ORLANDO, Fla. — Not even LeBron James can end the Cleveland heartache.

James couldn’t lift his Cavaliers past the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference finals, falling, 103-90, in Game 6 on Saturday night, breaking the hearts of Clevelanders desperate for a pro sports championship.
With the closing seconds ticking away, the crowd chanted, “Na Na Na Na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye.” James was the first one off the floor when the final buzzer sounded, without shaking hands with anyone on the Magic, clearly angry and disappointed with the Cavs’ playoff exit.
James scored a very quiet 25 points on 8-of-20 shooting, his lowest point total of the series and tied for his lowest point total of the entire playoffs.
As much as James tried, Cleveland must continue to wait for that elusive title. The Browns were the last pro team to win for the city of Cleveland, back in 1964. James tried to deliver a title in 2007, too, and came up short in the NBA Finals against San Antonio.
“We had a heck of a season, but we had one goal in mind and we came up short,” Coach Mike Brown said. “We came up short because we didn’t execute early on, on both ends of the floor. It wasn’t about lack of effort, it wasn’t about a lack of passion, it wasn’t about a lack of heart. Our guys had that. They displayed that the entire year.
“We dug a hole a little too deep early on, which took us out of our comfort zone.”
Cleveland fans everywhere thought this would be the year the streak would end. The Cavs came into the playoffs with the best record in the regular season, winning a franchise-record 66 games. James won his first MVP, and Brown won coach-of-the-year honors.
They swept through the first two rounds of the playoffs, easily dispatching Detroit and Atlanta with sweeps in each series.
Then Orlando came along.
Though Cleveland staved off elimination with a victory at home in Game 5 behind James’ triple-double, the Cavs simply had no answers in Game 6.
James and his teammates looked tired, and dug themselves a hole they simply couldn’t erase. Plus, they had no idea how to stop Dwight Howard.
Cleveland trailed 58-40 at halftime and looked like a beaten team. James could have been found on the back of a milk carton in the second quarter, when he didn’t score.
Howard, meanwhile, couldn’t be stopped. He dunked, he drew fouls, he got Anderson Varejao into foul trouble and ended up scoring a monstrous 40 points on 14-of-21 shooting. Fouling didn’t help much, either. Howard made 12-of-16 at the free-throw line.
“We tried to double-team him,” Brown said. “When we double-teamed him, he did a heck of a job passing out of the double team. When we didn’t double-team him, he did a heck of a job scoring. He was a monster tonight.”
Now the Cavs might be running out of time for James to bring them a championship. James has the option to forgo the final year of his contract and become a free agent in 2010, and wide speculation has him playing in New York.
Heartbreaking for Cleveland indeed.