The Redemption of the King. Vince McKee
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The task for Danny Ferry was clear: He needed to find one more piece of the puzzle for it all to fit together before another serious run at the title could be made.
A big move came on August 13, 2008, when the Cavaliers took part in a three-team trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Milwaukee Bucks that saw Damon Jones and Joe Smith leave town, but in return Cleveland got sharpshooting point guard Mo Williams from the Bucks. Williams was a talented point guard who knew how to generate points with a variety of passes and smart shots. He was quick off the dribble and could create his own shot when needed. He was the perfect complement to Delonte West in the backcourt.
The Cavaliers would be tested right away. Opening night was back in Boston at the TD Garden, where Cleveland would face the defending NBA Champions once more. The Celtics picked up where they had previously left off and, despite a great effort by Cleveland, managed to put away the Cavaliers 90–85. It was clear that the Celtics would remain the team to beat.
The Cavaliers split their next two games with a win at home against the Charlotte Hornets and a loss on the road in New Orleans. It was after that loss to the Hornets that the Cavaliers caught fire and remained that way for the remainder of the season. They rolled an eight-game winning streak, highlighted by wins over the Dallas Mavericks, the Chicago Bulls, the Indiana Pacers, the Denver Nuggets, and the Utah Jazz. They had a short-lived stumbling block with a single loss to the Detroit Pistons, but they quickly bounced back with an 11-game winning streak that pushed their season record to 20–3. They lost on the road to the Atlanta Hawks before winning six more games in a row. The Cavaliers were dominating teams left and right, and by the time of the turn of the 2009 calendar year, the team held a 26–5 record. Cleveland also held a perfect home record that stood firm until the Lakers beat the Cavaliers on February 8, 2009. But even with that loss, Cleveland maintained an impressive 39–10 record and was well on the way to locking up the first overall seed.
The Cavaliers remained red-hot down the stretch with numerous winning streaks, including an impressive 13-game winning streak into late March. Perhaps most impressive of all was an April 12, 2009, win against the Boston Celtics, where the Cavaliers pounded the Celtics and won 107–76. The 31-point win was a clear statement that the Cavaliers had emerged as the new dominant team in the NBA. The Cavaliers finished with a franchise best record of 66–16. It was also the best record of any team in then-current NBA history. It also locked up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and gave Cleveland an enormous amount of momentum heading into the playoffs.
LeBron had a season that was so good it earned him his first league MVP award. He was voted the very best player in the NBA and took home the very prestigious award. He averaged 28.4 points a game, combined with 7.6 rebounds and 7.2 assists. He was the best player on the court every night and the main reason the Cavaliers enjoyed so much success. It was nice to see the national media finally put aside their negative bias against Cleveland and grant LeBron the well-deserved award. He was, without question, the best player on the planet.
Kenny Roda gave his thoughts on why LeBron was able to have such a breakout season:
I think it was a combination of a number of things with LeBron James. He was able to mature a little bit more that season and was growing as an individual on and off the court. It was just his God-given abilities and understanding the game better, what teams were trying to take away from him, and what he needed to improve on. All the great ones go back and look at their game to try and add something new to it each and every off-season. Whether it’s a post-up game or a better jump shot, improve your foul shots and three-pointers. Go back to Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson—they would all do that. They would all work on the things they felt their game needed to get better at in the off-season. This would help in the following seasons if teams were trying to exploit that weakness; it wasn’t a weakness anymore. I think LeBron James, looking back on it now, he was wired the same way, and that is why he is going to be one of the all-time greats. The great thing about players that are that damn good, they usually want to get even better. As good as he was, he wasn’t the MVP yet, and that was his motivation to step it up even more this season and win it. He wanted to be an MVP and felt that he deserved but had not yet won it—then there is that motivation. The great ones, as great as they are, always think that they can get better, and that is a great attitude to have, and LeBron has had that attitude his whole career. I think that part of the reason he broke out that season is because he felt he got slighted the year before.
The Cavaliers opened up the playoffs against their long-time rival, the Detroit Pistons. Things were vastly different this time than just two short years earlier. The Pistons had aged, and the team was no longer the powerhouse it had once been. They were the eighth seed and seen as a heavy underdog against the highly favored Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers jumped out to a quick two-game lead in the series by dominating game one and game two at home, 102–84 and 94–82. The series headed to the Palace of Auburn Hills and the Pistons’ hopes of coming back were on life support. The Cavaliers continued to roll and polished off the Pistons in Detroit by taking both games three and four, 79–68 and 99–78. Games one through three were such blowouts that by the time game four rolled around, Detroit fans didn’t even bother to show up, leaving more than half of the stands full of Cleveland fans. It was such a magical season that Cleveland fans had no problem driving the 2½ hours to the Palace to support their team. It was also a vast difference from just a few years prior, when Detroit was on top of the mountain and the Cavaliers were looking to take them down at all costs.
LeBron continued to look amazing in the playoffs with efforts of 38, 29, 25, and 36 points. Despite the wide difference in win totals, LeBron knew better than to take Detroit lightly and made sure to bring his very best game to the court each night. The Cavaliers were on fire and ready to take on their second-round opponent, the Atlanta Hawks.
With such stars as Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, and Mike Bibby, the Atlanta Hawks were seen as a formidable opponent coming into the second-round series. Many broadcasters considered the Hawks good enough to push the Cavaliers to at least six, if not seven, games. Despite the talent and hype behind the Hawks, the Cavaliers didn’t fear Atlanta and went right out and swept the Hawks in four games with relative ease. The Hawks couldn’t compete with the high-powered Cavalier attack. The Cavaliers averaged a 16-point victory per game. The Cavaliers had won eight straight playoff games and were looking simply unstoppable. There was nothing the Atlanta Hawks could do to even keep the games close, and head coach Mike Woodson was out of answers.
Heading into the conference semifinals, the entire league was expecting a Cleveland versus Boston rematch. The Orlando Magic had a different idea, though, and upset the Celtics in the conference semifinals. The Magic was a young and talented team, but few in the national sports media thought they would have what it would take to hang with the Cavaliers. Little did anyone know that the Cavaliers were headed for a classic series. Of the national media, only Charles Barkley had enough guts to pick against the heavily favored Cavaliers. With the way LeBron was playing, those in the media and fans alike thought it impossible for Cleveland to lose even one game on their walk to the NBA Finals and pending showdown against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Game one against Orlando was in Cleveland, with the Cavaliers taking the homecourt advantage and jumping out to a huge lead. The Cavaliers were beating the Magic 63–48 at halftime and didn’t appear to be cooling off anytime soon. Everything looked in control until the Orlando Magic came out in the third quarter and couldn’t miss a shot. Orlando was suddenly on a hot shooting streak and outscored the Cavaliers 30–19 in the third quarter. The Magic continued to remain hot throughout the rest of the game and took a 107–106 lead with only a few seconds to go. The Cavaliers were blindsided by the dramatic change of pace brought on by the Orlando Magic shooting inferno. A last-second desperation shot by Williams rattled in and out, and just like that, the Cavaliers had lost their first playoff game and were suddenly down in the series. Everyone in the NBA universe of fans and the media were stunned, as Cleveland had dominated the playoffs up until that point, and were now hoping this second-half collapse would be just a minor hiccup.
The Cavaliers had wasted a 49-point masterpiece by LeBron. The problem was that, despite his incredible scoring display, the Cavaliers’ bench provided only 5 points. That was simply not acceptable and would be a