AUBURN HILLS, Mich.: From the first time LeBron James touched the ball Friday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills, he was heartily booed.
The pseudo-feud between Cavaliers star James and 19-year-old boastful Pistons rookie Stanley Johnson served two purposes. It put Stanley in first-name-only territory with NBA fans. But more importantly, it cast James in a role he loves.
The role of villain.
But this wasn’t the pouring-on-the-points version of James the villain.
Game 3 of the first-round Eastern Conference playoff series was the intense, seesaw battle expected with the Pistons in desperation mode. The Cavs pulled out a 101-91 victory thanks to Kyrie Irving’s dagger 3-pointer with 43 seconds remaining and took a 3-0 lead into Sunday night’s Game 4.
Instead, James essentially played the role of setup man.
With Johnson proclaiming he’d gotten in James’ head after Game 2 despite statistical evidence to the contrary, James didn’t resort to bumping Johnson in front of the scorer’s table, as he’d done Wednesday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
Instead James stayed focused, intense and determined, even though his shots weren’t falling.
This was different than the last time the Pistons hosted a playoff game at the Palace — on April 26, 2009, when James scored 36 points.
This time, James didn’t try to do it all by himself. When the Cavs needed rebounds, he stationed himself under the Pistons basket in the first half and pulled down nearly every ball. When the Cavs needed points at the end of the second quarter, he closed it out with five in their 7-2 run. With Irving leading the way in scoring with 26 points, James sometimes took over at point guard.
Part of the reason James didn’t go gonzo was his realization that he wasn’t having the greatest shooting night. He finished with 20 points, hitting 8-of-24 from the field.
All the while, Pistons fans did their best to pour on the punishment.
During one break in the action, a man behind Cavs coach Tyronn Lue held up a cardboard-face cutout of James, a contorted visage of him complaining about a call. It was quickly snatched away by security.
As James hit one of two free throws with 32 seconds left in the second quarter, they chanted, “Where’s your hairline?”
That could have been a reference to James being elbowed on the top of his head by Andre Drummond with 4:21 remaining in the first quarter, a blow that seemingly left track marks. A replay review deemed it merely a common and non-shooting foul. A section of Pistons fans kept up with the hairline taunts of 31-year-old James the rest of the night. In the final seconds, a few got even more uglier and more personal.
Asked about Drummond’s hit on James, Lue said: “Not to be disrespectful, but no comment.”
But with the focus on James, both in the stands and in the minds of the young Pistons, James stayed calm. He knew the Cavs need him to be the facilitator, to do a little bit of everything. The only blip in his stat line of 20 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists was five turnovers.
He didn’t believe the Pistons were targeting him with their physical play and even in the instances where he was, he said that wouldn’t be his concern.
“My concern is I’ve got to continue to be aggressive, put pressure on their defense. Continue to find my guys when they’re open and continue to defend and help my guys on the glass with big Drummond,” James said before the morning shoot-around.
James has been drawn into public feuds with opponents before, most notably with the Washington Wizards’ DeShawn Stevenson and the Pacers’ Lance Stephenson. So there was a sense after Johnson’s comments that the Pistons’ youngster was poking the bear, that an angry James might light them up for 48 points as he did during a double-overtime victory at Detroit during the 2007 playoffs.
But James didn’t turn the series into a personal vendetta. With his focus on a championship and Irving and Kevin Love playing their best basketball of their short playoff careers, he seems willing to step out of the fray, to be the Cavs’ glue, no matter what Stanley says.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.