A couple quick thoughts on the game, because I'm heading out the door.

• Talk about taking charge.  That's the Caron we've all been waiting for this entire series.  He took a few bad shots, but we can live with that, because he's normally so efficient. 
  
• Biggest stat of the game: Cleveland held only a 40-39 edge on the glass. 
  
• Our guards deserve a ton of credit as well.  AD and Stevenson combined for 29 points tonight, and supplied all the complimentary scoring we needed.
• We need more from Jamison and Haywood.  This was Brendan's worst game of the series.  He shot just 1-of-6 and had just five boards in 30 minutes.  Jamison, meanwhile, rebounded well, but has not done anything offensively.  He's trying to score in isolation too much instead of moving without the basketball.  Enough trying to post up Ben Wallace.  Cut into the middle and use your quickness.
• I don't want to talk about Gilbert Arenas' absence.  Can't we accept a win without bringing the subject up.
• Waiting For Next Year has a post criticizing Mike Brown's late-game play calls.  Funny how those same calls gave Cleveland the win in Game 4.  Brown deserves blame for the larger Cleveland offense, but this seems a bit unfair. 
  

Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

Yup....I was one of those working stiffs rushing to get home for the 6 pm start time. Just as I was getting near my bus stop, Beat It by Michael Jackson came on my ipod....my 'Top 5000 Songs' playlist; I assumed this to be a good sign. I made it in my apartment just in time to see Big Z look like Hakeem Olajuwon before throwing up a fade-away on Haywood heading into a commercial break at the 9 minute mark. 5-4 Wizards.

8:36: Coming out the timeout, DeShawn Stevenson throws up some gar-báge.

Halfway through the first quarter, the Wiz are up 2. I still haven't gotten a feel from this team. I see Caron Butler hustling...Haywood is making some baller moves...but I can't tell if this team wants to win or not. Of course, they've been so inconsistent from quarter to quarter this year....who knows.

The Cleveland crowd seems tame. Stevenson, of course, gets the boo treatment, but it doesn’t seem very strong....maybe the confident attitude of the Cavs has given the fans a sense of complacency. It's in the bag I guess....

4:08: Wow. Caron gets a steal after Wally was lazy in recovering the ball....goes down, looks to travel, definitely got fouled...but the refs give Caron the continuation for the And 1. He was in the act of shooting, but I'm not sure they should have counted that.....even though the foul did cause the travel. I assume the refs made the right call. 16-11 Wizards.

Team - Gilbert < Team + Caron Butler.....for now.

3:54: Oh god, here we go. God damned LeBron James is a sweetheart.

He drives baseline....Darius Songaila obviously fouls him...as both of their arms are locked up....LeBron attempts to pull his arm away and in the process ends up causing Songaila's arm to hit him in the neck/side-face......a complete accident. LeBron acts as if Johnny Lawrence (you probably know him as Billy Zabka) just swept the neck instead of the leg.

Players gather....Anderson Varejao plays instigator and swats Stevenson's arm away for some reason....of course Stevenson overreacts and swats Andy's arm away. Jamison gets heated.

Somehow Wally shoots two techs...still not sure what happened. I know this: LeBron overreacted and the referees overreacted in turn. [Later,  video evidence would reveal that LeBron checked where he did not get hit....and he just received the Sylvester Stallone award for bad acting.]

Dan Gilbert's friend (or at least a dude he knows sitting next to him) throws a towel at DeShawn and DOESN'T get kicked out. Essentially, Gilbert tells security not to toss him. Oh really now.....?

In the meantime, the Wizards have been called for two offensive fouls (Songaila and Stevenson)...didn't really see them.

1:55: It's cleared up that Songaila received a tech (that's just crazy)....and Varejao and Stevenson each got techs...which was justifiable.

1:28: Haywood gets called for another offensive foul....no one could argue that it wasn't a flop on Varejao.....terrible officiating thus far. This is unbelievable. Phil Chenier even points out that the Brazilian Spaz flopped the opposite way that Haywood was going.

Somehow the Wizards are up 20-16 with 8 turnovers in the first quarter....of course at least three of those came from offensive fouls.

0:01: Caron Butler nails a smooth three to end the first, his 3rd. And here I was thinking that I was coming home to watch a basketball game. Wizards up 23-16, Caron Butler has 14 points.

2nd Quarter

Reggie Miller and Marv Albert are absolutely unbelievable....I'm actually disgusted that they are assuming that Songaila intentionally "punched" LeBron. I don't think there is any doubt in Miller's mind that there was a punch there. They actually wanted the refs to review the play and throw Darius out. Perhaps they weren't privy to the same conclusive replays as Comcast....I don't care, they can both still go to hell.

10:28: Unbelievable shot by Caron after losing the ball....I can't even begin to describe what he did..caught the loose rock in the air and then threw the ball in with the clock running down...or something like that. 25-21 Wizards.

