Cavs win Game 6, and end Washington's season again
By Pat McManamonI'll let Mike Brown sum up the Cavs 17-point win over Washington in Game 6 of their playoff series.
"Terrific, terrific, terrific, terrific, terrific performance by our guy LeBron James," Brown said. "Terrific."
Guess it was terrific.
Brown was right, as James finished with a triple-double: 27 points, 13 rebounds, 13 assists. Fabulous game, in a hostile environment. For the record, the Cavs won two-of-three in Washington in this series, and the past three years they've gone 6-2.
In this series, James was clubbed in the head, knocked down, cheap-shotted, and given legitimate hard fouls that resulted in shots to the eye, face, head and groin. They hurt, yet James never quit. While some people in this series tried to act "tough" and talk "tough," James showed what tough means.
While the crowd was ridiculing him, swearing at him, yelling at him, he played. While DeShawn Stevenson was taking a wild swing at his head, he kept his cool and kept playing. He just played, and averaged 29.8 points, 9.5 rebounds and 7.6 assists per game.
Because of that, the Cavs advance. And the Wizards go home for the third year in a row.
Some quotes:
Mike Brown: "Tonight I thought our guys had a 'close it out' mentality. They came in here and didn't panic. Especially when Washington jumped out and the crowd was into it. We just stayed focused and tried to grind it out on both ends of the court as a team."
LeBron James: "When we make shots from the outside like we did tonight — What Daniel (Gibson) did, what Wally (Szczerbiak) did — we are a tough team to beat. You can pick your poison. You can play me one-on-one or zone up on the backside and let our shooters shoot it, and our shooters came through for us."
Szczerbiak on his good shooting night: "I have to figure out how to carry this over. This is only one game. I’ve had a few good games here and there, but I have to figure out how to carry this over to the next series, the next game."
One final thought: What if Atlanta finds a way to win Game 7 in Boston and the Cavs wind up facing the Hawks?
