Mo Williams had played 150 regular season and 19 playoff games with the Cavs but there’s one thing he hadn’t done with the team until Saturday night: dunk. LeBron James was aware of that and always told him something that turned out to be prescient: “I told Mo a long time ago if he ever dunked in a game it was going to spark us like we haven’t been sparked before. Not only did it fire the team, it fired himself up.” Mo Williams took a ball in transition and decided to go up to slam over Paul Pierce and it ignited the team in Game 1. Here’s the video of Mo Williams’ first dunk for the Cavs on Paul Pierce in the playoffs:
That Williams dunk sparked the Cavs and they went on a 43-24 run to close out the game from that point on. Immediately after that dunk, something changed for the Cavs and they became ignited to play stronger defense and better on offense. The Cavs better hope Williams has more tricks up his padded sleeve because if he’s not playing well they’re not reaching the NBA Finals. He has a lot of work to do to atone for his 31% shooting against the Magic in the Conference Finals last year and he’s starting off in the right way.
Sources:
Elbow doesn’t slow down James as Cavaliers rally for Game 1 win [AP/ESPN]
