Killer instinct? Nets have it, LeBron's Cavs don't

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- In the closing minutes of a frantic first half as New Jersey's Bostjan Nachbar lifted high for a layup, LeBron James, showing yet again that his legs sometimes work like tightly coiled supersprings, leaped over Nachbar as if the Nets forward was a dawdling pre-schooler and swiped his shot clean.

LeBron doesn't show much drive in the Cavs' Game 3 loss to Jason Kidd's Nets. (Getty Images)

Immediately upon landing softly and confidently, James tersely said something to the player he had just stoned. It didn't look like James was wishing his family a happy Mother's Day. Then James looked at the Nets bench and said something to them.

James next stormed off the court. That is the James you like to see: cutthroat and mean. It is in those moments he most looks like Michael Jordan.

The Cleveland Cavaliers at one point trailed 15-4, but gathered themselves and trailed by just two at halftime. It looked like they were going to take control of Game 3 in this Eastern Conference semifinal by doing something people say they are often incapable of: demonstrating a killer instinct.

But we should know by now about these Cavaliers.

Sweeping a cross-eyed, hobbled Washington team does not count as showing off a killer mantra. This was a key moment for James and the Cavaliers to make a statement, and they were upstaged 96-85 by New Jersey's trio of counter-punchers -- a brilliant Jason Kidd, a menacing Richard Jefferson and the overrated freak-stud Vince Carter. Each scored 23 points.

Yet as much as the Nets won this game, making this a drastically different series, the Cavaliers lost it.

Cleveland's fierce and aggressive play devolved in the second half, as it often does in pressure situations, into lame fadeaway jumpers, 3-point Hail Marys and limp, sloppy defense.

They could have easily beaten the Nets and crushed their spirits, but they let the opportunity slip away.

Thus the Cavaliers could end up desperately regretting this loss.

Cleveland and James might one day win multiple championships, but James in particular still does not consistently take over big postseason contests late, sometimes choosing to dish off instead of dominate.

The Cavaliers should digest game tape of the Detroit Pistons, who play harder and with more aggression as the game gets tighter. Detroit has thoroughly bullied Chicago this postseason when it was thought the Bulls might steal a game or two.

The Cavaliers should have given New Jersey the bum rush the way the Pistons bashed the Bulls.