LeBron James

[King Taharqa]

CLEVELAND (AP)—LeBron James had 32 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, and the Cleveland Cavaliers clinched their second straight outright Central Division championship and third in team history, beating Indiana 99-94 on Wednesday night.

Cleveland (54-15) is the first team this season to clinch its division.

After Cleveland’s 18-point lead was cut to one, James had six points, two blocks, two steals and an assist in the final 4 minutes, including a nifty dunk behind his head after catching an alley-oop pass from Anderson Varejao. James fell a rebound and an assist shy of his second triple-double in two nights.

[necroplasm]

Team first, me second.

[King Taharqa]

James becomes youngest to 15,000 points

CHICAGO (AP)—LeBron James became the youngest player to score 15,000 points, breaking Kobe Bryant’s mark by more than two years in the first quarter of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ game against the Chicago Bulls on Friday night.

Three points shy of the milestone when the night began, James soared in for a hard right-handed dunk on a break about 4:40 into the game. He then hit two free throws about 40 seconds later, giving him 15,001 career points

James reached the milestone at 25 years, 79 days, and he did it in his 540th game. Bryant was 27 years, 136 days and playing his 657th game, according to STATS LLC, when he did it for the Los Angeles Lakers.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-james-milestone

29 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists. Cleveland rolls over Chicago tonight. Thank you King.

[CarolinaPride5]

Congrats to Bron.

[King Taharqa]

NEW ORLEANS (AP)—LeBron James scored an efficient 38 points on 15 of 22 shooting to go with nine assists, and the Cleveland Cavaliers won their eighth straight game, 105-92 over the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday night.

J.J. Hickson scored 20 for the Cavs, who led by as many as 17 and never trailed after James’ floater tied it at 10 in the first quarter. Delonte West added 15 points and Antawn Jamison had 11 points and 11 rebounds as Cleveland won its 27th straight over a team with a losing record.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap;_ylt=AqdT0sgHmFi5S5K1o4r499a8vLYF?gid=2010032403

Big Z made his return debut as a Cav tonight. King and the Cavs playing strong going into the dance.

[CarolinaPride5]

LeBron just says that he could get the scoring title easily if he really wanted to. LMAO He needs to mature a little bit...

And Kobe would get it if he truly wanted too.

[C47]

Yea I just heard that on SC just now, sounded like a whiny bitch. Cocky and arrogant, grow up James!

[CarolinaPride5]

You from LA too C42? I see you got Kobe, USC, and the Dodgers in your sig. how'd you become a Panthers fan?

[King Taharqa]

CLEVELAND (AP)—The Milwaukee Bucks have climbed in the standings—and in stature.

In fact, they’ve risen so far, so fast that their confident coach felt like his young squad handed a victory to the NBA’s best team.

“We should have won that game,” Scott Skiles said following a tough, 101-98 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. “We gave them that game.”

LeBron James scored 23 and Mo Williams 21 for the Cavs, who have won 10 of their past 11 and are closing in on the league’s best record and home-court advantage throughout the postseason. The win, coupled with Atlanta’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers, dropped Cleveland’s magic number for clinching the overall No. 1 seed to 2.

With the win, the Cavaliers (59-16) improved to 26-0 at home against Eastern Conference opponents in March under coach Mike Brown.

This one wasn’t easy, though. The Cavs were flat and sorely missed energetic forward Anderson Varejao, who missed his second straight game because of a sore hamstring.

The Bucks overcame a 10-point deficit and took a 95-93 lead with 1:27 left on a 3-pointer by Ersan Ilyasova. The Cavs had been unable to separate from the Bucks in the fourth mostly because they kept missing free throws, but James made two straight to tie it with 49.3 seconds left.

Salmons missed on Milwaukee’s next possession and the Cavaliers called a timeout during which they set up a play that has worked all season.

Williams took the inbound pass and drove the left side drawing two defenders. Once in the lane, he threaded a bounce pass from under the rim to a cutting James, who muscled in his layup over Bogut to put the Cavs ahead 97-95 with 17.4 seconds left.

“It has not worked I think one time,” James said. “We played Charlotte at home and (former teammate) Flip (Murray) sniffed it out one time. We added a counter to it since then and it hasn’t failed us yet.”

So what’s it called?

“I can’t tell you,” James said, smiling. “It’s called, ‘always works.”’

Late in the third quarter, James provided another of those plays that only he can make.

Taking a bounce pass on the right wing, he began to elevate just as he was being wrapped up by Ridnour, who threw his arms around James’ neck. But even with the 175-pound Ridnour clinging to him, James rose off the floor. He missed the layup but the awesome display of power drew oohs and aahs from the crowd as it was replayed on the giant scoreboard.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2010033105

[King Taharqa]

CLEVELAND (AP)—The Cavaliers reached one magic number and lowered another.

LeBron James scored 27 points and Cleveland entered an elite fraternity of NBA franchises with its 60th win, scoring 14 straight points in the fourth to pull away and beat the Atlanta Hawks 93-88 on Friday night.

With their 60th win, the Cavaliers moved within one victory—or a loss by the Los Angeles Lakers—of clinching the league’s best record and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

Cleveland (60-16) became the ninth team to post back-to-back 60-win seasons. But while that’s impressive and may look nice in the record book, the Cavaliers are chasing a title they seem more prepared than ever to go after.

Cleveland won its 10th straight at home and improved to 34-4 this season at Quicken Loans Arena, which was at a playoff pitch throughout the game.

