LeBron James has put in some iconic performances in the playoffs over the years, and arguably the first one came on this day 18 years ago. James famously scored 25 straight points in Game 5 of the Conference Finals for the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Detroit Pistons in 2007, and had a message for his younger self on the anniversary.
“Young [King]! When it’s all said and done, you’ll finally realize what was happening throughout this journey.”
James was simply magnificent that night against the Pistons. He finished with 48 points (18-33 FG), nine rebounds, seven assists, and two steals to power the Cavaliers to victory.
The Pistons were the No. 1 seed in the East, and they had no answer for James. He had 29 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to drag the Cavaliers to a 109-107 win in double overtime.
The Cavaliers had narrowly lost the first two games of this series, and it looked like they might have blown their chance to make it to the NBA Finals. They managed to win the next two in Cleveland, but the Pistons still had home-court advantage and were the favorites.
James’ masterful performance came at the best possible time. Mike Brown was the Cavaliers’ head coach at the time, and he had the best seat in the house to witness that. Brown revealed he didn’t say a word during James’ historic run in that game.
“The thing that I remember most vividly is, you know, I had a great staff back then and Mike Malone, who I think is one of the best coaches I’ve ever had on my staff. And I’ll never forget, Detroit called a timeout.”
“So we go and we start talking, and Mike’s like, hey, we got to do this offensively. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa. I said, no, no, no, no, no. We ain’t f***ing with LeBron right now.”
“I said, we’re going to sit right here, and we’re going to wait until the buzzer’s about to sound, and I’m going to go in there, say my one, two, three, and let them get back out on the floor. And so I went back in the huddle, and LeBron was saying something. I just stood there and listened.”
The Cavaliers then won Game 6 98-82 to advance to the NBA Finals. It was an incredible run to the big stage, but they were completely outmatched on it. The San Antonio Spurs would sweep the Cavaliers to win their fourth NBA championship.
James averaged just 22.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game in his first Finals appearance. It was a disappointing showing, but he was going up against a juggernaut in the Spurs.
James’ second trip to the Finals in 2011 with the Miami Heat against the Dallas Mavericks would end in disastrous fashion as well. He averaged just 17.8 points per game in that series, but that would be the last time we saw him shrink on the big stage.
LeBron now has four titles, four Finals MVPs, four MVPs, a scoring title, and an assists title to his name. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar is widely regarded as the greatest or second-greatest player of all time and has lived up to the enormous hype that he came into the league with.
