Cavs better win at Verizon or it’s uphill on horizon
Cleveland is eager to put its lopsided Game 3 loss in the rear view mirror.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After the Cleveland Cavaliers’ worst playoff loss ever, coach Mike Brown got a text message from his junior college coach.
“’One hiccup does not mean indigestion,”’ said Brown, recalling the note from Tom Bennett of Mesa Community College in Arizona. “I got a nice little laugh out of him. It’s the truth. It’s up to us to come out and play better in Game 4.”
The Cavaliers still have a 2-1 lead over the Washington Wizards in the first-round series, but they are eager to move past the 108-72 loss entering today’s game at the Verizon Center. LeBron James scored 22 points, but the Wizards double-teamed him and kept him from roaming the lane. He was just 2-for-4 at the free throw line.
“They did a good job of shrinking the floor,” James said. “We need to make more outside jumpers. We shot 2-for-16 from the 3-point line, which is going to allow them to sit in the paint more and not allow me to get into the paint.”
The Wizards’ scheme worked, cutting James’ production after he scored 32 and 30 points in the first two games.
“He didn’t have full steam riding down the lane and getting to the basket and getting fouls,” said DeShawn Stevenson, who led the Wizards with 19 points and has developed a bit of a feud with James. “We just tried to take the ball out of his hands.”
Only one other player scored in double figures for Cleveland, reserve Devin Brown, who had 10 points. Joe Smith said the balance needs to change in Game 4.
“They did what they could to get the ball out of LeBron’s hands, of course, but at the same time everybody else has got to be able to step up and knock down shots,” Smith said.
As for the Wizards, the largest margin of victory in a playoff game in franchise history was just what they needed after being handed their Game 2 lashing. They appeared to be on track for another swift playoff exit at the hands of the Cavaliers when they were humiliated in a 116-86 loss at Quicken Loans Arena in Game 2. It was their eighth straight postseason defeat to Cleveland.
But with more than 20,000 fans packing the Verizon Center for a “white out” — among them former Secretary of State Colin Powell and rapper Soulja Boy — Washington followed up its lackluster showing with an about-face.
Antonio Daniels said it was the loudest he had ever heard the arena in three years in Washington.
“When you walk in there and that crowd is going crazy like that, you feel like as a team, as a group, that you can accomplish anything,” he said.
Washington settled down in its last game. The Wizards forced Cleveland into 23 turnovers — more than it had in the first two games combined — and held James in check.
“We realized we were more making excuses than just going out there and playing the game,” forward Antawn Jamison said.