Grow up, Baby ‘Bron

Baby Bron-Bron is all grown up.

It’s the moment every big hoops fan has waited for, and… Baby Bron-Bron is all grown up.

It’s the moment every big hoops fan has waited for, and it’s finally here. So, where’s the beef?

The 6-8 manchild LeBron James is in his fourth season and his second NBA playoffs. He finished the 2006-2007 regular season with averages of 27.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and six assists per game.

He played in 13 playoff games last year, and his performances raised eyebrows. He scored 20 or more points in each game, rocking 30.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 5.8 assists per contest. Let’s face it – James is a stud. No – that’s not enough.

LeBron James is God’s answer to basketball.

But last season, his heroic playoff efforts fell just short, as the playoff-weathered Detroit Pistons won back-to-back games against James and the fourth-seeded Cavs to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.

It was a seven-game series to remember. Many thought it was the defining moment of James’ young career.

It was supposed to be the end of the introduction. It was supposed to be the opening act before the audience got the climactic pinnacle of James’ God-like ability, when the confluence of his myriad talents brought King James his first NBA title.

And so the encore went as planned. The Cavs improved upon their 2005-2006 season, winning the same amount of games as the previous season while moving up two playoff spots to the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.

James had another stellar season. The role players played their roles. James’ partner in crime, Larry Hughes, teamed up with big men Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Drew Gooden to provide James with enough support to build a playoff contender.

So here we are, one game into the Cavs-Pistons Eastern Conference final, and the script for this scene is unwritten.

And Sunday the story took a surprising twist. Suddenly, the saga turned sour.

Down three points, James decided to give bench player Donyell Marshall the ball with the game on the line.

Needless to say, the Cavs lost, 79-76. Marshall missed the 3-pointer. James stumbled to a 5-for-15 performance, without making a single trip to the foul line.

The Pistons are 14-1 in any best-of-seven series when winning the first game at home.

Now, James is the topic of discussion from downtown Cleveland to Honolulu and everywhere in between.

Wait, what? How could The Future, the Great One, the end-all, be-all of basketball, be the goat of the sports world in the midst of what was supposed to be his crowning playoff run?

It starts with confidence. But it ends with understanding.

LeBron knows the game. He knows where to assert himself, when to defer and how to pick his spots.

At least we thought he did.

The Pistons’ defense is simple – lock down your man, help your teammates. Detroit will close out space, eliminate channels into the lane and basically snuff out fast-break offenses.

But when James is on the floor, this defensive plan – arguably the toughest to break ever – has to be amended. James is that good.

So the Pistons send over a help defender. Sometimes they send two. That means someone is open. And that someone, be they James’ co-pilot Hughes or ninth-man Daniel Gibson, has to hit their shots.

The best way to spread a defense and create space is by hitting jump shots. That opens the lane, forces the Pistons to cover every man and limits the amount of help defending.

This is how teams beat the Pistons. The Cavs did it three times in last year’s Eastern Conference semifinals. The Heat won four games – and the series – by spreading out the Pistons and attacking the vulnerable spots on the floor.

How did they do it? The Heat made shots.

Oh, and Dwayne Wade attacked.

You see, Wade and James are similar – they are much better facing the basket and attacking. James is most effective when he has the ball on the wing and uses his first step to blow by defenders. Once he gets into the paint, you have two options – let him score or foul him.

But for some reason, James didn’t get to the free-throw line Sunday night. He didn’t wreak havoc on the all-important open spaces on the floor. He settled for jumpers, looked frustrated and ultimately decided to lose the game.

Stars take game-breaking moments into their own hands. But there are 47 minutes and 55 seconds before that big shot has to be made.

So James must buckle down, trust his teammates to keep the Cavs in the game and strike when nobody else in the world should be taking that shot.

At least that’s how the story is supposed to end. It’s not supposed to be a tragedy.