Oh, my

What can I say about LeBron James? He had exactly two points after one quarter tonight, but wound up with 50 in tonight's 119-105 win over the Knicks. So he scored 16 points a quarter after the first. That's more than any other Cavalier had in the game (Damon Jones was the team's second-leading scorer with 15, and six of those came on two meaningless 3-pointers as time was running out).

A semi-big deal's being made of the fan who went out on the court to congratulate LeBron during a stoppage in play with 23 seconds left in the game, wearing a home white LeBron Cavaliers jersey (the Cavs, of course, were wearing their road blues). LeBron actually shook the man's hand and listened to whatever he was spewing at him, and said nice things about him after the game. On one hand, I hate to see that kind of behavior encouraged; on the other, if you're LeBron, what do you say about someone who risked jail time to shake his hand for scoring half a hundred at the Garden?

ESPN's SportsCenter tonight has a clip of LeBron mouthing the word "fifty" to Spike Lee, who of course sits courtside at most of the Knicks' home games, before he'd even gotten to 40. My question: Is there a camera on LeBron at all times when he's on the court, or just when he's in the vicinity of a basketball-loving filmmaker?

LeBron and Kobe Bryant are, as we know, the leading candidates for MVP this year. On ESPN2's "First Take" this morning, there was some talk of Chris Paul or Tim Duncan being strong candidates, but based on what I've read, I think LeBron and Kobe have most of the delegates so far. Interestingly, LeBron's 50 tonight was the second-highest point total for an individual player in the NBA this year. The highest? A 52-point effort by Kobe Bryant on Sunday, March 2. Was LeBron responding to that tonight? If so, he missed it by a bucket.