I guess the Wiz are winning and stuff....at the next timeout, they are up 30-25. I am still baffled, flabbergasted, shocked at Marv Albert and Reggie Miller. Not only did they think that Darius Songaila's play was a punch, but Albert mocked Eddie Jordan's opinion when the TNT sideline reporter interviewed him about the play.....sarcastically saying something to the effect "Yea, like LeBron James' head went into Darius Songaila's fist." Need I remind everyone that not only does "Marvelous" Marv enjoy wearing women's underwear, but he also has taken part in threesomes involving another dude. Add Marv and Reggie to the list of hack jobs . 

At least the Wizards have seemed to keep their concentration after that absurdity....now I suppose I need to do the same. Marv Albert will not hear the end of this.

[NOTE: I am not whining that a call was made against Songaila....he did foul LeRootyPoo. And while the technical was unjust, I'm not even whining about that. No, I am simply complaining and pointing out the ridiculousness of Reggie Miller and Marv Albert]

Does Gil want to be a Wizard? (TNT Sideline Interview) "Of course...I'd love to come back if they want me to come back."

5:22: DeShawn hits a three....we need him to shut his mouth, play with a chip on his shoulder, use the boos to power him, and step his game up. 37-32 Wiz.

4:44: Empty possession...Mason a runner? Never his shot. Caron misses a fader.

4:21: Stevenson is not feeling his face very well....he nails an open three from the corner....just like you and me, this one was made by penetration. 40-34 Wiz.

3:22: Too many outside shots...Caron takes a bad one, low shot clock though...AJ hustles for a board, gets it out to Stevenson who takes a three himself....miss. The Wiz really need to take advantage of 2nd chances.

TNT is reporting that DeShawn went to a Cleveland mall yesterday with 5 teammates. Why would he do that and why would the Wizards coaching staff allow him to do that? (assuming they knew)....DeShawn Stevenson is not making it easy for me to like him at all. One, what the hell is an NBA player doing at a mall in the first place? Two, DeShawn is doing nothing but looking for trouble.....he's such an idiot. I'd also like to know who went to the mall with him. I'd bet that Antawn Jamison and Antonio Daniels weren't among those who did.

2:26: I seriously can't believe the Wizards have a 42-39 lead.....Cleveland gave some back court pressure and played it tight once the Wiz were in the half court....lack of composure led to turnover #11, shot clock violation.

2:14: But the Cavs make an unforced turnover coming back down the court.

1:55: Turnover again...Butler drives, Haywood rolls, but the pass was too far behind him. The sand paper offense.....not smooth.

1:20: A gimpy AD, who got tripped by Gibson a couple possessions ago, gets a block on Boobie from behind and coasts up court for the layup. He has to check out. 44-39 Wiz.

1:00: Oh my god.....turnovers are crazy....Stevenson got to the basket, passed, and Haywood just bobbled the ball out of bounds.

0:00: Butler misses a trey on LeBron to end the 1st half....it looks like Eddie wanted him to drive as he had plenty of time. Wizards up 45-43 at the half.

Half Stats:

1. The main thing the Wiz have going for them is hot shooting, 17-33
2. The Wizards are also winning the battle of the boards, 16-14 (although the Cavs have 6 offensive to 4 for DC)
3. We all know that turnovers are a killer, 13-9 Wizards (although both teams have 9 points off turnovers)
4. The Potomac Rainmaker chipped in with 6 points off the bench....and he didn't even attempt a three.
5. Caron had 16 points, Stevenson had 11
6. Big Z had 12, LeBaby LeTravel LeBoo-Boo LeBron had 10
7. Bobble-hands Haywood had a +7
8. LeBron James had a -4

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Clearly, a big win tonight.  Sadly, a lot of the focus for the next few games will be over Darius Songaila's punch/slap/whatever you want to call it.  There's a few people who think he will end up getting suspended for Game 6, but before Stu Jackson puts down his ruling, hopefully he considers the following evidence...

Continue reading this post »

UPDATE: Gilbert is done for the season.  (HT: Mr. Ben Q)

No analysis, because it's all here . 

Some pregame links:

Waiting For Next Year: An interview with Dan Steinberg.   Props to those guys, who have commented here civilly and have put forth some great content this year. They get the BF stamp of approval.

Wizards Insider:  LeBron assessed retroactive flagrant foul.

DC Sports Bog : DeShawn dons a Michael Vick jersey.  Fanhouse is outraged, We're Off to See the Wizards is disappointed.  Me?  I don't care.  He can wear whatever he wants.

DC Optimist : Things we have "Witnessed."

True Hoop : Link roundup and thoughts on Gilbert taking the last shot in Game 4.

Brian Windhorst:  Give the Wizards credit.

There's really nothing else to say.

When when we come back, here's our motivation. (HT: The Bog).

If there's one stereotype about DC fans, it's that we blame ourselves and don't give credit to the teams that beat us.  Oh sure, all fans do that, but I think we do it a lot more than most. 

At least that's what non-DC fans tell me all the time.

