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Jerome James

"After Saturday night's game, everyone was saying, 'Great game, great game,'" said James after the Sonics practiced Wednesday. "I felt I played like crap. I missed 13 shots. I don't usually take 13 shots. To go 7-for-20 … I was at home and I was looking at that and I was upset. My best friend said to me, 'You had a great game, you had 17, 15 and five.' I said, 'Man, I missed 13 shots. Can you imagine, I shot 20 times, I could have had 40.' I said, 'Next game, I'm not going to miss shots like that. I'm going to take my time and make sure the ball goes in the basket.' I was in too big of a hurry Saturday. I just wanted to slow down (Tuesday) night, and my shots fell."

They fell in droves. In Game 2, James made nine of his 11 shot attempts to score 19 points, a playoffs career high for the second straight game. James added nine rebounds and once again keyed the Sonics 105-93 victory, giving them a 2-0 lead in the series.

"Last night, I just wanted to make myself available when Ray (Allen) and Rashard (Lewis) were double-teamed," said James. "Fortunately, when they were double-teamed, I was there to make the play."

"I was in too big of a hurry Saturday. I just wanted to slow down (Tuesday) night, and my shots fell." Otto Greule Jr./Getty Images

The Kings defensive strategy in this series has been to keep All-Stars Allen and Lewis from beating them, daring the Sonics role players to come up big. They've come through, no one more so than James. In Game 1, James was dominant on the offensive glass, pulling down eight offensive rebounds and getting several putbacks. In Game 2, working against single coverage in the post, James was unstoppable.

"All season long, they didn't shut Ray down, they didn't shut Rashard down," explained James. "We knew towards the end of the season that we had to come up with a post presence, because we knew in the playoffs they were going to shut down our transition baskets, slow down the pace of the game."

There has been speculation amongst the media that the Kings might have to adjust to James' success by sending a double-team at him as the series shifts to Sacramento for Friday's Game 3 (7:30 p.m., KONG 6/16). But based on Kings Coach Rick Adelman's comments before Game 2, that might not be the case. Adelman was asked about his own center, Greg Ostertag, having a big game against Sacramento in a similar situation in the 2003 Playoffs. (Then with the Jazz, Ostertag had 22 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks in Utah's lone win in the Kings 4-1 first-round victory.)

"We were basically playing five defenders against Utah, having Vlade (Divac) help against (forward Karl) Malone and (guard John) Stockton, and that gave Greg chances to get boards and shots where it opened up," Adelman said. "But over the course of the series, it wasn't consistent [Ostertag scored only two points the rest of the series], so you take a chance."

Before Game 2, Sacramento guard Cuttino Mobley was also dubious about James' chances of repeating his performance in Game 1.

"If he plays like that again, so be it," Mobley told the Sacramento Bee. "I seriously doubt it. Nothing against him. You're not Shaq (Miami center O'Neal)."

Sonics coaches and teammates have long known that James has the potential to perform as he has in this series, but his development has been slow at times. This season, James has taken strides in terms of consistency, starting all 80 games he played. While James' regular-season averages of 4.9 points and 3.0 rebounds were actually the lowest of his four-year Seattle career, that's because James accepted his role on the team - setting picks and anchoring the paint on defense, where he ranked fifth in the NBA with 4.0 blocks per 48 minutes.

Several people deserve to share in James' recent successes. Sonics assistant coach Jack Sikma, the best center in franchise history, has worked with James over the last two seasons to refine his post moves, which resulted in career-best 50.9% shooting from the field this season.

"Jack has gotten across to me that one-on-one, nobody in the NBA's going to stop me around the basket," James said. "That's most guys in the NBA. You get them that close to the basket, give them one-on-one coverage, 60% chance they're going to make something good happen. Understanding that, positioning myself first before I receive the ball, has allowed me to get in a comfort zone where I don't have to take 10 dribbles. I don't want to dribble anymore. If I can just turn and shoot over people, I would rather do that."

"In the locker room, all my teammates were coming over and congratulating me, high-fiving me," said James. "That means more to me than anything else." Jeff Reinking/NBAE/Getty

Sonics co-captains Allen and Lewis deserve some of the credit for James' maturation off the court.

"I’ve had veteran leaders like Ray and Rashard consistently in my ear, night in and night out, practice, game, pregame, postgame, telling me what I did wrong," said James after Game 2.

Now, those same teammates are congratulating James and telling him what he's done right in this series.

"In the locker room, all my teammates were coming over and congratulating me, high-fiving me," said James. "That means more to me than anything else. That means more to me than all the attention, all the accolades, everything that everybody's saying right now."

"It's been awesome to see him really come to the life these last two games," said Sonics guard Luke Ridnour. "He's had a good season, but just to see what he's done here is showing what he's capable of doing."

Now, when James takes the court, he does so not only for himself but his teammates as well.

"Right now, I just don't want to let the guys down," James said. "We've worked so hard this season, we've sacrificed so much. Everybody's put aside their egos. Everyone has come and put a team basketball mentality first. For me now to have this much expected of me, this much demanded of me, I just can't see letting my teammates down."

There may be a little something more than that to James' success. He shared before Game 2 that, prior to Game 1, he switched from drinking coffee before games, as was his custom, to Piranha energy drink. Asked whether he'd be taking any with him to Sacramento, James answered, "A whole case."