Rain-Maker

LeBron James’ jaw-dropping blocked shot of Darius Songaila late in the third quarter of Wednesday’s win over the Wizards is one huge reason why he is one of the game’s greatest players.

Songaila had nothing but hardwood and a hoop in front of him, but James – bum ankle and all – came roaring into the picture, pinning Songaila’s shot to snuff a Washington run.

(To check out the block, click HERE.)

“I didn’t know whether I was going to be able to catch Songaila, but I heard Drew from behind me yelling, ‘Go get it! Go get it!’” quipped James. “And I was able to chase him down and got the blocked shot. I jumped off my left ankle and that was the one I turned, and I got some explosiveness off it and it felt pretty good.”

Another, less tangible reason that LeBron is one of the games’ greats is his ultimate team leadership. James fired a laser to Drew Gooden under the basket midway through the second quarter. Gooden hesitated, pump-faked and was eventually fouled by Songaila, but drew the visible ire of LeBron – who had words for Drew heading to the bench on the ensuing timeout.

“I was able to make the defense rotate and I hit Drew and he didn’t go strong like I know he can,” said James. “So I kind've got on him. He knows I’m trying to make him better and I want him to be aggressive. And after that we went to him and he did what I asked him to do and he carried us through the second quarter when we were down.”

Following James’ inspirational speech, Gooden was simply unstoppable – scoring the Cavaliers’ last 11 points of the quarter and 15 overall in the period.

Drew finished with 24 points and 14 boards, exactly one year to the day that he killed Washington in Game 2 of last season’s Round 1. On April 25 in the last two seasons combined against the Wizards, Gooden has gone 21-for-25 from the floor for 48 points to go with 30 rebounds.

At one point during his barrage, Gooden made a strange hand motion in front of his face that he explained after the game. “That’s called ‘making it rain,’” smiled Drew. “I told my teammates that I can only do that when I hit four in a row. I don’t know if anyone’s seen me do that before, but four in a row is making it rain.”

The Cavaliers got big production from their entire front line on Wednesday. James, Gooden and Zydrunas Ilgauskas combined for 67 points, 31 boards and five blocked shots.

Larry Hughes had another strong outing and looks as good as he has all season – maybe as a Cavalier. Hughes was an efficient 5-of-11 from the floor for 19 points to go with eight boards and five dimes. (Regular readers know that five assists is the magic number, with the Cavaliers now weighing in at 36-7 when Hughes has five or more assists.)

But maybe Hughes’ biggest contribution to Wednesday’s win was the six straight free throws that he canned to ice the win that was a little too close for comfort.

"It's definitely good to be up 2-0, but we didn't finish the way we needed to finish,” said Hughes. “This is a learning process for us. We definitely got the win but I think we made it harder than what it needs to be."

The Cavaliers now head to the nation’s capital to try to wrap up the Wizards and not have to come home for a Game 5.

“We can’t get overconfident,” said LeBron. “It’s a long season; it’s a long playoff series and we’re up 2-0. We just have to continue to get better and go into Washington on Saturday and try to get another one.”

• Fans may not remember that Wizards coach Eddie Jordan was once a Cavaliers’ second-round draft pick back in 1977 out of Rutgers. He only played 22 games for the Wine and Gold, averaging 2.3 ppg.
  
  Before Wednesday’s game, he was asked if he remembers anything about being in Cleveland back in the day.
  
  "Do you really want me to tell you about the ‘70s?” joked Jordan. “This is what I remember: I remember growing up my two idols were Austin Carr and Walt Frazier. And here I am – a rookie – in the same locker as both of them. Austin came up in D.C., where I’m from, and Clyde was a great with the Knicks while I was at Rutgers, and there I was, playing with them!”
  

• Brendan Haywood emerged from Eddie Jordan’s doghouse to have a solid game on Wednesday night. After getting just five minutes on Sunday afternoon, Haywood – who sparred with Jordan late in the season – came off the bench to go 5-for-6 from the floor for 13 points and four boards.
  

• LeBron James – along with Damon Jones, Shaquille O’Neal, Lisa Leslie and other sports stars appeared on Fox’ “Idol Gives Back,” a two-night “American Idol” fundraiser benefiting poverty-relief programs in the U.S. and Africa. The D.J. showed off his pipes singing a modified version of Don’t You Wish Your (Boyfriend) Was Hot Like Me.
  
