Le End

That's it and that's all. A 94-85 loss in Game Six Thursday night in Boston marked the end of the Cavs season as well as maybe LeBron's Cleveland career. What was shocking was not that the season came to a disappointing end but as ESPN's Mike Breen put it, "a bitter end" with the Cavs looking far from the exciting team we saw in the regular season.

This is not meant to be a shot at a  Boston team that looks to be like they are playing as well as they were at the start of the year, and have a real shot against the Magic with their ability to match up down low with Dwight Howard and to get out on the Magic shooters. But this Cavs team was not the same team in the postseason it was in the regular season, seemingly crumbling under the pressure.

LeBron James, the most physically gifted player in the NBA, added a jump shot to his repertoire to make him unguardable.This season he went out with an okay performance in game six--at least stats wise. He had a triple double (27 pts 19 rebs 10 asts) and nearly a quadruple-double if you include his nine turnovers; but he wasn't LeBron. LeBron rarily looked aggressive or pushed the issue like he normally does. Gone was his explosion to the hoop, gone was his thunderous fast break slams, gone was his creativity to get his teammates wide open looks.

While this is hardly ALL of LeBron's fault, he's the star, he takes the blame. This was a game where they needed the 38-14-15 LeBron. A lot to ask? For almost anyone else sure.

But where was Shaquille O'Neal? He was missing free throws and slowing down the offense.

Their big mid-season acquistion Antawn Jamison? 5 pts on 2-10 shooting.

Mo Williams? Good first half, heck great first half, but just 2 second half points.

Where's the help?!?!

LeBron looked to be hurt, he did not have the same explosion and could not get to the basket like he used to which greatly hindered his game. But when he went into hurt mode, it seemed like the entire team looked at LeBron getting hurt liked the Pirates who stormed the Dauntless in Pirates of the Caribbean did when their mate was killed; they dropped the sword and gave up.

Mike Brown will likely be out of a job very soon. Shaq once called Stan Van Gundy the "Master of Panic" but this season he played for the coach who panicked most. After a Game Four loss by ten, Brown completely changed his rotation, playing Delonte West less, Daniel Gibson more, J.J. Hickson less, Big Z more. Why after one or two bad performances do you change your 61-win team's rotation and throw them out of wack?


What's next for LeBron? Only he knows for sure--heck he might not even know. But with the Cleveland front office having done (presumably) everything in their power to bring him some help the last few years and still not getting it done he has three legitimate options:

A) Return to Cleveland, build on what he's done and bring try to bring a title to his home state that has long been starved of it.

B) Head to the Knicks where he will get to play in NYC with all the lights on him (but aren't they already?) with enough cap space to go add another max player such as Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki (should he opt out).

C) Go to the Nets. A new billionaire owner who would love a star player, he already has a decent young nucleus of Brook Lopez and Devin Harris not to mention the possible #1 overall pick in this years draft. They could also let LeBron name his own coach. Oh, and LBJ's boy Jay-Z has part ownership of the team.

It may not be "Le End" of his Cavalier career but it was the final night of the 2010 season for LeBron. One that will go down as the most disappointing of his career thus far. Only time will tell if he has the competitiveness to come back and try to do it in Cleveland; or leave his home state and stick it to his "cursed" city for not doing more to get him the supporting cast he needs.

Decisions, decisions.