LeBron James came to Miami to do what he did Thursday night, win an NBA title./AP Photo.

Hugging the world championship trophy, LeBron James was all smiles Thursday night.

James can finally claim an NBA title as his own./AP Photo.

He earned that elated feeling.

“It’s about damn time,” James said.

The one who waited nine years to win an NBA title no longer has to do so.

LeBron James can now be called a champion after leading the Miami Heat to an NBA title. The Heat sealed the finals series, 4-1, by winning Game 5 in dominant fashion, 121-106, against the Oklahoma City Thunder at American Airlines Arena.

This journey truly began the night of his greatest individual playoff performance – May 31, 2007, Game 5, Eastern Conference Finals, The Palace, Auburn Hills, Mich.

With the series tied 2-2, James willed the Cleveland Cavaliers to an 109-107 double-overtime win against the Detroit Pistons by scoring 48 points. He scored Cleveland’s final 25 points.

It’s the best playoff performance I’ve ever seen in person. It was so good, Michael Jordan came out and praised James for his play.

It also started the championship clock.

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Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs have won 18 consecutive games. Will the Thunder challenge them?/AP

18 wins in a row. The San Antonio Spurs are rolling.

Unbeaten in this year’s NBA playoffs, the Spurs swept the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers to reach the Western Conference finals. They’ve been unstoppable.

They haven’t been tested, either, but that’s all about to change Sunday.

Here come the Thunder. The Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Spurs have the best team, but the Thunder have the two best players in the series in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year in James Harden.

So make no mistake. The Spurs will lose a game in this series, but will they lose the series?

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“He probably started this season maybe the fourth, third, fifth best point guard in the league, but right now, he’s definitely in the top one or two best point guards this season.” – LeBron James talking about Derrick Rose after Tuesday’s Game 5.

The Chicago Bulls have one of the game's most dynamic talents in point guard Derrick Rose.

The NBA playoffs are planting a seed in Derrick Rose that’s going to grow into something the league won’t be able to contain.

Having now been bounced from the postseason in his first two years in the NBA, Rose is going to reach a point when enough is enough.

When that time comes, look out.

“These are things that you just learn from,” said Rose, who averaged 26.2 points and 7.2 assists against the Cavaliers in the playoffs. Cleveland won the Eastern Conference first round series, 4-1. “And if I get put in that situation again, I’ll know what to do.”

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Boston point guard Rajon Rondo and his coach, Doc Rivers, are doing work against the defending NBA champions.

Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo has been the best player in the NBA playoffs and he showed why in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

With the game on the line in the fourth quarter, Rondo had two steals, an amazing tip in over the much taller Lamar Odom and a game-sealing lay up in helping the Boston Celtics take a 3-2 series lead with a 92-86 victory Sunday.

Game 6 is Tuesday in Los Angeles. If the Lakers are able to win that game, there will be a decisive Game 7. It will be Thursday night in Los Angeles.

With it being a 2-3-2 format, the Lakers host the last two games because they have home-court advantage. All that will go for naught if Rondo and the Celtics win the series.

In his fourth season out of Kentucky, Rondo has emerged as one of the top point guards in the NBA. He really made his splash in leading the Celtics past the top seed in the playoffs – the Cleveland Cavaliers – and is at it again against the defending NBA champions.

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With Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers are still the favorites to win this year's NBA Finals. Game 5 is tonight.

2-2.

The NBA Finals has gone as I expected and with the series being tied heading into tonight’s Game 5 in Boston, look for the Los Angeles Lakers to upend the Boston Celtics in a close one.

Besides, I picked the Lakers to win the series in six games so they got to win tonight, right?

The key to this series has been when the Celtics makes it a physical, defensive game, the game favors them. Boston coach Doc Rivers preaches that to his team and when they follow accordingly, the Celtics are tough to beat.

When the game has a flow to it and players are allowed to play with freedom and display their skills, the Lakers have the advantage because they have the best talent.

They’d rather play that way than grind it out. With that being said, here are three things Boston has going in its favor tonight.

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No one shot the ball as poorly as Ron Artest did last night.

Well Andrew Bynum was 0 of 5, but he’s got a bum knee. Artest seemed to have a bum brain because he took  two ill-advised shots late in the game. He shot 2 of 9 from the field, 0 of 3 from 3-point range.

