Maybe the Wizards shouldn’t have riled up LeBron James who shot 12 of 19 from the floor and finished with 32 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocked shots. I wonder if DeShawn Stevenson still thinks he’s overrated? Gilbert Arenas led the way for the Wizards led the way for the Wizards with 24 points and 3 assists before fouling out in only 28 minutes on the floor. Antwan Jamison also had a great game as he finished with 23 points, 19 rebounds and 2 assists. Brendan Haywood had a solid game with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots but he needs to do a better job of defending Ilgauskas. Caron Butler pitched in with 14 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. The Wizards might be able to beat the Cavs in this series if they can stop everyone but James. That wasn’t the case on Saturday however. The Cavaliers are up 1-0 in this series.

These two teams are deep and they know each other well after meeting two years in a row in the playoffs. Here is a breakdown of this series:

POINT GUARD: Gilbert Arenas came back late in the season and he usually raises his level of play come playoff time. He is not a pure point guard as he would rather shoot than pass. Arenas has more range as a shooter than almost anyone in the NBA, so if the Cavaliers leave him open to double team other Wizards “Agent Zero” will make them pay. Arenas played in 13 games (8 starts) this season for the Wizards and he has averaged 19.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.8 steals per game. Look for him to have better numbers than he did in the regular season against the Cavs.

Delonte West was added during the season in a trade with the Supersonics. Much like Arenas, West is not a pure point guard. He played in 26 games (all starts) for the Cavaliers this season and he averaged 10.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game.

EDGE: HUGE FOR WIZARDS

SHOOTING GUARD: DeShawn Stevenson is a decent player but he’s not someone you can depend on and he proved that last season against the Cavs in the playoffs. They needed him to step up with Arenas and Butler hurting and he didn’t. Stevenson played in 82 games (all starts) for the Wizards last season and he averaged 11.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.

The Cavaliers will probably be starting Devin Brown as Sasha Pavlovic is hurting right now. Brown is a decent player, but like Stevenson, he usually doesn’t raise his game when the team needs him to. Brown played in 78 games (20 starts) for the Cavs last season and he averaged 7.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.

EDGE: PUSH

SMALL FORWARD: This is a matchup of two outstanding players. Butler has blossomed into a very good player at both ends of the court and he will make LeBron James work for every point he gets in this series. Butler played in 58 games (all starts) for the Wizards this season and he averaged 20.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.2 steals per game. Butler will also make LeBron James work on defense.

LeBron James is quite simply, the best player on the planet Earth. James played in 75 games (74 starts) for the Cavaliers this season and he averaged 30.0 points, 7.9 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.1 blocks per game. James always plays well against the Wizards and he will be focused because of Gilbert Arenas running his mouth in the press.

EDGE: CAVALIERS

POWER FORWARD: Antwan Jamison is one of the most underrated players in the NBA. He played in 79 games (all starts) for the Wizards this season and he averaged 21.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Jamison will have his work cut out for him as Ben Wallace usually takes his game up a level in the post season.

The Cavaliers brought Ben Wallace in specifically for the playoffs. Coach Mike Brown values defense and hustle and those are two qualities that Wallace brings to the court every night. Just don’t expect him to score a lot. Wallace played in 22 games (all starts) for the Cavs last season and he averaged 4.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 0.6 assists and 1.7 blocks per game.

EDGE: WIZARDS

CENTER: Brendan Haywood had his best season of his NBA career in 2007-08 so it will be interesting to see if he can keep it up in the playoffs. Haywood played in 80 games (all starts) for the Wizards this season and he averaged 10.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 1.7 blocked shots per game.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas is the Cavs second option on offense. He played in 73 games (all starts) for the Cavaliers and he averaged 14.1 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.6 blocked shots per game. Ilgauskas does need to start dunking the ball instead of tipping it in, but that’s nitpicking as he is a really good basketball player.

