Basketball On The Internet.

THE number of wins Australian NBA fans now need for another Aussie to become a Championship-winner is six, following Cleveland's 97-89 upset today of the Hawks in Atlanta.

LeBron James' Cavaliers took Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Final in solid fashion after J.R. Smith cut loose with a playoff career-high 28 points, including 8-of-12 threes.

They led by as many as 18 points before Kent Bazemore stole some highlights and Jeff Teague (27 points) ignited a fightback that drew the deficit back to four.

James then drove the lane to slam down an emphatic exclamation point on the victory.

The way the Hawks ducked for cover as the seas parted for James' attack would have made Moses proud and leaves the Hawks with some soul-searching to do.

They also have to deal with the potential loss of DeMarre Carroll, who injured his left knee late in the game and is definitely questionable for Game 2.

James finished with 31 points, eight rebounds and six assists, although the Cavs' attack seriously spluttered to a halt late in the game while his isolations became the sole offensive focus.

In the end though, it made no difference as Cleveland took one step closer to a return to the Finals, still needing three wins to get there.

So does Golden State, which leads Houston 1-0 with Game 2 tomorrow, which means Australia is six wins away from seeing Andrew Bogut and the Warriors against Matty Dellavedova and the Cavs, producing a "sure thing" NBA champion.

Signs All Is Right With the World:

“I’m really excited for Delly (Matthew Dellavedova),” Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis told me today.

“He’s a great example of everything you speak to young athletes about – work hard and good things will happen to you.

“He’s done everything right to get where he is.

“You look at his success and you see the world is right.”

For more with Andrej, check out: http://bit.ly/1EkUXdZ

Signs Not All is Right With the World

Disappointing most reports fixated today on Andrew Bogut's near $2million bonus for being selected in the NBA's All-Defensive Second Team.

I would have thought the biggest piece of news there is that Bogut, our historic first NBA No.1 draft pick in 2005, a decade later became the first Australian to be selected for any sort of NBA individual accolade.