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Delonte West went for a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 5.4 seconds left to give the Cavaliers a 100-97 victory and a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series.

Delonte West had his best playoff game in his career with 21 points included five 3-pointers.

Lebron had his usual 34 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists but was limited with 5 fouls.

DeShawn Stevenson was hit with a flagrant foul in the second quarter when he hit Lebron James on the head. James kept his balance and got up and stepped toward Stevenson. They exchanged words but teammates stepped in between.

“If we was on the park, something definitely would have escalated,” James said. “But, you know, I guess that’s what they want to do. They want to hurt LeBron James this series. It ain’t working.”

“That’s how it goes,” Stevenson said. “It was a big game for us.”

After that, the Cavaliers outscored the Wizards 15-4 to end the the first half.
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– Brian Windhorst said, “this game was the sixth time LeBron James has beaten the Wizards with a pass or a shot in the final minute of a playoff game. His short jumper in Game 3 in 2006, his baseline layup past Antawn Jamison in Game 5 the same year, his pass out of the double team to Larry Hughes, who passed to Damon Jones for the winner in Game 6 (hockey assist). Last year in Game 3 he hit Sasha Pavlovic out of a trap for a 3-point to clinch Game 3 here at the Verizon Center. Then this year his two shots in Game 1 and the pass to Delonte West today.”

– LeBron James became the 170th player in NBA history to record 1,000 career points in the postseason. He becomes the 3rd youngest in NBA history to reach that milestone, trailing only Kobe Bryant (22 years and 263 days old) and Tony Parker (23 years and 23 days old). James is 23 years and 119 days old Sunday.

– Bullets Forever on the Wizards play, “Gilbert sucked in the first half, killing the Wizards with his turnovers, and it was his man (Delonte West) who hit the game-winner, but if he doesn’t hit that impossible shot, we don’t even have a chance to win. DeShawn did an admirable job on LeBron, forcing him into the right spots in the Wizards’ zone, but his terrible shot selection down the stretch caused wasted possessions. Caron Butler was the man in the fourth quarter, and also played great defense on LeBron, but he was nowhere to be found in the first three quarters. Jamison and Haywood both played admirably offensively, but provided no resistance as Cleveland grabbed all the offensive rebounds they needed. Roger Mason and AD were great, but didn’t play enough, Darius Songaila was awful on the glass, and Andray Blatche even worse, but both helped the offense with their movement.”

– The latest on Lebron James vs DeShawn, Jay-Z Makes a DeShawn Diss Record
“The most ridiculously entertaining and completely ridiculous subplot of this Washington Wizards-Cleveland Cavaliers playoff series has reached another stratosphere, after my moles informed me that hip hop legend Jay-Z made a diss record on Friday about DeShawn Stevenson.

You read that right. Jay-Z, the Jigga Man, H-to-the-Izzo, Mr. Beyonce Knowles, made diss record about DeShawn Stevenson that was played at the D.C. night spot Love on Friday night, according to several witnesses. I have not heard the song or the lyrics but I was told that Jay-Z freestyled over the beat for the track, “Blow The Whistle” by rapper Too Short.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdluT_DOxw&feature=related[/youtube]

Should DeShawn get suspended in game 5?
“people who know DeShawn have told me they think he’s crazy enough to attempt to go head hunting for LeBron in Game 5 if he thinks it is over just because of how personal this has all gotten. We’ll see.”

– Is it over yet?
LeBron James was asked whether the Wizards could come back and make a series of it.

“Do I think they can do it?” James asked before offering his blunt answer. “No.”

Brian Windhorst said Wizards’ fans think it’s over:
“Seemed to be three emotions coming from folks at Verizon Center. One, they were frustrated they’d just lost another close game to the Cavs, who they are still sure they are better than. Two, they think LeBron is a cry baby for complaining about the fouls. Three, this series is over.”

Cavs seek intensity to match Wizards
They looked extremely uncomfortable in their blowout loss to the Washington Wizards in Game 3, shrinking their series lead to 2-1. The Wizards played like their season was on the line, and their fans backed them up. The Cavs’ response to the challenge was much weaker than expected.

Cavs must ask themselves why they played so poorly
All the talk of a sweep and going to Boston can stop.  It was premature anyway.  The Cavs had won two games, but in a seven-game series the home team is supposed to win the first two games. Maybe being embarrassed will be a good thing. Get it over with and out of the system. There is, after all, another game in the same venue two days hence.

Injured Arenas hopes to play in Game 4
Gilbert Arenas said he had a bone bruise and a pinched nerve in his troublesome left knee, but he didn’t rule himself out of Sunday’s Game 4 against the Cavaliers, who still lead the best-of-seven first-round playoff series, 2-1.   “You’ve got to make sacrifices, and if I have to play three or four minutes to get everybody excited, then that’s what I have to do,” Arenas said Friday.

