It seems like yesterday I was trekking through Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., heading to the Metro for a Cavs-Wizards playoff game, or Cavs practice. The Cavs and Wizards seemed to be playoff regulars – until this season, when the bottom dropped out for the Wizards. Gilbert Arenas missed most of the season, and the team ill-advisedly fired coach Eddie Jordan. The two teams play tonight, and the Cavs are going for the best record in the league while Washington is trying to avoid the worst.
Michael Wilbon wrote an excellent (and highly recommended) column in the Washington Post detailing the divergent paths the two teams have taken since that playoff series three years ago. Remember that one? That featured LeBron and Arenas taking turns making incredible shots, LeBron's tip-toe act in overtime for a winning layup and LeBron talking Arenas into somehow missing two free throws.
Washington's Antawn Jamison (yes, one of my favorite players), summed things up this way: "The way it's looking, the Cavs are going to be the favorites. And we've got to create a new identity."
Jamison said much more, though, and it was highly complimentary of the Cavs.
"That's a franchise and a team that gets it," he said. "LeBron has put himself in that elite category. Then, they know who runs the show on the floor, and nobody on that team does anything outside of what he should be doing. Even when we're healthy, are we going to do that? Are we going to sacrifice? They don't care who's the second-leading scorer or who gets the minutes. We have to find out if I'll be able to sacrifice two or three points a game. Can Caron go down to 19, even 18 points a game? Does Gilbert need to go from 30 down to 25, maybe to 20? That's the biggest challenge for us in the future, I presume. I like our pieces. But what are we willing to do, in-house? …
"Every year we talk defense. But they went and got better defensively . . . committed to it. And LeBron's their only guy you'd really call a lock-down defender. Otherwise, it's team defense. They figured out how to get better defensively."
It does not sound, incidentally, like we will see Arenas tonight. Michael Lee of the Washington Post wrote that Arenas will be a game-time decision.
"Arenas said he is motivated to make sure that the Wizards do not finish with the worst record in franchise history. 'We cannot finish with 18 wins,' Arenas said. 'We get one more win, I'm done.' … When I told him that the Wizards actually need two more wins because the 82-game record for fewest wins is 19, Arenas said, 'You sure?' I told him I was pretty sure and he said, 'I might have to change my plans.'"