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.