James: Cavs Not Aggressive Enough
LeBron James doesn’t think the Cleveland Cavaliers will have to do anything special to get a win in Washington during this series. He won’t have to invite his good friend, hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, so that it will inspire his teammates the way the presence of one-hit wonder Soulja Boy seemed to fire up the Washington Wizards during the Cavaliers’ 108-72 loss on Thursday night.

Cleveland Cavaliers Have No Chance in the Playoffs: Look Again
This time around the Cavaliers, after getting to the NBA Finals last season, have a harder road. They face a Washington team with a lot of fire because there is some serious bad blood between the two teams.   If the Cavaliers are to get past Washington for the third straight year in a row, the likely opponent in the Eastern Conference Semi Finals would be the Boston Celtics.

The Cavaliers took it on the chin at the Verizon center as the Washington Wizards blew out them out 108-72. LeBron led all scores with 22 points on 10-19 shooting. However, Butler, Jamison, Stevenson and Mason all had 15 or more points. The next leading scorer for the Cavaliers Devin Brown with 10 points.

After game 3 dud, Cavs must Soulja on
The Cavs that you watched for six months didn’t just disappear, which you perhaps might have thought after Game 2. They are still very capable of losing their minds on offense and playing extremely passive on the road. Considering the two steps forward, one step back nature of the regular season it was perfect irony that the Cavs backed up their largest playoff win in franchise history with their most lopsided loss. Par for the course.

Blinded by the white: Cavaliers routed by energized Wizards
Chants of “over-rated” directed at LeBron James, who had 22 points, filled the arena. In attendance was DeAndre Way, better known as Soulja Boy, who wore the jersey of Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson. This was Stevenson’s counter to James’ response to Stevenson’s regular-season dismissal. James compared himself to hip hop mogul Jay-Z and Stevenson to Soulja Boy, considered by some rap purist as a one-hit wonder.

Getting the Word, James Has ‘Fun’ With the Fans
But as James stood at the foul line with 30.5 seconds left in the third period last night, with his team trailing by 28 points, Stevenson’s word was recited in unison by more than 20,000 fans dressed in white: “O-VER-RA-ted! O-VER-RA-ted!” James smiled as the chant rained down. Then James missed the free throw off the back of the rim, giving the chant even more life.
Wizards’ Arenas injures knee again after returning
Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, starting for the first time since November, left the game after injuring his surgically repaired knee in the first half Thursday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers.Arenas walked off the court late in the first half with an obvious limp. The team said he had a bone bruise in his left knee and would not return. He was listed as day-to-day.

Wiz crush Cavs, still trail 2-1
“When our back is up against the wall, we always find a way to get it done,” Washington’s Antawn Jamison said. “It starts from your head coach down to your captains. We never keep our head down. We never sulk or think it’s over with. We just fight and continue to play to the end.”

The Verizon center will be the site for Thursday’s game 3 between the Cavaliers and the Wizards.

The Cavaliers are up two games to none in the best of seven series. The Wizards don’t expect anything to change and will continue the rough play against Lebron James.

“We’re going to continue to play hard and continue to protect our rim.” Antawn Jamison said Wednesday.

– Haywood on playing James
Haywood said he would continue to foul James “to keep him from getting a monster dunk.” He has said he apologized to James for the flagrant Game 2 foul, although James said Wednesday that Haywood had not done so. The foul was subject to review for a possible suspension, but the league office opted not to take further action.

– Haywood on Mike Brown:
Haywood again tweaked Mike Brown for the way Cleveland coach runs on the court “like LeBron got shot or something” whenever the Cavaliers All-Star draws contact.

“C’mon, Mike, it’s LeBron James, not LeBron Brown,” Haywood said. “He’s not your son.”

Brown laughed off Haywood’s words – “He can say what he wants about me” – and James said he was happy to have his coach sticking up for him.

– Wizards Are Confident They Can Repeat ’05 Comeback
Yet the Wizards, who were sloppy and disorganized at both ends of the court during Monday night’s 116-86 loss in Cleveland, remain confident that they can turn things around and make it a competitive series.

“We have a lot of guys like myself, Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison, we were all on that team that came back, down 0-2 to Chicago, so we definitely feel confident in our skills and we know that we can get things done,” said center Brendan Haywood, who was ejected in the third quarter of Game 2 after being called for a flagrant-2 foul on James. “When we watched the tape [yesterday], we realized that we made a lot of mistakes that aided them. And so, when you make a lot of mistakes to help the other team, you feel like, man, we cost ourselves the game.”

–LeBron is ready for fouls and Soulja Boy by Jodie Valade of the Plain Dealer
“LeBron James is gearing up for Thursday’s Game 3 against the Washington Wizards by preparing for the worst: plenty of more hard fouls and probably lots of Soulja Boy echoing throughout the Verizon Center.”

