The King reigneth on

OK, so the Blob was wrong about this after all. Which of course never happens.

(Unless you define "never" as "almost always.")

LeBron James did not have to drop a 50 spot in Game 7 to keep the Cavaliers alive, as it turns out.

He only had to drop a 45 spot.

A 45 spot, plus nine rebounds, plus seven assists, plus four steals (including one in which he went to the floor after a loose ball like just another blue-collar, lunch-bucket-toting schmo). And the Cavaliers finally put away the Pacers, and now it's on to the second round after a first-round series that looked for a long time as if it would belong to the kids from Indiana.

And what do we take away from that?

Two things.

One, that once again it's clear momentum is a unicorn in the NBA playoffs, because every game is its own separate entity and carves its own unique path. Two nights after the Pacers destroyed the Cavs by 34, the Cavs led nearly wire-to-wire. And if it was easily predictable how the narrative in Game 7 would go -- that LeBron would do whatever he had to do to keep the Cavs from losing a first-round elimination game at home -- the narrative also carved its own unique path, because the key sequence of the game happened when LeBron was on the bench for a time with an undisclosed owie.

That's when Tristan Thompson, George Hill, Kevin Love and the rest of his supporting cast, which virtually everyone has agreed is awful, beat back a Pacers' rally and actually extended the Cavs' lead to nine points while LeBron was out. Then he returned, and the deal was done.

And the second thing?

That, notwithstanding the aforementioned, LeBron James remains indisputably the greatest player of his generation, and perhaps the GOAT. And that perhaps it might be time to remove the "perhaps."

Michael Jordan cultists would no doubt howl at that, but, as someone who's seen not only Jordan but every great player in the last 50 years, I'm prepared now to give LeBron the nod. He hasn't won six titles the way MJ did, but he has won three and he has been to an unheard of seven consecutive NBA Finals. And if  his record in the Finals pales in comparison to MJ's ... well, it should be pointed out that MJ won six titles with a lineup that, including himself, had three Hall of Famers in its starting five. And the best team he faced in the Finals was, arguably, the John Stockton/Karl Malone Jazz.

He never had to play the Tim Duncan Spurs, the best team of its era. Or the current Warriors. And he never had to face them virtually alone at times, as LeBron has.

Jordan was the greatest scorer of all time. But LeBron is a better rebounder, and the best passer for his size since Bird and Magic. And the longer he goes on carrying his team on his back, all the numbers keep piling up in his favor.

He's the King. As he again proved yesterday.