No Worries, Cleveland: This is The Year

CLEVELAND -- They posted the result on the end scoreboards at Quicken Loans Arena, and gradually, the crowd noticed and erupted. "CHI 105 BOS 103," the news flashed, followed by "ROSE 36." I'm not sure what more this ohhhhhhh-noooooooo, disbelieving city requires in regard to positive reinforcement, but when the Celtics lost at home to Derrick Rose and the Bulls, it should have reminded every doubting soul in northeast Ohio that the Cavaliers have an express lane to the NBA Finals.

And if that wasn't enough, what about You Know Who, launching a prayer just past the midcourt stripe and watching it bank in as the halftime buzzer sounded? What more do you possibly need, Cleveland? Isn't it time to forget those deep, ugly wounds and start buying into this "ONE GOAL" stuff printed on every T-shirt?

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"Did I call glass? Yeah, after I hit it," said LeBron James, telling us that his range is "unlimited" on long-distance buzzer-beaters. "I'd have to say the backboard did a good job there. I shot it, and I kept chasing it down to make sure it went in."

Said coach Mike Brown, his sarcasm thick in telling us that James ignored him: "Funny thing is, I had a 20 (-second timeout) left. I had a play drawn up a few days ago where I'd yell, 'Twenty! Twenty! Twenty!' He'd take the ball, take two dribbles and shoot it in off the backboard from midcourt. He didn't have to call it. We've been practicing that play."

He smiled. Is it too much for this city to do the same? Relax, enjoy and embrace the next two months?

The good people here have been beaten down by The Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, The Mesa and seemingly every imaginable sports indignity. But the double-whammy that has stunned Boston and perhaps doomed the Celtics to an opening-round ouster -- Kevin Garnett's knee issues, then a Game 1 loss to Chicago and the transcendent Rose -- should allay fears that the Cavs would fall short of an already hotly-awaited NBA Finals against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. Oh, you ask the taxi driver to turn on his radio, and you hear a local talk-show host panting about how the Cavs wouldn't match up well against Dwight Howard if they play Orlando down the road. Those are merely the familiar demons rising, ignoring that the Magic are notoriously soft in the postseason and have injury issues.



You'd think the monumental presence of James, who at 24 has pulled a Michael Jordan and locked up MVP honors by maximizing a good roster and turning it into a great team, would soothe all anxieties. He's as possessed as he is obsessed, and he understands that tending to Cleveland's fatalism is part of his leadership responsibility. He grew up down the road in Akron and, thus, knows the heartbreak and futility as well as anyone. Why do you think he wears New York Yankees caps and likes the Dallas Cowboys? He couldn't bear to root for the local losers, in a town that hasn't won a championship in a major sport since 1964.

"It's bad. Cleveland fans know it, so it's good for us to be in a position to make them forget about that," James said. "We see how passionate our fans are either at a Browns game, an Indians game or a Cavs game. We see how passionate they are about sports. So to be able to be in this position and fight for a championship, knowing the history and knowing fans are really, really depending on us -- we accept that challenge. We like it."

Sometimes, that requires a little fine-tuning of the perspective meter. Believe it or not, the same Clevelanders who crave championships grew upset at the Cavs for being within reach of 100 points on the final possession a whopping 10 times in the regular season -- good for a free chalupa -- only to dribbling out the clock instead. At the end of one game, James was booed as he held the ball. Chalupas or championships? What do you want, Cleveland? That was LeBron's message last week on Fan Appreciation Night, when he addressed the fans via the public-address system and scolded them.

"We're all a family and sometimes families have disagreements," James told the crowd. "If we win, 99-20, don't boo us because you don't get a free chalupa. We want to bring you all a championship, not tacos."

There was plenty of time for tacos and title dreams Saturday, when the Cavs cracked the chalupa mark -- in a 102-84 victory -- and launched what should be the official dismantling of the Detroit Pistons. Time was when this was a classic Eastern Conference series, but the Pistons sealed their fate when general manager Joe Dumars dealt the franchise adhesive, Chauncey Billups, to Denver for Allen Iverson. The idea was to clear salary-cap space for the 2010 free-agency bonanza while hoping the moody Iverson meshed with the remaining veteran core and caught fire in the postseason. Instead, Iverson moped about playing time and was mercifully sent home for the playoffs with a supposed sore back, amid rumors -- denied by all parties -- that he recently was thrown out of a Detroit casino for unruly behavior.