James said he’s not practicing his Soulja Boy dance moves.

“I got my Roc Boys dance ready,” James said.

Roc Boys, of course, is a song by James’ favorite hip-hop artist, Jay-Z.

– Soulja Boy is an LBJ fan by Brian Windhorst:
“you just have to love this whole LeBron/Jay-Z/DeShawn Stevenson/Soulja Boy stuff. It’s all just wild junk but great fodder for us journalists and fans. First off, LeBron likes Soulja Boy and dances to his hit song. And, whether it is just fashion or fandom, Soulja Boy seems like he likes and respects LeBron a little.”

– Bill Livingston on “Hack-a-Bron” strategy:
Asked if the brass-knuckle tactics of the Washington Wizards were responsible for his shooting most foul at the free-throw line, LeBron James said, affably: “I’ve been a bad free-throw shooter since I came into the NBA.”

“LeBron James’ troubles at the free-throw line have been apparent in the first two games of the playoff series against Washington. James has missed 13 of his 31 attempts at the line, although he is still averaging 31 points per game.”

– On Wizards trash talk by Mike Celizic:
“Like so many teams that muddle into the playoffs on a tide of mediocrity, the Wizards want respect. But they don’t want to earn it. All they want to do is talk about it.

They’re an embarrassment, mostly to themselves, but also to their city and their game. If you’re going to roll over and die, at least have the dignity to do it like gentlemen.”

– Chris Broussard on Cavs Playoffs formula:
“The Cavs have lulls during the regular season that lead them to underachieve. But over the past three seasons, they’ve always turned it up and played their best basketball in the postseason.

They have the right formula for successful playoff basketball”

– Broussard on playing Boston:
“If the Cavs continue to improve throughout this series, beat Washington in four or five games and enter their second-round series against Boston (I’m going out on a limb by assuming they’ll survive Atlanta) with major momentum, I believe they’ll actually have a chance of pulling the upset.

I’m not predicting an upset, but a Cavs team at the top of its game will be a handful for the Celtics.”

The Wizards and their coaching staff game plan were to talk trash, and attack Lebron James on every play and then talk more trash and complain. Their media has been doing the same thing and following their steps. I guess that’s what our nation capital is known for.

The “attack Lebron James” plan hasn’t worked for them as Lebron James hammered them in game 1 and 2 averaging 31 points, 7.5 rebounds and 8 assists and came one rebound shy of a triple double in game two.

The trash talking only made them an embarrassment to the rest of the league. Charles Barkley called them the “Dumbest Team In History” before the series started.

Meanwhile, Haywood doesn’t get suspended by the league following his flagrant foul on James in Game 2. So, what did he do? Trash talk. But this time against head coach Mike Brown.

Apparently, he didn’t like the way the Cavs coach came out on the floor in both Games after their confrontation in Game one and then also came out to check on James after the flagrant foul in Game two.

Here is what he said to a Washington post reporter:

“You know, any time LeBron gets touched, Mike runs out there like LeBron got shot or something. Calm down Mike. It’s not that serious. We’re not trying to take him out. It’s all within the confines of the game,” Haywood told reporters in Washington. “I don’t see how coaches should be running out on the court like that anyway. Isn’t there a coach’s box? Since we’re talking about the confines of the league rules, he shouldn’t be out of the box.”

Maybe they will have a better chance if they just stop talking and start playing basketball.

Duane Rankin from GoErie.Com  likes where Eric Snow is going.  Eric Snow continues to make contributions.  With his playing days winding down, he’s comfortable saying a goal of his is to become an NBA head coach.

Snow sat in a coaches’ meeting when the Cavaliers began preparing for this year’s playoffs and suggested a play Cleveland hadn’t used in at least two years.

Brown used it in Game 1 of Cleveland’s first-round playoff series against the Wizards and it worked, particularly in the closing minutes, to help the Cavaliers prevail.

In the same game, Snow calmed down a heated Zydrunas Ilgauskas after Brown took Ilgauskas out of the game in the first quarter.

In those two instances, Snow showed why Brown thinks he’s a future NBA head coach.

“A guy like Eric, hey, African-American, white, it doesn’t matter,” Brown said. “He is a knowledgeable individual and he’s a natural-born leader. He’d get his shot, no matter what. He’s going to do very well once he gets his shot.”

So don’t be surprised if five years from now, some team president will open a press conference by saying, “I’d like to introduce to you our new head coach, Eric Snow.”

The NBA will give him a chance.

Source:  GoErie.Com

Brendan Haywood will not be suspended for the hard foul he committed on Lebron James in Game 2 in Cleveland. Haywood was hit with a flagrant 2 foul and ejected in the third quarter.