The Cavs dominated inside, but weren’t able to put away the up-and-coming Hawks until their late flurry. Mo Williams started it with a short jumper and James made a layup. After a steal, James knocked down one of his “heat-check” 3-pointers to make it 81-78.

After another misfire by the Hawks, Williams made his 3 and James dropped a jumper to give Cleveland an 86-76 lead.

James then got free for a spectacular, exclamation-point dunk and was bathed with chants of “M-V-P,” an award he seems to have locked up with his finest season yet.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2010040205

[King Taharqa]

"King" vs. Celtics coming up on ABC at 1 PM.

[King Taharqa]

BOSTON – It didn’t matter that the Cleveland Cavaliers were playing the Boston Celtics, their heated rival. Nor did the Cavs stir when their coach was ejected in the third quarter. Even the lure of clinching the NBA’s best record and securing home-court advantage throughout the playoffs didn’t do much to inspire the Cavs early Sunday afternoon.

Only when LeBron James received a rare technical for complaining to the officials in the fourth quarter did Cleveland finally awake. Led by James, the Cavs launched a spirited comeback that saw them briefly overtake the Celtics after trailing by as many as 22 points. Boston went on to win, 117-113, but the Cavs still sent a message of their own:

No longer do they need to measure themselves against the Celtics. For James and his Cavs, there is only one opponent these final 1½ weeks of the season: boredom.

“We try to find one little edge, one little small edge that can get us going,” James said. “It is hard. All teams know it is hard to get up for every single game. But you have to find a small edge to get you going through the night.

“Tonight, what we got out of it was a playoff atmosphere, something that we can carry with us [as a challenge] to finish games off. We saw it in Milwaukee on Wednesday. We played a really good game against them, playoff atmosphere. Friday same thing with Atlanta, playoff intensity. Today against Boston, playoff intensity. It’s been a really good week for our team.”

Even in losing, the Cavs showed just how good they can be when motivated. The Celtics were at full strength and coming off a three-game home losing streak. The Cavs didn’t have either Anderson Varejao or Shaquille O’Neal, and Zydrunas Ilgasukas is still trying to work himself back into shape after his month-long layoff.

Even so, Cleveland dominated the Celtics when they decided to raise their game in the fourth quarter. James finished with 42 points and even passed on an opportunity to tie the game with 4.9 seconds left to instead go for the kill, launching a 3-pointer that clanged off the left side of the rim.

“It felt like he scored their last 60 points in a row, at one point,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “Really. And who didn’t think that wasn’t going in when he shot it? Honestly, you clearly wanted him to drive if you were them and we clearly wanted him to shoot because at least we got a chance of missing. At the basket, he’s just a bull.”

Said James: “As long as I’m on the court, my team will never quit. It doesn’t matter if we’re down 20 or down 30. We’ll have a chance to win.”

Celtics guard Tony Allen curiously tried to engage James in some trash-talking. Afterward, James made clear that “we don’t like them and they don’t like us.”

“This game has lost a little bit of that through the years, a little bit of talking,” James said. “Teams not liking each other. That’s the same thing I figured out last year when I walked off the court in Orlando [after being eliminated in the Eastern Conference finals]. People were mad that I didn’t shake hands. I’m not happy. I’m disgusted that I lost and I move on to the next season. That’s what the game’s lost, it’s lost what it had in the ’80s and early ’90s when teams really didn’t like each other.”

James also had a message for anyone who viewed the Cavs’ loss as a ***** in their armor: “We are still missing a very, very big, huge – literally – piece to our team.”

That would be O’Neal, who is still recovering from surgery on his right thumb. While O’Neal said recently he expects to be back before the playoffs begin, Cavs coach Mike Brown said there’s a chance O’Neal might not return until the postseason.

As the Cavs wait on O’Neal, James wouldn’t mind getting some rest during the next five games. Cleveland can afford to give it to him after the Los Angeles Lakers’ loss to the San Antonio Spurs assured the Cavs of home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

“We could all use the rest,” James said. “So many guys have played throughout the season. If we continue to play well the next couple of games, I think I will look at it to see if I can get some rest. I would love it before the playoffs start.”

In the meantime, the Cavs will wait to see who they’ll face in the first round, likely the Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls or Charlotte Bobcats. For the second straight season, they’ll enter the playoffs with the NBA’s best record, confident and hungry, but perhaps also wiser after learning from last year’s loss to the Magic.

All that’s left for James is to prove he can finally win a championship for Cleveland. In a week and a half, the boredom ends.

“You don’t need to find an edge in the playoffs,” James said. “It’s the real season. The regular season is great. …But I think we all know the playoffs is where it’s at.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=mc-cavaliers040410

We all are witnesses.

[mj4life]

like his comments about not liking each other, i do think teams are to chummy for my liking

[King Taharqa]

like his comments about not liking each other, i do think teams are to chummy for my liking

I dont know if yall saw that Reggie Miller-Knicks special on ESPN, but they showed old clips in the late 80s and early 90s of the Knicks. And maaaaaan!!! Guys used to be physical as hell back then. They allowed hand checking, guys were getting in fights and knocking guys down for trying to lay the ball up or dunk. Today, because of the image of the players, Stern has "softened" the game up and made it flashier. Think about it, if guys today tried to pull the stunts that Laimbeer, Charles Oakley, & Mahorn used to do, they'd be ridiculed in the press and get long suspensions. Those guys used to do poo and then sit out 1 game. LOL. The game has changed, and its a new era. But I agree, I miss the rivalries and guys can be too friendly nowadays. Kevin Garnett was jawing off heavy to LeBron at the end of the game too.