EDGE: CAVALIERS

BENCH: Both of these teams have good benches. Point guard Antonio Daniels had to start most of the season for the Wizards and he is a good player. He played in 71 games (63 starts) for the Wizards this season and he averaged 8.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. Roger Mason played in 80 games (9 starts) for the Wizards this season and he averaged 9.1 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. He can swing between small forward and shooting guard. Andray Blatche is the backup center for the Wizards and he really blossomed this season. He played in 82 games (15 starts) for the Wizards this season and he averaged 7.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.4 blocked shots per game. F/G Nick Young had a impressive rookie season for the Wizards and he will be a starter down the road. Young has played in 75 games (2 starts) for the Wizards and he averaged 7.5 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. Power forward Darius Songaila also gave a good showing this season for the Wizards. He played in 80 games (13 starts) for the Wizards this year and he averaged 6.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game.

The Cavaliers have a very deep and talented bench. C/F Anderson Varejao is Mr. Energy off the bench for the Cavs. He played in 48 games (13 starts) for the Cavs this season and he averaged 6.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. Backup point guard Daniel Gibson really stepped up in the playoffs last season. Gibson played in 58 games (26 starts) for the Cavs this year and he averaged 10.4 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. Gibson is one of the best outside shooters in the game as well as Wally Szczerbiak and Damon Jones. Wally Szczerbiak had a rough time in Cleveland after they acquired him from the Sonics. He played in 25 games (1 start) for the Cavs and he averaged 8.2 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. Joe Smith provides some muscle off the bench for the Cavs as the backup power forward. Smith played in 27 games (1 start) for the Cavaliers this season and he averaged 8.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game. Sasha Pavlovic is injured right now but he will be back before this series is over. Pavlovic played in 51 games (45 starts) for the Cavs this season and he averaged 7.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. Damon Jones is a shoot first point guard and his shooting is his only above average tool in basketball. He played in 67 games (3 starts) for the Cavs this season and he averaged 6.5 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. F/C Dwayne Jones will be sitting at the end of the bench for the Cavs. He played in 56 games (0 starts) for the Cavs this season and he averaged 1.4 points, 2.5 rebounds an 0.2 assists per game.

EDGE: CAVALIERS

PREDICTION: The Cavaliers will win a tough battle with the Wizards in 7 games.

The Wizards were pumped up by the crowd and they were up 67-66 heading into the 4th quarter, but then the Cavs took over.  The Wizards were outscored 31-23 in the 4th quarter and former Wizard Larry Hughes scored 18 points in the final 6 1/2 minutes of the game to sink the Wizards last night.  The Wizards were also bullied on the boards by the Cavs (45-36) and that helped do the Wizards in last night.  Antwan Jamison played another great game as he led the Wizards with 31 points and 4 rebounds.  Darius Songaila was great off of the bench with 16 points in only 19 minutes on the court.  Antonio Daniels did a good job of directing the offense with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 12 assists.  The problem with the Wizards is that three of their starters (Etan Thomas, DeShawn Stevenson and Jarvis Hayes) only combined to score 11 points on 3 of 18 shooting from the floor.  The Wizards played hard in this series but they got swept 4-0 by the Cavs.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270430027

The Wizards left it all on the court last night and they still lost to the Cavs.  The Wizards easily could have laid down after the first half as they were down 61-44.  But Antwan Jamison and Antonio Daniels wouldn’t let the Wizards quit and they made the Cavs sweat.  The Wizards defense allowed the Cavs to shoot 50% from the floor and they were outrebounded 48-33 by the Cavs and those are the two big reasons that they lost.  Antwan Jamison was outstanding with 38 points and 11 rebounds on 15 of 27 shooting from the floor.  Antonio Daniels was outstanding running the offense with 20 points, 4 rebounds and 13 assists.  Jarvis Hayes also had a decent game on offense with 15 points and 4 rebounds.  DeShawn Stevenson was awful last night as he only shot 3 of 14 from the floor and wound up with only 7 points and 3 rebounds.  The Cavs now lead this series 3-0.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270428027

The Wizards played their butts off in this game and didn’t quit even though they were outmanned by the Cavs.  The Wizards were outrebounded 58-36 and that’s why they lost last night.  Antwan Jamison was on fire again with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.  Brendan Haywood only played in 19 minutes off of the bench but he played well as he scored 13 points and grabbed 4 rebounds.  Forward Darius Songaila had another good game with 13 points and 8 rebounds.  Antonio Daniels did another good job of running the offense with 11 points and 11 assists.  The Wizards are now down 2-0 as the series shifts to Washington.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270425005