# Wizards @ Cavaliers | Playoffs Round 1 - Game 2 | April 25th, 2007



## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

_*Game 2*_


*Washington Wizards* *(0-1) @* *Cleveland Cavaliers** (1-0)*

_*Wednesday, April 25th, 2007*_
*Time:* 5:00pm PT, 8:00pm ET
*TV:* FSN Ohio, *NBATV*
*Radio:* *WTAM 1100*
*Location:* *Quicken Loans Arena*, Cleveland, Ohio

*HEAD COACHES*


*PROBABLE STARTERS*




*WASHINGTON WIZARDS’ NOTES*

*•* The Wizards need to make adjustments on Larry Hughes if he continues hitting big shots. Since the Wizards are keyed in on LeBron, they have no answer for the Cavs should another player step up with a 20 point performance.

*•* Don’t get rattled and all apart at the end. The Wizards need to more gas in their tanks to stay with the Cavaliers and not get worn down by the finish. 

*CLEVELAND CAVALIERS’ NOTES*

*•* Hope LeBron is back at full strength and let him come out fast, to show he is still strong and not hindered by his injury, plus as a sign that he will not tolerate being manhandled. 

*•* Decide to step on Washington’s neck a little earlier in the game this time around. Cleveland can deliver the killing blow sooner this time around than in the opening game.

*OVERVIEW*

The Cavs need to defend the homecourt and keep the pressure on the Wizards to win a game. Cleveland must not give any games away in this series.


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

*Preview*

*Washington at Cleveland*



> *CLEVELAND (AP) --* At the mall or at the movies, Cavaliers 7-foot-3 center Zydrunas Ilgauskas stands out in a crowd.
> 
> On the court, he's still tough to miss, the biggest of the big men in the middle. But for some strange reason, the Washington Wizards couldn't find him in Game 1 -- until it was too late.
> 
> ...


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

I would be surprised if Haywood doesn't get more minutes in this game. Although I hear he's in EJ's doghouse, so we'll hope it stays that way.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

If Larry can keep up half of what he was giving us in the last game, we're in excellent shape this year.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

The biggest thing that will hold us back this year from competing will be the fact that nothing comes easy to us offensively. We have a lot of talent, so we can still beat teams. But there isn't a system in place that will make it easier for them.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Great play by Gooden there.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Antonio Daniels' flopping drives me nuts.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

What a boring game so far.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Hmm... I'm getting some early indications that these announcers would like to see Washington win. I think it would just be so much of a Cinderella story that everyone gets behind them.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Larry has been our best player so far in both games.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Evidently the Cavs don't really feel they need to play particularly hard.

We're going to have a tough transition into the next round.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Wow, the announcers are excited about Lebron's offensive foul there.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Signs of life maybe?


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Gooden really providing a spark here.


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

Brandname said:


> Wow, the announcers are excited about Lebron's offensive foul there.


I noticed that as well.

Gooden is on a roll. Thank goodness he is playing hard.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

I never understood why we don't try to get Gooden as many early shots as possible. He's the main person that has trouble getting his head into the game unless he's hitting shots. It's to our benefit that we get him going early.


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

We're going to have to give a better effort to win on the road against the Wizards.


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

Only a 3 point lead (51-48). Ah, so Cleveland wants to play when they want to play and not play when they don't want to play.


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

Cleveland leads 75-63 after three quarters of play.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Slowly pulling away


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## LostInGeorgia (Jun 29, 2006)

still just 6 pts with 2:30 left, need a bigger cushion


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

It seems like the game has been officiated in Washington's favor here at the end.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Pathetic execution here at the end.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

why is this game so close?


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Great Lebron misses the first


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

Haha why is Lebron eating his hand?!


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Will the end of this game wake them up for next game? I can't stand seeing the Wizards excited on the bench.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

We have all bad FT shooters on the floor. Mike Brown might want to rethink this whole "coaching" thing.


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

haha we knew we'd have games like this with our free throw shooting this year.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

futuristxen said:


> haha we knew we'd have games like this with our free throw shooting this year.


