Recap: Cavs 121, Wizards 98 (Or, The End Begins Yet Again)

Overview: The Cavaliers put up their highest point total of the season against an embattled Wizards squad, rolling to a 121-98 victory. Six Cavaliers scored in double figures, and LeBron James sat the entire fourth quarter.

Cavs-Related Bullets:

-Well, so much for the Wizards improbably rallying for this one. The Wizards came into this game as an 11-21 team whose star player had just been suspended indefinitely for gun charges, and they played like an 11-21 team whose star player had just been suspended indefinitely for gun charges. On the road, on the second game of a back-to-back.

-The Cavs were absolutely rolling on all cylinders tonight offensively. The Wizards played atrocious defense, but the Cavs saw that as an opportunity to move the ball, make good cuts, and get easy baskets rather than an excuse to get lazy offensively and fall into one-on-one play.

-Things were almost too easy for LeBron, who was able to get to the rack almost at will, get out in transition for a few easy baskets, and pick apart the Wizards’ over-help happy defense with pass after pass for a dunk or wide-open three. He didn’t have it going from the outside, going only 2-7 on shots outside of the paint, but with LeBron being LeBron, one of those two shots was an insane rainbow from behind the baseline. But while that was the highlight of that game, the best thing LeBron did tonight was not to force too much, and get his points in the flow of the offense and let everyone else get involved against the Wizards’ porous D.

-In a development that could be seen as ironic, Delonte played one of his best all-around games of the season on Wednesday. He finished with 14 points on only eight attempts, and was effective from just about everywhere on the floor. He was active in transition, and managed to pick Stevenson clean and make the coast-to-coast slam early in the second quarter.

His confidence in his outside shot seems to be returning; he hit both of his three-point tries, one of them off the dribble, and four of Delonte’s six threes this season have come in the last five games. That’s a big deal.

When Delonte went against bigger defenders, he played from the perimeter, either knocking down the shot or getting into the lane by forcing a close-out and then either finishing himself or finding a big for the layup.

When Delonte played point and Washington tried to cover him with Boykins, Delonte took the ball to the block, forced double-coverage, and made the play; he made two block-to-block feeds to Shaq for layups against the Wizards doing just that. There aren’t many guards in the league who can keep up with West on the perimeter and stop his effective game on the blocks, which is what makes him such a dangerous weapon when he’s on his game.

-With 17 points in this game, both of Shaq’s highest-scoring games this season have come against the Wizards. However, this game was actually much different than Shaq’s first performance against the Wizards, which was one of the few times Shaq was able to consistently punish a team when the Cavs tossed him the ball on the blocks and let him do his thing against single coverage.

In this game, the Cavs were looking to get the ball to Shaq on the move or in a place where he could go straight for the finish after he got it, and the results were tremendous. All six of Shaq’s field goals were assisted, with the Cavs using Shaq in a pick-and-roll set with LeBron, getting him two layups from the aforementioned block-to-block passes from Delonte, and three other baskets from Jawad Williams or J.J. Hickson feeds inside. Early attempts to use Shaq in high pick-and-roll sets were an unqualified disaster, but the Cavs seem to be getting better and better at figuring out how to use Shaq off the ball, and that’s a good thing. 340 or so pounds moving towards the basket is harder to deal with than 340 pounds moving laterally and trying to finesse in a hook.

-Anthony Parker was able to use all the open looks the Wizards give up to get himself back on track from the perimeter, going 4-5 from beyond the arc.

-Z also benefited from the Wizards leaving him wide-open, making most of his jumpers and even banging in a three from the corner.

-Andy was Andy, making cuts, doing all the little things, and hitting the boards. And he seems to have played through his brief +/- jinx, finishing with a game-high +22 against the Wizards.

-As for Jawad, who surprisingly played the entire second quarter and got most of the injured Jamario Moon’s minutes, his game looks pretty D-League to me. He likes to get his shot off, and has some polished moves from midrange, but isn’t a great athlete or pure catch-and-shoot guy and looks like he’d be more comfortable as a #1 scoring option at a lower level than the fourth or fifth option at the highest level.

But it’s one of his first times getting significant minutes, it did look like nerves were a factor for him, he passed well, and the Cavs did have their highest-scoring second quarter of the season while Jawad was on the floor, so I’m reserving judgement.

-I really liked what I saw from Danny Green during his garbage-time minutes. He nailed a catch-and-shoot three, he cleaned up an offensive rebound with a lefty finish, and he snagged a steal by rotating over to help the helper, recognizing he was guarding a bigger player, and sneakily enticing the entry pass before swooping in front of his man to get the ball. Would like to see him get some more minutes.

Bullets Of Randomness:

-Antawn Jamison is a scoring machine. He played through a slow start from the field, got to the line, made floaters, drained shots from the outside, and is just someone I want to see in a Cavs uniform. Probably a long shot, and it remains to be seen how the firearm situation is going to inform what the Wizards do at the deadline, but he’d be the deadline home run for the Cavs.

-And that’s the last time the Cavs play the Wizards this season. There’s a good chance the Wizards team will look different the next time the Cavs play them, and it remains to be seen what will become of whatever you want to call what it is the Cavs and the Wizards have shared. The fans will probably harbor animosity as long as LeBron wears a Cavs uniform, and it’s hard to see how the Wizards can get rid of Stevenson, so there should be some extra spark when the teams play next season.

But it looks like the book is closing on whatever it is this Cavs group and the Arenas/Butler/Jamison era-Wizards had between each other, and the last game they play against each other might be an uneventful blowout in early January, the game itself an afterthought in the wake of the Wizards’ own’ off-court issues.

It still feels a bit early for an eulogy, but some reflection on all the memorable, nasty, and occasionally downright bizarre stuff that’s happened between these two teams in the last four years is perhaps in order. Until tomorrow, everyone.