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Cavs better find help for LeBron fast

If Orlando wins series, Cleveland faces uncomfortable offseason

Image: LeBron JamesAP
LeBron James ran into a road block in Orlando's Mickael Pietrus on Sunday.

LeBron is getting his.

And everyone else in the gold and wine is disappearing.

"When you put one guy on the free-throw line 24 times, it's hard to say your defense is great," is Van Gundy's latest lament, after James went 18 of 24 on free throws.

Suddenly, LeBron looks like Dwyane Wade in the first round against the Hawks, standing so alone in the scoring column that it doesn't matter if he gets his.

Suddenly, he is Kobe when Kobe was playing after Shaq and before Gasol.

The balance of depth was never an issue in this series. Orlando has more players who can pose threats, Sunday with five scoring in double figures.

"You're not going to see one of our guys get 28 shots. That's not how we play," Van Gundy said, after James finished 11 of 28 from the field.

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But this was never about that.

This entire season has been about LeBron getting just a little help from a few friends.

Sunday, as Wade looked on from the stands, speculation of Wade-LeBron as a '10 campaign ticket did not seem as farcical, not when Ilgauskas and Ben Wallace come off the books that year, the year both Wade and James can opt out.

If the Cavaliers win three of the next four, Cleveland and focal resident Danny Ferry can exhale.

But if Van Gundy's team plays the ultimate Magic trick on David Stern and ABC by killings Finals ratings, then 2009-10 becomes all or nothing for the Cavaliers.

And we're talking about a feeling far emptier than Sunday's Cavaliers locker room.

Perhaps LeBron was right before dusk turned into the Cavaliers' darkest night: Bring on the clone.

Because, apparently, someone had sent in the clowns.

Ira Winderman writes regularly for NBCSports.com and covers the Heat and the NBA for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.


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