Both NBA conference final series’ are currently at 2-1, with the Detroit Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs leading in their respective conferences. Both teams were up 2-0, and it looked like they would or could make short work of their opponents (the Cleveland Cavaliers and Utah Jazz, respectively). Yet when all seemed lost, the stars came out to shine for Jazz and Cavs, willing their teams to their first wins of the series.

Deron Williams, in only his second year in the NBA, has had his coming out party during the playoffs and really stepped it up in game 3 while scoring 31 points and dishing the ball to help get the Jazz on track and make it a series again.

Back over in the East, LeBron James took a big hit from the media and fans when he passed up on open dunk / layup with 5 seconds left to tie game one, opting to kick it out to a wide open Donyell Marshall instead, which Marshall missed. James couldn’t shake off the critics leading to an awful game 2 (seeing his team blow a big lead and only scoring 19 points himself). So the Cavaliers franchise player took heat and had his doubters challenge him… so what’s a franchise player to do in front of a home crowd in Game 3? Drop 30 plus points, 9 assists and and 9 rebounds to lead the Cavs to a W, moving the series to 2-1.

The Pistons and Spurs are both capable of winning the next games and putting the series away, but the Jazz and Cavs both showed some guts in game 3 of their series’ and gave their fans hope that it could be long series’ ahead for all parties involved.