  LeBron “performed” the Bee Gee’s Staying Alive and, in his own words, was “absolutely terrible – but for a good cause.” It’s definitely for a good cause. Whether it was terrible or not, you can click HERE to watch it and play Simon Cowell for yourself.
  

• It was reported last week on ESPN.com that Larry Hughes’ alma mater, the University of St. Louis, might be trying to woo former Marquette and Utah coach, Rick Majerus, out of retirement. If they can’t land Majerus, they’re going to go after another big name like Fran Fraschilla.
  
  The Billikens are building a new $80.5 million on-campus arena, which would make the Atlantic 10 job much more attractive to candidates like Majerus or Fraschilla.
  
  While Hughes was impressed with the big name candidates, the eight-year veteran chuckled about the new arena. “Man, they tried luring me to St. Louis with the promise of that arena.”

Game Won

Anyone who thinks the Cavaliers can mail it in against Washington only needs to look at Game 1 of the Dallas-Golden State series. On Sunday night, both the Warriors and Denver Nuggets notched big road upsets over their Round 1 opponents. Neither team should win the series – and definitely not the West – but it does show the fragility of a seven-game series. It’s down to three home games apiece for each team.

Based on Sunday’s results, though, the Wine and Gold don’t look like they intend to take their foot off the pedal.

Maybe having to stomp the last four opponents gave the Cavaliers a taste for blood they didn’t have heading into the last week of the season. They had dropped recent games to Boston, Charlotte and New York but that was not about to happen when they needed the last four wins to wrap up the No. 2 seed. And it wasn’t going to happen on Sunday.

“Whoever wins four games, moves on,” said the pragmatic LeBron James. “That’s how we should feel. We got one game out of the way and we need three more. We just have to continue to get better, learn from the mistakes we made tonight and get ready for Wednesday.”

Cleveland jumped on Washington early and the injury-depleted Wizards led only once – at 2-0. They got within a bucket several times during the afternoon, but you never got the feeling that they were going to get over the hump.

“I’m not saying we’re going to blow them out of the series – we know each other very well – but I think we need to come out with more focus and get on them a little earlier,” said Donyell Marshall. “With that said, they played well. It’s going to be a tough series. They’re not just going to come in and lay down because they’re without their two guys. They’re going to come out and play hard.”

The biggest scare the Cavs got on Sunday didn’t come from the Wizards, but instead from LeBron when he rolled his left ankle on Etan Thomas in the second quarter. James writhed in pain before bouncing up. He returned and shot his free throws, but you could see him favoring it later.

“It’s definitely going to hurt tomorrow,” said James. “But this isn’t the first time I’ve twisted my ankle landing on someone’s foot, so I know I’m going to go to sleep tonight and tomorrow it’s going to hurt, but the good thing is we don’t play until Wednesday so I’ll get some rest.

“It’s the first game of the Playoffs, we’ve got to set the tone and if I was able to limp on it, I was going to be in there.”

LeBron had a triple-double in his first-ever Playoff game last spring against Washington and barely missed one on Sunday with 23 points, nine boards and seven dimes. James had two steals and committed just a single turnover. LeBron took umbrage with a reporter during the postgame presser who insinuated that he had a “sub-par” opening game.

The Wizards will definitely go back to the drawing board for Game 2.

“It’s kind of different, when you’re winning, to make adjustments,” said Drew Gooden, who tied a team record with an 11-for-12 performance in Game 2 of last year’s series. “You want to stick with your bread-and-butter. But I think when you lose a game, you have to make adjustments. So we’ll see what happens.”

Larry Hughes didn’t hit the magic number (five or more assists), but a team-high 27 points is a magic enough number for the Wine and Gold. Hughes was 9-for-17 from the floor and perfect in eight tries from the line.

His three-pointer at the first-half buzzer might have been the play of the game. With a resilient Wizards club clawing back to within four points approaching intermission, Hughes splashed home the three-pointer at the buzzer that got the Cavaliers back into the driver’s seat and the sold-out crowd back into the game.

“(The shot) was big,” said the typically understated Hughes. “We were struggling through the first half. I was a little hesitant, little tentative on both ends of the court so to get one going in to push the lead to seven, I think, was good.”

The Cavaliers will practice on Monday and get ready for Game 2 on Wednesday night. LeBron will get an extra day’s rest on the ankle and Mike Brown will have an extra day to figure out Antawn Jamison – Washington’s most viable threat.

A healthy Washington team took Game 2 after dropping the opener at The Q last year. Let’s see how the wounded Wizards do this season.