Persistent James keys win for Cavs

Cleveland beat the Wizards, 93-86, in their first-round series opener.

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CLEVELAND — Called out before the game — whacked across the face and knocked down during it — LeBron James didn’t give an inch Saturday afternoon against the Wizards.

The Cavs All-Star forward kept coming at them and did what he always seems to do in the playoffs, beat the Wizards.

Six points by James in the final 97 seconds carried the Cavs to a 93-86 win over the Wizards at Quicken Loans Arena in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

“This series is definitely going to be rough,” said James, who received several hard fouls and delivered a few shots of his own. “It’s going to be challenging. It’s going to be physical.”

Toughness throughout the game by James and his teammates helped the Cavs beat Washington for the seventh straight time in the postseason. After being taken out of the playoffs the past two years by the Cavs, the Wizards are quite open in their belief it won’t happen again. And, of course, there’s DeShawn Stevenson calling James overrated a month ago.

But once the game tipped, aside from some brief exchanges and one pushing-and-shoving match late in the first half, the Cavs kept their focus on playing defense and winning.

“I thought our guys did a nice job of keeping their poise and composure,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said, referring to their ability to control their emotions and answer Washington runs.

Down the stretch, James had all the answers on his way to 32 points on 12-of-19 shooting. He scored on back-to-back drives to break an 84-84 tie.

He beat Stevenson off the dribble each time.

“With a player like that, it’s hard to stop him,” Washington’s Gilbert Arenas said. “... There’s really no answer for him. Hopefully he passes the ball and somebody else tries to beat us.”

James scored on two similar plays out of a set that injured guard Eric Snow suggested to Brown. “We went to it early in the game and it worked, so we decided to go to it late,” Brown said.

Each time, James started out in the left corner, away from the action. He then got screens from Zydrunas Ilgauskas and headed to the middle of the floor to make things happen.

On the first one, he caught the ball at the foul line, drove to his right and got by Stevenson. James found 7-foot Brendan Haywood and 6-9 Antawn Jamison in his path but still banked in a 2-footer.

“It was a difficult shot,” James said.

The next one wasn’t any easier.

On that play, James got the ball outside the 3-point arc on the left side after it was deflected. With the shot clock at :04, James drove left, got by Stevenson and flipped in a 9-foot runner with 55.3 seconds left.

The Cavs led 88-84. The Wizards had no answers, going scoreless for more than four minutes. Delonte West put the game away by going 4-for-4 at the line in the final 15 seconds.