On Dec. 2, the Cleveland Cavaliers were 7-10 when they faced LeBron James. Since then, they've gone 1-32, tying an NBA record with 23 straight losses. Only in NBA Jam could this team turn its season around.
Kotaku commenter Bamzilla set about to do just that, taking the Cavs in NBA Jam's Classic Campaign, which marches you through all the teams of the NBA. Last Sunday, Bamzilla took his talents to South Beach with Mo Williams and Anderson Varejao - who are injured in real life - against LeBron and Dwyane Wade. Now it's a fair fight!
Cleveland bolted out to a nine-point lead in the first half, but then the AI took over and started the beatdown. Miami snagged a 44-43 lead before the end of the third after Williams went ice cold from three point range and Varejao missed a dunk and had another blocked. Doh!
The Heat extended their lead to five and appeared to have the contest under control after picking up a steal, but Varejao plastered Wade on a dunk attempt. Williams collected the rebound and was shoved to the ground but didn't lose the ball. From his ass he hit a flashing Varejao with the alley-oop pass and the Cavaliers had gotten up off the mat.
Cleveland ripped off the next 11 points, including two Williams threes with the basketball on fire, put the Cavs comfortably in control. LeBron broke a backboard to cool off his old team, but it was too little, too late by that point.
"The Cavs won a very emotional game 65-54," Bamzilla writes. "Mo Williams scored an astonishing 57 points off of an NBA record 17 3 pointers. Varejao had 12 points and 14 blocks. James had 29 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists to just miss the triple double in the loss."
And then it was back to reality. But here's the box score anyway!
Remember, all you have to do to get yourself featured in Box Scores' Game of the Week is take a picture of whatever you've been playing - crappy cell picture will do - write up a couple sentences about why it was so compelling, and email it to me, owenATkotakuDOTcom, with "Box Scores" in the subject header. I will star all submitters, regardless of whether they are published. So be sure to include include your commenter handle, or your commenter page URL if it is different from your handle.
Now the Kotaku Sports open thread commences with the sports TV highlights for today and tomorrow. All times are U.S. Eastern.
- Super Bowl XLV
Green Bay, the team of the 1960s faces Pittsburgh, the team of the 1970s, albeit in 2011. It's weird, I never know what the actual time of this game is until I think to look it up the day before. It's at 6 p.m. on FOX. Yes, there will be pre-game coverage galore. - College Basketball
No. 25 West Virginia and No. 12 Villanova just tipped off in Philadelphia on ESPN, in the day's only matchup of ranked teams. Other games of note include No. 10 Kentucky at Florida (ESPN, 9 p.m.) and UNLV at No. 8 BYU on Versus at 4 p.m. State visits Duke if you want to see us get our heads caved in. And at 4 p.m. on Fox Sports Net, No. 20 Washington faces Oregon in the House that Nike Built Across the Street from Track Town Pizza, if you want to get a look at that barfola floor design. - MMA
UFC 126 is tonight in Vegas; the undercard begins on Spike at 9 p.m.; the feature bout, Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, is on pay-per-view at 10. - NHL
The CBC offers a tripleheader today - Rangers at Montreal at 2 p.m.; Toronto at Buffalo or Edmonton at Columbus at 7 p.m.; and L.A. at Calgary in the 10 p.m. nightcap. Tomorrow, NBC flogs the Sidney-Ovie rivalry some more with the Penguins at Capitals, 12:30 p.m.
- NBA
ABC serves up Orlando at Boston as your pre-Super Bowl appetizer, 2:30 p.m. tomorrow.
Remember, you may send Game of the Week nominations to owenATkotakuDOTcom, and flag it "Box Scores" in the subject header. Please include your commenter handle for proper credit.