With a roster overhaul coming this summer, the Pistons will be remembered as the Atlanta Braves of the NBA. They won a championship in 2004 -- but should have won one or two more. For all the plaudits showered upon Dumars, he's also the GM who had the No. 2 pick in the 2003 draft and could have taken Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh. In one of the all-time brain cramps, he drafted Darko Milicic, a bust who is picking splinters in Memphis. With Anthony or Wade, the Pistons would be set for years. Now, they might be dead for years. How sad to hear their up-and-coming star, guard Rodney Stuckey, call out the veterans for lacking a full defensive effort.

"We've got to come out with better defensive intensity. We can't let LeBron score 38 against us every game," Stuckey said. "We're letting LeBron get to the basket too easily."

For that, blame rookie coach Michael Curry, who hasn't coaxed maximum energy from a team that still has Rasheed Wallace, Tayshaun Price, Rip Hamilton and Antonio McDyess. "We made a ton of mistakes," Curry said. "This team we're playing is too great, especially at home. When LeBron gets going, the other guys on that team start feeling better about their games."

Anyone who needs more proof about James' MVP worthiness, in one of the most compelling battles in years (with Wade and Bryant), should focus on how the Cavs fared when he was resting. At the start of the second quarter, an eight-point lead shrunk to one. At the start of the fourth, a 13-point lead shrunk to eight. Brown, who is charged with the historic task of maneuvering a young LeBron toward the winner's circle, conveniently credited the Pistons. "They still have the playoff core that won a championship," he said. "They're still a very good team." Truth be told, the Cavs have just a solid nucleus around James, one that is mindful of Michael and the Jordanaires in the '80s and '90s. Thanks to LeBron, who had eight rebounds and seven assists with his 38 points, they survived an off day by wingman Mo Williams, who went 5 of 14 from the field and only scored 12 points. But if any Chicken Little in Cleveland wants to fret about that, how about thanking the heavens that the Cavs won the 2003 lottery and the local high-school kid.

"This is my team. How I go is how we play," James said as he prepared for an evening out. "It's all business now. It's the playoffs. We have to be ready mentally to play every day. We'll have a business mentality throughout the playoffs."

His teammates never stop raving about him. When the Cavs played soft defense in the first quarter, James scolded them. From the middle of the second quarter on, they locked down the Pistons. "It's contagious," Williams said. "You see that he's the reason why this team is the way it is. When you have your best player being that way, it carries over to everyone."

Part of the all-business mantra involves sending messages. Boldly, James sent one to ... the Bulls? "A series is never won in the first game," he said. "It was a great win for Chicago, but you can't get excited about winning one game. That way, you'll lose the series. They need to get ready for the next game."

There will be no dancing anytime soon, either. When the Cavs routed the Celtics at home last Sunday, James, Williams and Delonte West celebrated on the bench like it was 3 a.m. in a club. Considering the Celtics did their share of dancing during the NBA championship run last year, any Boston whining was hypocritical. League commissioner David Stern seemed to agree. "I missed that dance, but I think celebrations by our players do have a place," Stern said. "If I were the Celtics, I would make sure that that tape, if it exists, runs every game in the locker room as a sort of motivation. I wouldn't spend my time telling our players about that."

But here's the rub: The Celtics, at this rate, won't even see the Cavs next month. I realize Cleveland is the city where the Cuyahoga River caught fire, but it also was the mythical setting for the movie "Major League," in which I seem to recall Willie Mays Hayes, Jake Taylor, Roger Dorn, Pedro Cerrano and Ricky (Wild Thing) Vaughn winning a pennant.

Say it, Cleveland. Spit it out.

THE ... CAVS ... ARE ... GOING ... BACK ... TO ... THE ... FINALS.

And I'm starting to think not even Kobe stops the LeBronster.

(This post has been edited.)