Yet Z is housed nicely on the bench.


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

*Box Score*

*Cleveland 109, Washington 102*


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Well Hughes with another solid game.

Just concerned how we're not blowing this team out


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

It seems like if we zeroed in on Jamison defensively, we would have this team pretty easily. Is it too obvious to put Lebron on him earlier in the game?


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

I was wondering the same thing myself. They have pretty much just one scoring threat. It would be great if we could just have Lebron focus all of his effort on guarding him. I know he could shut him down.

There really is no reason that Jamison doesn't see more double teams, either. They don't have many offensive weapons. Defense is supposed to be Mike Brown's strong point. Maybe he knows something that I don't, I dunno.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

I don't think it's that unsound of a strategy actually. Jamison might get fifty but they know they can rotate and keep everyone else in check they'll still win even when playing mediocre (i.e. tonight). If it's close then put Lebron on him. Right now better to keep Lebron out of foul trouble and then see how much Jamison can do by himself.


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## Larry Hughes for Retirement (Jul 5, 2004)

Well with our half *** effort in the first too games and were able to be up 2-0, as well as Lebron in my opinion has just been coasting for the first two games and our supporting cast has really picked it up, which is a very good thing.


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

I don't think we'll be able to coast on the road though. The crowd will really get behind the Wizards. I think if game 2 had been in washington, that late game rally might have ended differently.

What I don't like about any of this is that the team is clearly not getting into playoff mode, and I think when they hit the second round they are going to be prone to a shock in game 1.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Two things from the 1st two games are glaring to me:

- Why won't he double Jamison until late in the game? They have ZERO offensive threats outside of him. Everytime we start to double him, the Wiz struggle to score. I don't buy the let him get 50, stop everyone else stuff. We're not really stopping everyone else. The Wiz were getting open looks all night, alot of those same shots will fall in D.C. as role players generally shoot better at home. 

- His insistence on playing Snow down the stretch will bite us in the *** guaranteed. The Wiz know they can run a 2nd defender on Lebron ANYWHERE on the court or any of our bigs who get the ball down low. At some point, IMO you have to adjust and put a shooter on the floor. Whether it's Sasha, Gibson, DJ, doesn't matter but you need a threat on the floor. Make them play 5 on 5 D in crunch time! 

Maybe Mike Brown is right, and to his credit last year he seemed to make adjustments pretty well in the playoffs. But right now, I'm not super confident about Game 3.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Yeah the Snow sub bothered me a lot but what can we do. It was only the starters and AV in the third and we dominated. Snow saw a lot of time in the 4th (not sure why) and we got wooped. Mike Brown has essentially phased Gibson out for some odd reason to the point he hasn't had a lot of time. This means we're left with Snow if we get into foul trouble or fatigue issues

The third quarter was real impressive though even though it was against the depleted Wiz: that's how we should play all the time


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## Larry Hughes for Retirement (Jul 5, 2004)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> Two things from the 1st two games are glaring to me:
> 
> - Why won't he double Jamison until late in the game? They have ZERO offensive threats outside of him.
> 
> Maybe Mike Brown is right, and to his credit last year he seemed to make adjustments pretty well in the playoffs. .


Well you do hear a lot of coaches say, "We are not going to let anyone else hurt us" Kind of the same way Wizards were trying to play Lebron with Hayes, with as little help as possible and just making sure no one else beats them.

I think we can get away with Jamison scoring 30+ in every game just as long as Daniels,Stevenson don not put 20/25+. 

I truly do not think Mike Brown will make changes because we are up 2-0 and it has been working. I just hope it is in the players to come out with a certain fire and edge and game three, and thats not all in Mike Browns hands.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

For some reason I'm really thinking we're going to come out flat in Washington. Like really flat. 

We couldn't get up for the games in Cleveland, when the series was tied. Now we're up 2-0, we're playing on the road against a bad team. I just don't see us coming out with any fire.

If we lose a game in this series, I think it will be tomorrow.


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