Let the Games Begin

“I was built for this.”

That was LeBron James’ response when asked, after Saturday’s riveting Game 1, if he was tired of getting banged around. From the opening tip, that was obviously Washington’s plan – and it probably will be for the remainder of what promises to be a bare-knuckled Round One matchup.

“I’m not built 6-9, 260 to shoot jumpers all night,” James continued. “I go to the hole and I create contact. And don’t ever think that I’m the only one feeling that contact.”

After weeks of fighting the series in the press, the time for talk was over, and the two clubs had to fight it out between the lines. And as the Cavaliers had done six times before, they handed the Wizards another playoff loss. Cleveland held the Wizards to one bucket – a meaningless layup by Caron Butler at the buzzer – in the final 4:38, taking home the 93-86 win that was much closer than the final score would indicate.

One thing was affirmed on Saturday, however: On the court, these are two teams that definitely do not like each other.

It took less than one half of basketball for that to materialize, as tempers boiled over late in the first half, when Brendan Haywood – after fouling LeBron at center court – stood above him “in a very disrespectful manner.” Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Ben Wallace were the first into the fray before officials broke it up.

It won’t be the last time these two teams tangle.

Aside from James’ heroic 32-point effort, it was Ilgauskas who found seams in the Wizards’ defense – canning open jumpers and doing the dirty work in the post. Big Z finished with 22 points and 11 boards, going 8-for-8 from the free throw line.

“Every game we play against these guys, it’s a tough, emotional game,” said the Large Lithuanian. “We expect this to be a tough series, and it will be.”

Ilgauskas was one of three Cavaliers to make eight or more trips to the line. And the Cavaliers made 20 more trips to the stripe than Washington (37-17) – something Coach Brown had underscored to his team coming into the series.

“One thing we stressed is that during the year, we shot a lot of threes against this team and we didn’t shoot enough free throws,” said Brown. “We shot, maybe around 24 threes per game on average, and about 17,18 free throws. And we stressed to our guys that we have to attack. And our guys did a nice job attacking the rim.”

That philosophy led to Cleveland being very aggressive around the rim. And when the Cavaliers – namely LeBron and Z – are going to the hole, they’re awfully difficult to defend. Of course, it’s going to get pretty rough around the hole now that the Second Season has begun.

“It’s the playoffs, so a lot of calls go unnoticed,” said Ilgauskas. “They let you push more, which is good – that’s the way it should be. They let the players decide the game. Both teams have a lot of big guys, so there’s a lot of screens being set and a lot of elbows flying around.

“That’s playoff basketball.”

DeShawn Stevenson – for all his bluster – had yet another terrible game for the Wizards. On Saturday, the man who called LeBron James “overrated” came up 1-for-9 from the floor. Over the past two years, Washington’s thickly-bearded guard has gone 10-for-55 (18 percent) from the field.

Gilbert Arenas was the other Wizard who added some vitriol to the series with his advanced trash talk. But unlike Stevenson, everyone knows Agent Zero can back it up on the hardwood. Arenas canned his first four three-pointers – and fans were having flashbacks to the 2006 Playoffs where he averaged 36 ppg in six contests against Cleveland.

But Delonte West did an excellent job against Arenas in the second half, holding the sharp-shooting star to 2-for-6 from the field in the fourth quarter.

“Delonte’s a fighter,” praised Mike Brown. “He’s not going to back down from anybody. He’s longer than what you think, he’s quicker than what you think and he’s definitely more athletic than what you think. When you take all those things and combine them with toughness, you have a chance to have a pretty good defender.

“Delonte’s not going to stop Gilbert – nobody’s going to stop Gilbert Arenas. But the one thing you just hope is that he make Gilbert work for his shots.”

Delonte didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, but he did can four straight free throws in the final 15 seconds – finishing with 16 points, five boards, five dimes, two steals and a pair of blocked shots.

When all the smoke clears, when all the talk has been talked and the pushing and shoving are done, the series will eventually boil down to which team can clamp down on the other, defensively. Yesterday, the Cavaliers’ D down the stretch was better than the Wizards’. And they came away with the win.

Now they need to carry that over into Monday’s Game 2.

“We were the best team in the playoffs last year, defensively,” said LeBron, following Saturday’s win. “We started off on the right foot this year, giving up only 40 percent shooting on the night, and 25 percent from the three-point line – something they’re very good at. We know when we go out there and lock down defensively, we can be very good.”