In Taking Control of East Finals, LeBron Again Separates Himself as a Superstar

ATLANTA—It's always tough to pinpoint when one player breaks another team's spirit, especially in a game won via a plethora of passes more than one key assist. But on Friday night, what LeBron James did in a single play late in the second quarter demonstrated the startling difference between a superstar and a team of All-Stars, and helped explain why the Cavaliers are headed home to Cleveland with a 2-0 lead over the Hawks in this Eastern Conference Finals.   

It started with a defensive rebound, one of his eight, and a methodical advance from the right to left side of the floor. It continued, once he crossed the arc, with a hard dribble to his right, and the recognition that DeMarre Carroll, game but gimpy on a sore knee, lacked the usual lateral quickness, which translated into a decision to spin back quick to the left, all while soaring to the rim. There, James encountered the taller Al Horford and, rather than force a tough-angled shot over the Hawks center, spun again and somehow saw an abandoned Iman Shumpert on the right wing. And so, he shot-putted a one-bounce pass to Shumpert, who scooped up the ball like shortstop and swished a three-pointer through the hoop.

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"You find yourself open, you find guys cheating, and you only got to tell this guy one time that somebody's sinking in a little too much, and he'll find you with that pass," Shumpert said, his signature hair stuffed in a hat as he sat next to James at the podium following a 94-82 victory. "Him snapping that ball at you, there's energy in that ball when you get it. You've just got to knock them down because you know, if he keeps driving it, he causes everybody to come in there and make all that traffic." 

And he causes dejected home fans to try to beat the traffic. 

"When I'm able to put pressure on a defense and then make a pass to a teammate and he's able to knock it down, I've always got the excitement of that more than anything," James said, who had 11 assists in all, on a night that the Hawks, first in the NBA in assist percentage in the regular season, totaled only 15. 

Four of those assists came in the second quarter, five in the third and two in the second. The first seven were for three-pointers. Five different players were beneficiaries: four for Shumpert, three for Matthew Dellavedova, two for James Jones and one each for Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson.