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LeBron James' boulevard of broken East teams stretches long

Well after midnight, a fatigued and frustrated Chauncey Billups slumped in a chair at his house and reluctantly turned on SportsCenter, knowing what he was going to see.

On the last day of May in 2007, the first hot night of the late spring in suburban Detroit, the Detroit Pistons lost a crushing overtime home game to the Cleveland Cavaliers and their precocious 22-year-old star, LeBron James.

Billups watched the highlights showing James scoring 29 of his team's last 30 points to upset the Pistons in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals to take a stunning 3-2 series lead over the No.