LeBron's big game a "coming-out party" for Barclays Center?

"Is it always like this here?"

That, Adam Silver told the Times' Harvey Araton, was the question two people asked him about Barclays Center after they had accompanied the commissioner to the Nets-Heat game Monday.  The question was raised because, SIlver intimated, the place was rocking.

Silver called the game, with its ups and downs and historic performance by the game's greatest player, "a bit of a coming-out party" for the two-year-old Barclays Center.  Araton writes of the night...

It felt like a baptism of playoff greatness that can help build a brand even when the hometown fans are left limp from losing.

"Two people were with me who haven’t been here this entire season and one said, ‘Is it always like this here?’ " Silver said after James scored 49 points and passed out of a late-game double team to carry Miami to a 102-96 victory over the Nets and a commanding 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

The Times basketball columnist described the commissioner as being "thrilled" by what he saw in Brooklyn, a welcome antidote to the other issue he was dealing with that night: Donald Sterling's latest bizarre broadside.  As others have noted, the Nets second round appearance in their new digs has been, dare we say it, a game-changer.

• A Postseason Full of Spotlights, Some Glaring - Harvey Araton - New York Times