Justice B. Hill

CLEVELAND - Simply the best ... what else can anybody say about LeBron James?

In the biggest game of this playoff season, if not of his NBA career, James did what MVPs are counted on to do: He put the game’s outcome in his hands Friday night. With James and the Cleveland Cavaliers trailing the Orlando Magic, 95-93, with one second left, he needed to make an MVP-like play.

And he didn’t disappoint.

“It’s the biggest shot I’ve made in my career,” James said.

Call his shot “The Miracle at The Q.” Look at it as Cleveland’s payback for the shot that Michael Jordan buried at the Richfield Coliseum — the shot that has cut the heart out of Clevelanders year after year. Jordan’s shot still hurts. It will always hurt here, if you bleed Cavaliers wine and gold.

Maybe James lessened that hurt just a tad Friday night. Just maybe his 23-foot shot, the game clock almost at zero, will be the defining moment of a season in which the Cavs have proved they are among the league’s elite.

They didn’t need to prove they had an elite player. James proved that years ago, and each season he has performed at a higher and higher level. Until now, they use his name in the same paragraph with Jordan. Soon enough, it might be used in the same sentence.

Blasphemy, some people might say. Go ahead, say it then.

But Michael Jordan’s legend had to start somewhere. Jordan had to build his reputation in moments like this, moments when the lights were brightest and the pressure at its most intense. He had to want the big shots; he had to make the big shots.

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In the 107-106 loss Wednesday, James eschewed the big shot in the final seconds. He drove hard to the basket in that game and dished to Delonte West on the perimeter. West missed an open jumper, and the Cavs lost.

James had no time for passing Friday night. Either he’d take the shot and make it or Cavs fans would have to count on someone else.

But who else could that be? Did anybody really think West would take the shot? Or Mo Williams? Or Zydrunas Ilgauskas?

If James is going to be the next Jordan, James had to take the final shot. He had to seize the moment — a moment when reputations can be made.

Yet the choice wasn’t his to avoid with time so fleeting. Either LeBron James shoots or he sees the Cavaliers, a team that has been seemingly invincible at home, head to Orlando on Sunday towing a 0-2 deficit with them in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals.

To say their circumstances would have been dire does not misstate the situation. Orlando is a tough place to play; and the Magic are a tough team to beat — home or away. So much in this series rested on what James did with the shot.

He caught the inbound pass, rose above the 6-foot-10 Hedo Turkoglu and lofted a jumper from behind the 3-point arc. His shot threaded the net. James grabbed a win from a game that looked lost.

“I got that out of my bag of Michael Jordan tricks,” James said.

His shot evened the series, and it might have salvaged the season. It definitely left the Magic shell-shocked.

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“That one obviously hurts quite a bit,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said.

Van Gundy’s mood was somber, his spirits shaken. He was mourning a 96-95 loss when he thought — with one second left — that the Magic had a 95-93 win.

“I don’t know what else to tell you,” Van Gundy said.

What coach would?

Van Gundy had a prime seat in a game that will be another chapter in the legend LeBron James is building. His shot at The Q will be just another story that Clevelanders will tell each other about their native son — “The Chosen One,” as he has come to be known around here.

“Amazing shot by an amazing player,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said. “That’s what great players do.”

Simply the best ...

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