Les Bullez’s Game One Cleveland Cavaliers-Washington Wizards Wrap-up

If they only hit their open shots. 

I’m convinced after Game 1 of who the better team is. The Cavs may have the best player who gets the benefit of the doubt on just about every call. Notice to my slow Cavs fans: I said just about. So don’t write your comments about LeBron getting hammered in the first quarter.

This game was Washington’s for the taking. They played great defense for most of the game and had a good game plan. The problem: They missed open shots, plain and simple. They made three straight stops with a two-point lead with about four minutes to go. Two out of the three possessions, Antawn Jamison had wide open threes. He missed. Jamison had a heck of a game, but they are going to need more from Caron Butler, and for the love of god, Roger Mason, do not try and create your own shot. Stand out there and wait for the pass! The Wiz went on two huge scoring droughts that had very little to do with the Cavs’ defense. 

The media and fans will bring up the whole trash talk stuff - fine. ESPN will overhype LeBron as they always do - fine. I believe that in the end, the better team will win this series, and that will be the Wizards as long as they hit their shots and continue to play solid defense.

By the way, this is for all non Cavs fans, since Cleveland supporters are blinded. LeBron is a crybaby. The guy gets hit on the lip early in the game, then keeps touching it like it fell off his face. If you are such a tough guy, play like it. You are an awesome talent, stop complaining all the time. Stop with the “LeBron face” that makes it look like you were wronged every time down court. You don’t need to do that. And stop with this holier-than-thou attitude. You trash talk just as much (remember the free throw line in the 2006 series). 

Anyway, the Wizards played okay, but they need to do a much better job moving the ball around on offense. It seemed to me as if they were looking for Arenas to work his magic time after time like he used to, but this is no longer a one- or even a three-man team. They have a ton of guys who can contribute, so move the ball around and take advantage of the transition game. They did not get to the free throw line nearly enough early in the game, and that’s because they were settling for jumpshots. I realize that this is a jumpshooting team, but they’ll have better shots to take if they move the ball and drive to the hoop. They should not be afraid of big Z in there. Ben Wallace is a shell of his former self. They can take advantage of that and I’m sure they will.

Game 2 now is a must-win. They can’t give the Cavs the confidence that they can sneak out these wins. They are good, but I don’t think they are good enough to beat a ‘team’ like the Wizards when they are playing like one. They need to do that a bit better from now on.

[image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/timkelley/]