A few members of the Wine and Gold Road Crew, moments after the Cavaliers double-overtime109-107 victory at the Palace in Game 5 of theEastern Conference Finals Thursday night.

By Matthew K. Weiland

IT'S NOT NECESSARILY AN EASY SELL. You wanna drive up to Detroit, into the bowels of Motor City mania, and check out Game 5? You wanna sit through three hours of Deeeeee-troit basketball and Sheeeeeed and try anyway to steal one outta Auburn Hills? You wanna go into the belly of the beast clad in your Wine and Gold colors, maybe get spit on, maybe get in a fight - maybe end up spending the night in jail - all so you can maybe bear witness to history and see one for the ages?

You bet I do.

And so we went, a caravan of Cavalier karma, Motown bound full of sound and fury, a convoy of hopeful accessories to a monumental grand larceny. You're gonna wear your gear. You're gonna cheer among the jeers. You're gonna stand tall behind enemy walls. You're gonna say it often and say it loud - I'm with the Cavs and I'm proud!

Sheed must bleed! Sheed must bleed! Sheed must bleed!

What're you looking at?

Come on down to Cleveland Saturday and watch us clinch!

AND SO IT WENT THURSDAY NIGHT, the back and the forth, the grinding it through and the gutting it out, until the moments of transcendence...one overtime...two overtimes - a slam here, a trey there, a crucial stop...a night when such a performance that once was described as Jordanesque can now be considered Jamesian.

And along the way, an interesting thing has happened: We from this town of heartbreak, we who have scarred sports hearts that we don't give easily to hope nor confidence, these hearts have become filled with both. There has become a sense of can-do. We're down seven with three minutes to play? No problem. We've been here before. We know what to do. Now's the time. Now's our time. We can do it!

And for a frenzied night in Detroit Rock City for a clan of Cleveland emigres, it felt like our time. Feels like our time. This sense of hope. Of can-do. This sense of why not? We've emerged from the belly of the beast stronger, wiser, more resolute. The gods seem to be smiling upon us. The NBA Finals beckon. Riverwalk awaits. And for Cavalier nation, the possibility of a championship seems stronger and closer than ever before. You feel like risking it? You feel like believing? You feel like staying on the roller coaster?

You wanna come along?

You bet you do.

A MOMENT FOR THE AGES: