AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Should LeBron James have thrown that pass to Donyell Marshall? Or should he have attacked the basket?
If you have a water cooler in your office, go over and grab a drink and ask the guy who's standing there. Go ahead, do it. Doesn't matter where your office is, there's a guy over there by the water cooler dying to discuss this very issue. He's waiting for you.
Because on a night with so many small surprises and subplots, the only thing anyone is going to remember about Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, won by Detroit 79-76, is this: With the game on the line, LeBron James didn't take the biggest shot. He let Marshall take it instead.
"Like I was telling Damon [Jones], it felt better than any of the six I hit in New Jersey," Marshall said afterward in the cramped visiting locker room, James standing only a few feet away trying to look indiscreet as he paid close attention to every answer Marshall gave. "That's what I was brought here for -- to make shots like that one," Marshall said.
Marshall couldn't have been any more wide open on the 3-point attempt from the right corner with 5.9 seconds left, so you can hardly fault James for getting him the ball. Right?
Well, maybe you can.
Because at the moment James threw that pass, he was driving to his left and seemed like he might have been able to get around Tayshaun Prince and power to the basket, although Richard Hamilton was closing hard from one side and Rasheed Wallace was coming in from the other. And since James had already picked up his dribble, it wasn't like he was going to get close enough for a layup. It would have been more like a 5-foot floater.
It was an instant that called for a split-second decision, and James decided to give it up. And it's not like he gave it up to Scot Pollard. He gave it to a guy who nailed six 3s in the Cavs' previous game.
"I go for the winning play," James said. "If two guys come at you and your teammate is open, then give it up. Simple as that."
Actually, it's not that simple, LeBron. Not when the eyes and the weight of the world are on you, and not when people expect otherworldly things out of you even though you're only 22.
The Cavs actually expected the Pistons to commit a foul on the play, seeing that they had a foul to give. But as Detroit assistant coach Terry Porter told me on his way out of the arena, the Pistons knew not to foul the instant James put his head down and started to make his move, because on a night when James did not go to the foul line one single time, they knew he was due to get a call, and they didn't want to give Ken Mauer, Greg Willard or Steve Javie a reason to whistle one.
"The play wasn't designed for me to get the shot," Marshall said. "Me not having made a 3 all night, they probably didn't even know I was in the game."
"It looked like everybody collapsed because there was nobody near Donyell," Cavs coach Mike Brown said. "I mean, he could have sat and had a cup of coffee before he even shot the basketball. LeBron trusts his teammates, his teammates trust him, and you've just got to step up and knock the shot down."
None of the Cavs seemed anywhere near crushed by the loss, and James was even bold enough to allow: "We're not satisfied, but we can look back and say, okay, we're okay with this loss tonight."
Funny way to look at it, but we're learning more and more with each passing season that LeBron doesn't take losses very hard. You'd imagine this time might be different, what with the Cavs failing to take advantage of Chauncey Billups' seven turnovers or an 18-11 edge in offensive rebounds or a 1-for-11 shooting night from Prince, but at least from his outward appearance, James took it in stride.
He and his teammates now have two full days to mull over the opportunity they let slip through their hands, and it'll be interesting to see how that affects their mindset when they come out for the start of Game 2 on Thursday night.
This was a night when they were the more aggressive team, the more energetic team, the more active team. And despite James 5-for-15 shooting night, they almost got a triple double out of him thanks to his 10 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.
Of course, that elusive 10th assist could have come on Marshall's 3 from the corner, or it could have come on an open jumper by Zydrunas Ilgauskas with 15.9 seconds left that also missed.
But again, we're talking about what might have been a game-winning assist from James, not a game-winning shot. It just sort of doesn't seem right, does it?
Well, that's why if there isn't a crowd at the water cooler right now, there will be one at some point during the day. After all, it ain't every night that the biggest superstar left in the NBA playoffs drives the lane with the ballgame on the line and then gives the ball up to a teammate.
Doesn't matter how open Marshall was, and it doesn't matter how many defenders were coming at him. It just didn't seem right, and it's an open debate as to whether it was.