CLEVELAND – Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James entered the NBA together.

Thursday night they played a game worthy of the first and third overall picks of the 2003 draft. It wasn't quite 'can you top this,' but it was close, as James and Anthony both topped 40 points and made big shot after big shot in the Denver Nuggets' two-point overtime win.

The margin of difference in the 118-116 game? A 20-foot jump shot by Anthony with 1.9 seconds left.

Yes, the shot was over James.

"If I were any closer," James said, "I'd have fouled him."
Watching in the stands were Jerry West and Oscar Robertson (honored as Olympic team captains with James and Anthony).

Watching on the Cavs bench was Antawn Jamison, acquired from Washington a night earlier. If Jamison needed a game to illustrate why the Cavs (their word) coveted him for two years ... well he couldn't have found a better one.

One could say that this Nuggets win came down to Anthony making his last shot and James just missing a three as time expired – a shot he took after slipping when he caught an inbounds pass.

That's what James said.

"You want to go against the best on the biggest stage," James said. "Tonight was a big stage. We both did what we had to do to put our teams in position to win. He just made one more play."

True enough.

Just like it's true the Cavs missed 17 free throws and the Nuggets won despite playing poorly, according to their coach George Karl (who received a warm hug from James prior to the game, obviously to support him in his fight against cancer).

But consider that James finished with a triple-double line of 43 points, 13 rebounds and 15 assists – numbers that have not been achieved in a game since Robertson did it in February of 1962.

And James lost.

Anthony won because he scored 40 points, and because he got help from Kenyon Martin (18 points, 17 rebounds), Chauncey Billups (18 points) and J.R. Smith (14).



James pretty much was the Cavs offense. With assists and points, he accounted for two-thirds of the scoring. But after his 43, the next three highest-scoring Cavs were Shaquille O'Neal (18), J.J. Hickson (14) and Anthony Parker (13). Those three combined for two more points than James.

Then take the fourth quarter (please). James scored 18 points and took 11 shots. The rest of the team scored nine and took nine. Mo Williams had eight of the nine points. Which means the rest of the Cavs offense scored one stinking, solitary point.

That is the kind of balance that drove GM Danny Ferry to add Jamison to a team with the best record in the league. Jamison, he said, is the "stretch four" the team needed (Why are there never any "stretch twos"?).

Jamison said he can "can really stretch out the defense ... make it easy for Shaq and Lebron to maneuver." (Stretching is evidently vital with him.)

James has been on a mind-boggling pace, averaging 32.3 points and 10.1 assists the last 16 games. But not even he might be able to keep up that pace. Jamison is the cavalry coming to help a team that ... well ... still has the most wins in the league. His 20 points and 8.8 rebounds are right on his career average, so the Cavs should know what they can expect from him.

Jamison talked of all the right things, saying he was in Cleveland to win a championship and contribute in whatever way he could.

"This can be something special," he said. Long-suffering Cleveland fans have heard that kind of thinking before.

The last three seasons the Cavs lost in the NBA Finals (to San Antonio), in the East semifinals (to Boston) and in the East finals (to Orlando). The only things they've not done are lose in the first round and win the championship.

With LeBron James' free-agent summer approaching, not winning that championship would really stink.

"It stunk three years ago," Ferry said. "It stunk two years ago. It stunk last year. And it would be awful this year."

The Nuggets game was a good reminder why Jamison is so important in avoiding that stink.

Source: Pat McManamon, FanHouse