LEBRON CELEBRATES MVP WIN AS CAVS ROUT HAWKS

On Tuesday afternoon, the NBA announced that LeBron James was the league’s MVP for this season.  Later that evening, he went out and played like the MVP as the Cleveland Cavaliers routed the Atlanta Hawks 99-72 in the opening game of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals.  It was the Hawks’ 14^th loss in their past 15 road games—a fact that doesn’t bode well for game two, which is back at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena on Thursday night.

LeBron led all scorers with 34 points, pulled down 10 rebounds for a ‘double/double’ and threw in 3 assists and 4 steals for good measure.  Mo Williams added 21 for the Cavs, while Delonte West chipped in for 13 points and 9 assists.  Josh Smith led the Hawks with 22 points, while Mike Bibby scored 19 and Joe Johnson 11.  After the game, however, the Cavs’ Williams was most impressed by a play early in the game where LeBron took a charge against an oncoming Joe Johnson:

"An MVP taking a charge on the break? That's amazing. You get that effort from him, how could I not take a charge? The whole night was about him and he came out and showed why he is the MVP -- in the first quarter."

As has become his habit during his MVP season, LeBron instead focused on his team’s collective performance:

"It was unbelievable how sharp we were. We just picked up where we left off."

NBA commissioner David Stern presented LeBron with the MVP award in a pregame ceremony, which was nearly drowned out by a sold out crowd chanting “M-V-P”.  LeBron spoke of the honor:

"It was a very emotional time for me. I think the team knew and I knew the ceremony was going to happen, but we still had a game to play. We didn't want to rain in the ceremony by not preparing ourselves the best way to come out and play. We had some lapses in the first half, but we got it going in the third and fourth quarter and took care of the game."

The Cavs were particularly impressive on defense in the second half, holding Atlanta to 21 total points in the third and fourth quarters.  This fact didn’t please Atlanta’s Josh Smith:

"It was very disappointing.  We advanced to the next level in the postseason and it's kind of disheartening not to be able to play and bring the effort in the second half."

More specifically, he wasn’t happy with the Hawks’ team defense against the newly crowned MVP:

"He's the MVP of the league and he's the most aggressive guy on the court. We can't stop him individually. We've got to do a collective effort on him and I felt we didn't help each other out."

After Thursday’s game two, the series shifts to Atlanta’s Phillips Arena for games three and four beginning on Saturday night.  Should a fifth game be necessary, it’ll be back in Cleveland on Wednesday night.