Deja-vu
If you are even a "so-so" NBA fan, you have to agree that LBJ's 48-point game against Detroit in Games 5 of the Eastern conference Final will go down in history as one of the greatest basketball performance of all times. We are talking about Mr."King" James getting 29 out of his team last 30 points; that he single-handedly destroyed the Detroit team with minimal support from his lousy coach and mediocre supporting team.
He has crushed a team at their home-court; a team who should know better than anybody else.
It is almost of deja-vu.
By the end of the 80's, the Detroit Pistons was facing another rising star — Michael Jordan. Year after year, the Pistons crushed Jordan and his team in the playoffs and sent them home. It is until the 90-91 season, that the Bulls finally break-off and reached the NBA Finals by winning four straight against the defending champion Detroit Pistons.
Guess who was the point guard on that Pistons team? Joe Dumars.
And guess who is the President of the present Detroit team? Yes, Joe Dumars.
And that's why it is so good to see this new team of bad boys from Detroit doing the same crushing exercise against another new star; except this time he is not from Chicago but Cleveland, and his name is LeBron James.
And he is also wearing #23.
Will this prove to be the beginning of another long nightmare, which will last at least a decade of Cleveland's domination in the East?
Or will Detroit learn their lesson from the past and fight when there is really not much time left?
Games 6 tonight @ Cleveland.
We'll see.
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Update: Yes they won; and no, James did not have another 48-point night. But he seems to have found his "Pippen", and his name is Daniel Gibson.