Where Were You… When LeBron Dropped 48 on Detroit?
An unforgettable offensive performance by one of the sport’s greatest athletes — against Detroit’s toughest team defense
In case you missed me waxing poetic on Kobe dropping 81 when I was a kid, check that out. That was the first time I witnessed greatness occurring in real time. The second time was this:
It was the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals, and the NBA was still very new to me — I watched it for fun, like all kids do, not for stats or analysis. I didn’t necessarily understand the format of how a playoff series even worked. But what I do know was that LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers had dominated games three and four of the series against a juggernaut, the Detroit Pistons. Keep in mind that this was a young, baby-like, 22-year-old James who was only in his second year in the postseason. The energy and the willingness to display timeless heroics at that stage in his career showed how valuable he was to the league — and how special he would become for the ages.
A young pup myself, I witnessed how James approached the game and the craft of winning. In the first half, he did a little bit of everything on offense. Both scoring and distributing, he impacted the game so well to keep the Cavs into the game. There’s a dope replay of him driving, drawing in half the Pistons’ swarming defense, then double-hand chucking it over everyone’s heads across the court to an open Larry Hughes for a barely-contested trey. The question for the Cavs was how could they slow down Detroit on offense. Players in Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton — All-Stars in their own right — were carrying the load in the opposing backcourt. If the Cavs were going to leave the Palace with a W, they would have to step up defensively.
James was knocking down shots from the perimeter and driving into the lanes at will — impressively creating lanes like a running back with no remorse for human contact. But it wasn’t until the fourth quarter where he had his moment. I can recall thinking at the time that the Detroit Pistons would be on their way to another NBA Finals appearance. The overall team was just too good compared to a young Cleveland squad on the rise. But James had an answer for the veteran Pistons and let them know it wouldn’t be handed over so easily.
That’s when James came up huge in the final period by placing the Cavs (and a miserably sports-haunted Cleveland) on his back. He scored, and scored, and scored, quickly forcing overtime and continuing his hot streak from there. At one point, he dropped 25 straight points for Cleveland, destroying the Pistons limb by mechanical limb. They had no answer for The King as they continued to make adjustments to slow him down. In my eyes, it was one of the greatest performances of James’ early career. Which other player in their fourth season would have the tenacity and discipline to carry the load for their team, besides Michael Jordan? If he hadn’t jumped from high school to the NBA, he would have still been a senior in college. Instead, he was dismantling one of the NBA’s most feared defenses of all-time. James’ remarkable 48 point performance purely willed the Cavaliers to a necessary 109–107 win.
I figured that the Pistons would not be able to recover after James’ explosion in Game Five. The Cavs would take over in Game Six with a 98–82 victory, earning their way to their first-ever NBA Finals appearance. At that point, I believed James would definitely be getting his first championship ring. But the San Antonio Spurs would go on to (boringly) dominate Cleveland — after Cleveland had owned Detroit. Despite LeBron and his team getting swept in his first NBA Finals, his Game Five performance in Auburn Hills, Michigan, remains one of my favorite moments to relive in hoops history.