“I feared it could have been worse,” Haywood said. “I was hoping the league wouldn’t take action, but you never know. It’s one of the star players, being LeBron James, I thought they might react a little bit differently. I mean, nothing was meant behind the foul. It was a bang-bang play. He said it himself: He is 6-9, 260, and if you go out there and try and foul him lightly, he is going to score the basketball.”

Haywood said he apologized to James after the game.

“If you go out and try to foul him lightly, he’s gonna score the basketball.” Haywood said. “There was nothing malicious. Actually I apologized to LeBron James. I didn’t mean to hurt him. It’s not one of those type of things. It’s one of those things, I’ve been instructed to give him hard fouls so he’s not to get highlight dunks in the half-court, so I’ve got to do what my coaching staff tells me to do if I’m gonna stay out there on the court.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m827UUOsN7Y[/youtube]

– Associated Press on the Game:

For more than two months since a colossal trade dismantled the defending Eastern Conference champions, Cleveland has waited for the game where its team of mixed parts and new faces finally molded into a legitimate NBA title contender. It happened.

– Michael Lee, Washington Post Staff Writer:

It took 30 games for Ben Wallace to let out his Afro and let people know that he still has enough left to make a vicious, two-handed reverse dunk. Thirty games for Wally Szczerbiak to find his comfort zone playing alongside LeBron James and finally hit some open looks. Thirty games for James to have that usual, heroic, LeBron James effort — 30 points, 12 assists and 9 rebounds — and have the game decided before the fourth quarter.

– Brian Windhorst on Brendan Haywood flagrant foul:
The Wizards’ plans to foul him around the basket simply did not work, even when Wizards center Brendan Haywood was ejected in the third quarter for a flagrant foul 2 when he shoved James as he headed up for what appeared to
be an uncontested dunk. James said the play was ”scary” but did not call for Haywood, whom he had a confrontation with in Game 1, to be suspended.

”It was not a basketball play in any way, shape or form and somebody could’ve gotten hurt,” James said. ”I was just trying to get a foot under me so I could land; I popped right up.”

– Brian Windhorst on the Wizards:
I am not around the Wizards everyday, though I have covered like 26 preseason, regular season and postseason games of theirs over the last three years. But I can’t help to notice that they are not as focused as the Cavs are. At the end of there practices, before the game in the locker room, in pregame warmups, etc. Maybe that is just their style and staying loose is best for them. But the Cavs are a happy-go-lucky team, too but you can tell when it is the playoffs. Then you see how the Wizards play in the playoffs and it is hard not to equate one attitude to another. For example, Stevenson makes a 3-pointer down 19 points and does his face wave thing or whatever. Style above substance, you know? But I could be wrong.

– Arena on playing aggressive:
Gilbert Arenas said he didn’t think the Wizards were playing at an overly physical level either and that the officials are calling the game too tight in some aspects.

“When I was young, watching basketball, the fouls they’re calling out there is like golf compared to what the Bad Boys [of Detroit] used to do to Michael [Jordan] and each other. So if this is getting out of hand, I must have been blind when I was watching basketball when I was little.”

– Fear the Fro

“When he brings the ‘fro out, I think it’s intimidating for the other team,” Cavaliers forward Joe Smith said. “They know it’s business tonight.”
He brought energy from the start, had a dunk about four minutes into the game, and by then he’d recorded more points (four) than LeBron James while the Cavaliers searched for their offense. He left the game near the end of the first when smoke from the pregame pyrotechnics bothered his eyes, but his return in the second quarter coincided with the time when Cleveland built its lead.

As the Cavaliers’ advantage ballooned in the third quarter, Wallace was at his defensive best, clamping down on Jamison and collecting six rebounds and two assists. In all, he tallied eight points and seven rebounds in 18 minutes. Those numbers are still below the 12.9 rebounds he averaged through six seasons in Detroit, but his presence was more evident.

– Antawn Jamison on the Cavaliers:
Antawn Jamison spoke to the media, but it seemed like he was also speaking to some of his teammates, who may just have awakened the Cavs from their late-season doldrums.

“Let’s get something understood,” Jamison said. “We didn’t underestimate [the Cavs]. … I don’t want what was said a month ago to have the effect of how we view this team. Let’s be honest, some guys talked, but it’s over with. We have a lot of respect for this team and we know what they are capable of. … This is a team that can create a lot of problems for many teams in the NBA.”

– Coach Eddie Jordan on the Cavaliers:
“We are playing the [Eastern Conference] champions,” Jordan said. “I know they changed their team but they still have the same coaching staff and, in a respectful way, the monster player. And he’s taking over the series.”

– Lebron James on the series:

“They’re trying to play physical. They’re sending double and triple teams. They’re trying to get me out of my comfort zone. They’re trying to get me to the point where I am frustrated,” James said. “I’m mentally prepared as the leader of our team. We’re here to win a series; we’re not here to talk.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANwVXtbNg10[/youtube]