The Butler Did It! Wizards Live Beat Cleveland In Game Five 88-87

Posted by Jeff Sack under NBA PLAYOFFS

Once you realize that you are going to make the NBA Post Season (and with 16 out of 30 teams making it, let’s face it, it’s not that remarkable an accomplishment!) the thing you start concentrating on is getting home court advantage.? If you cover a NBA team for any length of time, you hear it often enough that it starts to resemble a mantra, or a chant. The Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday night gave away that celebrated home court advantage to the Washington Wizards at the Q 88-87. The Wizards won without guard Gilbert Arenas who told reporters, he was shutting it down for the season because his injured knee will not allow him to perform at a level where he felt he was helping his team.?Cleveland still leads the series 3-2, and can put it away in DC on Friday night in game six. But Cleveland gave the Wizards new life with the victory for Washington, and the way this series has gone so far, you want to give your opponents as few opportunities as possible.

Cleveland sports fans are schizophrenic.? A Cleveland sports fans week is best described by Charles Dickens who?wrote in a Tale of Two Cities?”It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”? And that’s in the same week!? The Cavaliers, Indians and Browns, go from Cleveland’s darlings to Cleveland’s bums faster than you can say?Frank Robinson. Without even listening to Cleveland Radio, I can tell you what the fans were saying on the sports talk shows following the game. Tony from Rocky River, is ready to slit his wrists, and calling for the head of Cleveland coach Mike Brown. Tony suggests that Avery Johnson is the coach to win a NBA Championship with Cleveland. Mark from Parma Heights is saying that everyone one should just chill, that the Cavaliers and Wizards were in exactly the same situation 2 years ago, and Cleveland won game six in D.C. on a Damon Jones trey. The only problem with Mark’s theory is that was not the same makeup of guys on that team as the 2008 Cavaliers. Can this team pull off the same feat? We will find out Friday night.

Unfortunately for the fans gathered at the Q Arena, the game seemed to take on the character of the first quarter, when the Cavaliers looked dazed and confused. The Wizards looked hungry, the Cavaliers looked lost, as Washington jumped to a 23-16 first quarter lead. The tide turned somewhat in the second quarter, but the Wizards still led by the slim margin of 45-43 as the teams reached the half. The lead went back and forth in the third, as Cleveland led by as much as six points at 59-53, when Zydrunas Ilgauskas drove the lane and put it up and in with 5:13 left in the period. But Washington fought back taking a 69-65 lead?at the end of the period.?The fans started to get excited in the fourth quarter as Cleveland pulled ahead 87-82 with 1:47 as Delonte West made a layup, and hit the penalty shot at the line. Cleveland never scored again, the final dagger was Caron Butler penetrating the lane, and putting it up and in for two with 3 seconds left making it an 88-87 game. LeBron James missed a four foot shot at the buzzer that would have advanced Cleveland to the next round. However any body that tries to pin this loss on LBJ should never be allowed to watch, listen or talk about the NBA ever again.

Caron Butler scored 32 points, 9 rebounds, 5?assists, 2 steals, in the Washington victory.? DeShawn Stevenson scored 17 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, Antonio Daniels scored 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block.

LeBron James recorded a double-double, as he scored a game?high 34 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 blocks, 1 steal. Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored 19 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks, Delonte West continues to be Cleveland’s most consistent player?other than LBJ as the guard scored 12 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 steal. They will lace them up again Washington on Friday, a trip the Cavaliers did not want to make, withe Cleveland leading the?series?3-2.

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