

I still think Flip gets his team into the Finals against the Spurs, but we may be seeing one of those emerging moments where a superstar gets to be Nova class, and a team rises to yet another level. It's something Minnesota basketball fans have always dreamed, but seen little of.