But true or not, perhaps it's time to give some credit to what Cleveland is doing in this series, if only because this post can serve as a jumping-off point to ideas about how we can shock the world.

Perimeter defense

When the series began, I knew that we would have a lot of trouble winning the inside game.  Cleveland's bigs don't score, but they rebound and are very physical inside.  Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood were certainly behind the 8-ball here.

Still, I was confident because I didn't think Cleveland's perimeter defense was good enough to stop us.  I didn't think they had played with the same intensity on the perimeter as they did last season, and that would bode well for Gilbert, Caron, DeShawn, AD, and Roger.  I felt we would be able to get into our Princeton offense pretty easily, and once that happened, I didn't think they would be able to cut off both our drives to the basket and our perimeter shots.  I figured they'd have to pick their poison, because, like in 2006, they wouldn't be quick enough to guard us off the dribble. 

Instead, Cleveland's perimeter defense has been outstanding.  Look at the shooting percentages.   Gilbert's at 39 percent.  Antawn has hit only 4 of 17 threes, while Caron is just 1 for 9 from three.  AD's at 41 percent.  Take away Game 3, and DeShawn is just 5 of 17 from three-point range.  Gilbert might be banged up, but Cleveland deserves a ton of credit for those numbers.  They've taken away the Wizards' improved perimeter shooting game, and that's been absolutely huge.

That leads to the second point ...

Forcing us into a one-on-one game

With our perimeter game taken away, our best chance at scoring is getting to the basket and drawing fouls.  In 2006, we were able to do that, because we had three healthy stars that all had an individual advantage over whoever was guarding them.  Additionally, one could argue we had been playing that style all season, so we were used to it.

This time?  Gilbert's been out all season, and Caron's missed 24 games.  Both are clearly out of sorts, and both have struggled driving on West and LeBron James (though a lot of that is the Cavs defense).  That has made our offense way too one-dimensional.  The Princeton works against good defense teams (see Boston), so we need to be more patient staying within it.

As mentioned above, Cleveland has done a great job in forcing us to begin our motion too far away from the basket.  When that happens, it's easier for Cleveland to stay with us on off-ball screens.  At that point, instead of quickly running a pick-and-roll or making a quick pass, our guards are waiting indecisively, bogging down our flow.  They're then forced to make a play, and Cleveland has done a great job cutting off our penetration. 

Worse yet, after a while, we become frustrated and take the first good shot offered instead of remaining patient.  If we run the offense long enough, we have had success.  Our guys need to remember that instead of jacking threes early in the shot clock.

Still, Cleveland's defense deserves a ton of credit.  They may have found the blueprint to stopping our Princeton offense.

They're making perimeter shots

I think we've done a great job defensively, to be honest.  The gameplan should have been to pack the middle to cut off LeBron's penetration, and we've done just that.  LeBron's counting numbers were good in Game 4, but I'll live with him taking eight threes.  Our best chance was to hope Cleveland, like they had all season, struggled with their perimeter shooting. 

It hasn't happened.  Two guys are killing us this series: Delonte West and Daniel Gibson.  They're shooting a combined 16 of 31 from three-point range this series, including 9 of 15 in Game 4. Gibson has the ability to do this, but West has really been the one who has stepped up.  I worried that he was too much of a ball-dominator to play with LeBron James, but this series has proved the opposite.

To a certain extent, there's little we can do about this.  If the alternative to LeBron dunking on us is for Cleveland to launch threes, so be it.  Make the other guys beat you.  But we can do this while still watching those two carefully.  While those guys are tearing us up, LeBron is 5 for 20 from three, Wally is 3 of 13, and Devin Brown is 4 for 12.  Make those guys beat us from three.  When West and Gibson are teeing up, close out on them vehemently and force them to put the ball on the floor.  San Antonio did that to Gibson in the finals last year, which limited his effectiveness.

But still, the motto defensively has correctly been "Let anyone but LeBron beat us."  They have so far. 

Solutions

You guys brainstorm on these, but just a couple ideas.

1. Offensively, be patient.  Keep the pace down, and don't jack quick threes.  If we keep the pace down, it'll mitigate our poor transition defense, and there is ample evidence that suggests we can break Cleveland's defense down if we're patient, even though they've been so effective.
2. When we are forced into isolation, move quickly.  Don't spend so much time surveying the floor.
3. Defensively, don't let them swing the ball to West and Gibson.  If Devin Brown is open for three, let him shoot it.  If West or Gibson does get a chance from three, rush out on them very quickly, forcing them to put the ball on the floor.  It doesn't matter if we look silly jumping into the first row on a pump fake.
4. Keep them off the defensive boards.  We were doing fine until Game 4.  If we force them into jumpers that don't come off penetration, that'll make things easier.  Perhaps occasionally playing the high pick and roll straight up, instead of trapping, will help this.
5. Keep mixing between zone and man.  That has worked in this series.
6. Turn LeBron into a jump shooter.  Eight threes again would be nice.