James's Pass To Marshall The Right Move

Afterward, he said he'd do it again. In fact, his words suggested that anyone who thought his decision was wrong ought to take a refresher course on basketball.

And you know what? He's absolutely right.

Today the scuttlebutt is about LeBron James's decision to give the ball up and not take the potential game-tying shot in the closing seconds of last night's Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Instead, double-teamed, James kicked the ball out to Donyell Marshall, who missed a wide-open three-pointer. The Pistons won, 79-76.

"When you are double teamed and you have an open teammate, you pass the ball. Simple as that," James said.

Especially when the person you're passing it to is far from chopped liver. Yes, Marshall was quiet in Game 1 (he only made one field goal), but the guy is a proven outside shooter who knocked down plenty of triples in the New Jersey series, and did the same to the Pistons last year in Round Two. He was all by his lonesome when James found him in the corner. Marshall won't miss too many of those, when he's that uncontested.

But somehow he did, and that was pretty much the ballgame. A make there would have put the Cavs up by one point with less than 10 seconds remaining. Certainly not a guarantee for victory, but a lot better than being down three with less than three seconds left and no timeouts remaining, as the Cavs were after Chauncey Billups split two free throws.

Speaking of which, these Pistons have to squeeze every drop of drama out of the game's rag, don't they? Billups, nearly a 90% FT shooter, couldn't have just made both tosses and rendered the last seconds irrelevant. Noooo, he has to split them, giving the Cavs a speck of hope. You see weird things happen when a player chucks a ball 3/4 court toward the basket. Remember Rasheed Wallace against Denver in March?

But I digress. James's decision was proper. The guy was going for the win, on the road, and found a pretty darn good triple shooter all alone. And he says he'd do it again, and good for him. Being a great player isn't always about "taking the big shot" at the end of games. It's about putting your team in the best position to win. And if that means finding a wide open Donyell Marshall for a potential game-winning shot, then so be it.

I'm not just saying that because the Pistons won, either. This isn't the gloating of a person whose team was on the winning side because James passed the ball and his teammate missed a shot. Sooner or later others on the Cavaliers are going to have to come up big, so why not now? Marshall, I'm telling you, let the Pistons off the hook. He makes that shot most of the time.

The real head scratcher is James only taking three shots in the fourth quarter. I mean, let's not take this unselfish thing TOO far.

But as for the finish, the right decision was made. James hadn't attempted a FT all game. He almost certainly would have been fouled had he not passed the ball. Who's to say he could have drained both foul shots after playing 47 minutes without attempting a single one?

End of discussion. Let's talk about Game 2.