However, he woke today the hero.

Artests’s put-back bucket of a Kobe Bryant air-ball, 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Los Angeles Lakers a 103-101 home win against the Phoenix Suns in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.

With a 3-2 series lead, the Lakers can earn their third straight trip to the NBA Finals with a win in Phoenix on Saturday night.

The big man of Boston's Big Three, power forward Kevin Garnett remains the emotional leader of the surging Celtics.

People can blame the coaching, the lack of effort and the inability for one player to take over a game, but the Orlando Magic’s biggest problem can be narrowed down to one thing: The Boston Celtics.

Playing the best defense I’ve seen in a long, long time, Boston has had an answer for everything Orlando has thrown out, which truthfully hasn’t looked like much, but that’s beside the point.

Boston has won every match up, its bench is playing better, its coach Doc Rivers doing a number on Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy and its veterans – Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace – have raised their level of play.

They remind me of old guys at the YMCA that turn it up when stiff competition comes into the gym. Trust me, the Magic were stiff competition coming into the Eastern Conference finals after sweeping their first two playoff opponents, but the Celtics are taking care of them.

With all that being said, I think Orlando gets this game tonight even though it’s in Boston. Can’t see how a team that talented can get swept.

Pride has got to kick in at some point so they’ll get Game 4 and might get Game 5 at home, but it s not going further than six games.

Do I hear “BEAT LA” chants coming from the TD Garden?

Was this LeBron James' last game Tuesday night in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena wearing a Cavalier uniform?

  The two-time MVP’s body language wasn’t good.

  And since LeBron James is their leader, the rest of the Cleveland Cavaliers were just as lifeless.

  Now they’re a loss away from seeing championship aspirations expire after losing Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, 120-88, to the Boston Celtics at Quicken Loans Arena.

  If the Celtics close out the Cavaliers in Thursday’s Game 6 in Boston, the sellout crowd of 20,562 may have watched James play his last game for Cleveland in Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday night.

   They didn’t see his best effort.

   In fact, it may have been the worst playoff performance of his splendid 7-year NBA career.

    James had just 15 points, shooting a woeful 3-of-14 from the field. He only attempted four shots in the first half, missed them all and the electric energy that typically radiates off him was barely pulsating.

   By the fourth quarter when James missed a free throw with 10:31 in the game, sprinkle of boos came from the stands.

   James wasn’t the only who didn’t bring it Tuesday night.

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Kobe Bryant scored 30 points in leading the L.A. Lakers to a Game 5 victory.

After losing Game 4 Thursday night to fall down 3-1 in the NBA Finals, the Orlando Magic were leaking and the Los Angeles Lakers smelled blood.

So when the L.A. Lakers went on a torrid 16-0 run in the second quarter of Game 5 Sunday, the end result was inevitable.

The Los Angeles Lakers are NBA world champions after beating the Magic, 99-86, in Orlando.

Few expected the Magic to upset the Lakers even though they had upset top-seeded Cleveland to make to the NBA Finals. When the Magic look back at this series against the Lakers, they let Game 2 and Game 4 slip away as they lost both in overtime.

It’s hard to win a  best-of-7 series when you give two games away.

As for the Lakers, this is the 10th NBA title for their Hall of Fame coach, Phil Jackson. It’s the first time Kobe Bryant has won a title without Shaquille O’Neal.

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He may be the shortest guy in the picture, but Derek Fisher (2) hit the two biggest shots of the night in Thursday's Game 4 win for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

The Orlando Magic gave the Los Angeles Lakers new life in this one.

Not a good idea.

They blew a 12-point halftime lead and then after failing to close out the Lakers in regulation, the Magic lost Game 4 in overtime, 99-91, in the NBA Finals on Thursday night in Orlando.

With a commanding 3-1 series lead, the Lakers will try to close out the Magic in Game 5 on Sunday night in Orlando. The reason the Magic are playing their third consecutive home is because in the NBA Finals, it’s a 2-3-2 series format.

Derek Fisher’s 3-pointer with 4.6 seconds left forced overtime and then he hit another one off a Kobe Bryant assist to break a tie and put the Lakers up for good with 31.3 seconds left.

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