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Game 6 between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Washington Wizards came down to the impact of each team’s best player, LeBron James, and Caron Butler.
LeBron was smart, poised, and unselfish for the duration and his numbers reflect it—8-17 FG, 13 REB, 13 AST, 2 STL, 1 BLK, 1 TO, 27 PTS.
Since the Wizards were concerned with preventing James from dissecting them from the inside out, they loaded up the lane to take away his effectiveness on drives. To combat this, Mike Brown stationed James in the right mid-post and allowed him to turn and face.
When the Wizards would maneuver themselves to cut off potential driving lanes, wonderful cross-court passes would routinely find Daniel Gibson and Wally Szczerbiak for beaucoup three-balls.
James would attack the defensive backboard throughout, and he’d get his points later in the game, but his ability to take what the defense gave him and still dictate the action is the sign of a very mature superstar.
Meanwhile, Caron Butler had virtually no impact—6-14 FG, 0-4 3FG, 9 REB, 1 AST, 4 TO, 18 PTS. Only 7 of those points came during the first three quarters when the game was up for grabs. Instead, the Cavs put pressure on Butler taking away his jumper and force him to make plays under heavy pressure, something Butler struggled with all game long.
The Wizards were able to hang close early because Antawn Jamison repeatedly took Ben Wallace off the dribble for layup after layup. With AJ tasting success early, he was sufficiently aroused to attack the bigger stronger Cavs on the offensive glass for seven (!) offensive rebounds, several of them leading to stick backs.
Still, because the Wizards had virtually no post offense (10 points on post ups) and because the Cavs put pressure on Washington’s shooters and rotated nicely on Washington’s drives, nothing came easy to them.
Contrast this with Cleveland’s game-breaking 15-0 run in the second quarter where James hit an early offense layup, hit an open three, made three wonderful cross-court passes leading to two jumpers for Daniel Gibson and six points, and drove to the hoop breaking down Washington’s interior defenses leading to four points for Joe Smith.
The Cavs could always count on LeBron creating an open look all the time, every time.
There were other reasons for Cleveland’s victory.
The Wizards offense was stale and stagnant, focusing on one-on-one play rather than team-wide basketball. This is evidenced by the home team’s 11 assists compared to the visitor’s 29.
Wally Szcerbiak and Daniel Gibson combined to knock down 10-19 three-pointers, putting pressure on the Wizards from far while LeBron James tripped the alarms from near.
Butler, Roger Mason, and DeShawn Stevenson went 3-16 from downtown.
The Cavs defense was solid on-ball and when rotating.
The Cavs played basketball inside-out, while Washington did things outside-out.
The Cavs were stronger, more poised, and much more disciplined than the Wizards.
Plus, Washington’s fake machismo throughout the series came back to haunt them before Game 6, when Darius Songaila got suspended for his blatant backhand sucker slap on LeBron’s face. With Songaila out, the Wizards lost a passer, a ball-reverser, and a mid-range shooter who would have breathed some extra life into a listless offense. Obviously, Songaila wouldn’t have been a difference maker, but he no doubt would have helped.
While the Wizards spent the entire series trying to convince everybody they were tough enough, LeBron James twice delivered clean hard fouls to Caron Butler, only to help him up and give him a pat on the rear immediately after.
Unlike the Wizards, King James never lost his composure throughout all the hard hits and cheap shots and stayed true to who he was.
He let his game deliver the knockout blow, punching through to the second round.
Erick Blasco is basketball writer for OTR Basketball
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