Cavaliers' James Puts Pistons in a 3-2 Hole

Jun 01, 01:40 AM

Current Headlines: AUBURN HILLS, Mich. _ LeBron James cut right down the gut of the Pistons' defense and scored on a lay-up with 2.2 seconds left to end a double-overtime thriller of a Game 5 with a 109-107 victory for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

And with James' instant-classic performance, the Cavs lead the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals, 3-2. Game 6 is Saturday night in Cleveland.

James finished with a near triple-double _ his playoff-high 48 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. And he had little assistance. The Cavs played much of the overtimes with three players _ Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Daniel Gibson _ fouled out. James scored 29 of the Cavaliers' final 30 points.

Pistons point guard Chauncey Billups' running lay-up as time ran out popped in and out, and James bent over at the free throw line. He is now one win from the NBA Finals.

"The fact that we won the ballgame means more than anything besides my performance," said James, who set a Palace record with his 48 points. "If I did everything I did tonight and we lost, it means nothing."

Over and over in the last moments of regulation and in both overtimes, James found a way to drive right to the rim. He blew by Tayshaun Prince and Jason Maxiell in regulation for two dunks in the final possessions. And he did it again for the game-winner.

"We tried to get the ball out of his hands, trap and he pulled it back out," Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. "We just didn't rotate over. I'll have to look more at the film."

Chris Webber, who scored 20 points, had a three-point play that gave the Pistons a 107-104 lead with 1:28 left in the second overtime.

But James then hit a tough, fall-away three-pointer to tie it.

"He was in a zone tonight," Saunders said.

After Rasheed Wallace and Anderson Varejao traded blocks on one another's shots, the Cavs had the ball with 11.4 seconds left and the score tied. James got the ball at the top of the key and drove for the final score.

"We're one more win from getting to our goal," James said. "I feel terrible right now. Winded. I'm fatigued. I have all day tomorrow, but it's going to be tough to get some rest when you have a crazy two-year-old running around the house."

All five Pistons' starters scored in double figures, led by Richard Hamilton with 26. Tayshaun Prince scored all 10 of his in the third quarter . Billups scored 21. He made a three-pointer near the end of regulation and two free throws at the end of the first overtime that kept the Pistons alive.

The three came sandwiched between two no-one's-stopping-me dunks from James. And in the first overtime, James made two free throws and a prayer of a 22-foot jumper in the final 90 seconds to give the Cavs a four-point lead with 33.7 seconds left.

Wallace made two free throws with 30 seconds left, and James air-balled a three-point attempt with 6.6 seconds left. And when Billups drove into the lane in the final seconds, James fouled him. Billups hit both his free throws to tie the game at 100 and force the second overtime.

The Pistons have followed the same script from their second round with Cleveland from a season ago. Then, they won Games 6 and 7 to advance. Now they must try to repeat that hard-to-do-once feat.

And James wasn't playing like this a season ago.

"It's like deja vu right now," Billups said. "It's the same thing, it's 3-2. We've dug ourselves a hole and the series just got harder for us.

"But we've been in these wars before, we can handle ourselves in these situations and we've got to get one win. Period."

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