I got a few e-mails and comments from folks saying (again) that Mike Brown was at fault for the Game 1 loss, that his lack of offensive coaching and his offensive (no pun intended) system were the reason LeBron James struggled.

Brown was asked what he saw from his team's offense when he watched the tape of the 76-72 loss (Note: Diagram to right for artistic purposes only and is NOT from Cavs playbook). His response: "I thought we did a decent job pushing the ball and throwing ahead. We had 17 fastbreak points and it's tough to get that against this team on the road. But beyond that when we're talking about going against their set defense, one of the things is we have to get the ball from one side of the floor to the other. Sometimes multiple times on the same possession. We didn't do a good job of that. Second thing we have to do is we have to space the floor better and use our spacing rules. Too many times the ball came to a standstill when we know if the ball gets swung here a basket cut should be made here followed by pick-and-roll. Or if the ball gets swung here a pin-down should happen on the back side, or if the swing is denied he should go back door and the next guy comes up. We have some basic rules and concepts that we've given our guys when you just have to play. Then the last thing we have to make sure us that we're aggressive driving the ball."

That's some basketball-ese, but it means moving the ball, don't stand around, and move without the ball. Spacing is important in the NBA. There must be room to maneuver, and to pass. If spacing is screwed up, all the plays are out of kilter. Sort of like a typewriter (remember those) with wrong spacing. All the words would squish into a big old mish-mosh that nobody could read (sort of like this blog).

Clearly, there is an offensive system in there. No, Brown's forte is not offense. It's defense. But the Cavs do have an offense. It's just not always run with the highest efficiency.

The second thing people wrote was to ask why the Cavs don't post up LeBron James more. It's a good question. It's something they did some early in the year, but they've gotten away from it. One reason is James doesn't always take to posting up. So if the play is called, he might decide to post up 15 feet from the basket and immediately turn and face the basket. The other problem is that it's easier to double-team James in the post, and if, for example, the Celtics double with Kevin Garnett that leaves Ben Wallace open and Wallace is not an offensive threat. I agree that James would be a weapon in the low post, but it does not seem to be something he's comfortable with right now. At least that's my guess, which in the long run might suffer from some more "bad spacing," except in this case it would be the spacing between my ears.

Bottom line: 30.7 percent shooting will make any offense look bad.

A lot of folks are having a lot of fun with James' reactions to getting hit. I wrote a little for Thursday's Beacon Journal about the fact that James was cut inside his upper lip on the flagrant foul Sam Cassell received. The Boston Garden crowd bellowed like James was faking it, and columnist Dan Shaugnessy of the Boston Globe said James' head snaps back like he's Kosmo Cramer when he drives to the hoop. "James gets more calls than any 23-year-old in the history of basketball," Shaugnessy wrote.

Now Shaughnessy and I share a college alma mater, so I'm not going to get on him. But let's get real — James is too good to act. Yes, he tends to be dramatic, but he's not making this stuff up. He gets hit. Check out the picture on the right from today's Boston Globe. I believe on this play that James reacted and had to re-adjust his headband. No call was made, and the crowd howled at James as if he was making things up. It doesn't look like he made this up — and it happened 25 feet from the basket. Cassell hit James, he deserved the flagrant foul. James gets hit other times too. This game was not officiated poorly. The guys with the whistles were not hacks. The calls James got he earned. And late in the game, he was played physically on a late drive to the basket and had to throw the ball up falling down. It didn't go in. I did not think a foul should have been called; it wasn't. Mike Brown thought James might have been fouled on his last attempt to tie the game; I didn't. It wasn't called. The game was well officiated.

That being said, Zyrdrunas Ilgauskas might have been treated a little differently if he had kneed Sam Cassell in the head early in the game as opposed to late in a close game. That one (left) had to hurt.

Just a guess, but it does not seem that Red Auerbach would be happy with fireworks, cheerleaders and dancing girls at Celtics games.

Bob Ryan concluded his story in the Boston Globe this way: "Let's get serious. When LeBron goes 2 for 18, you'd damn well better win the game. Or not lose it. The Kid will not be playing like this again."

I found compelling this argument that Chris Paul deserved to be the league's MVP.

Gilbert Arenas finally weighed in on his blog on NBA.com, and said this about the first-round series against the Cavs: "It was an entertaining series. The hype and drama behind it was bigger than I expected (but, I didn’t expect DeShawn to call LeBron “overrated,” either). To each his own. That’s how he felt and we had to stand by him. They had their own little problems off the court I guess, so he had to do what he had to do and we had to stand by him as a team and get him as comfortable as possible and help him. I think we could have helped him a little bit more. We could have trapped LeBron a little bit more than we did to get the ball out of this hand and let everybody else beat us the whole series, but we played him straight up and he straight up killed us, like he did during the regular season. But, it was entertaining. On the days I wasn’t playing, I enjoyed the hype. I know a lot of critics and sports analysts were killing us, I heard the Charles Barkley thing (called Washington the dumbest team ever, or something like that), but at the end of the day, they were watching. And at the end of the day, that’s all you want for your series are the viewers." For those into this kind of thing, in February it was reported that Stevenson was dating LeToya Luckett, formerly of Destiny's Child. Beyonce also was in Destiny's Child. Beyonce is married to Jay Z, who is LeBron's good friend. Evidently Luckett and Beyonce had a falling out at some point, which led to a lawsuit being filed and blah blah blah. This is just a guess, but perhaps somewhere in this web is the reason for those "little problems" off the court.

Here's a couple more excerpts from Gilbert's blog: "You had entertainers showing up, and you had entertainers making diss tapes. I’ve been in this league, I’ve been around the league, I’ve been watching the league for as long as I can remember, and I’ve never seen anything this wild in a series in my life." And: "It was amazing though, the whole city of Cleveland was into it. A couple of us were in the mall in Cleveland and a guy came up to us and was like, 'I know somewhere you guys haven’t been before …' And it caught us off guard. We were thinking he was going to be like, 'The Gap!' So we just were like, 'Where?' And he goes, 'The Second Round!' And he just took off running. We were like, what is this? This is crazy. But that is really a Cavaliers town. I love cities like that. They support their team, they’re not the bandwagon jumpers. Some of my Halo players showed up at the game wearing my jerseys and they got peanuts, cans, beers thrown at them. They needed an escort out of the arena because they had my jerseys on! But I like stuff like that. It shows that you’re down for your team."

This little video has nothing to do with the Celtics series, but it's entertaining, no?

Weird opening game. That’s the kind of probing analysis you pay for and expect, eh?

Who knows? Maybe LeBron James was reading the Boston Globe all day and pondering how great he is. Nah. His shots just did not go in. That happens sometimes. It doesn’t happen often like this with LeBron (2-for-18, 10 turnovers), but it happened this Tuesday night in Boston. And it’s the reason the Cavs lost.

Even with that, the Cavs had a chance to win. They just didn’t. In normal circumstances the thinking would be that the Cavs had their chance to steal a game in Boston and missed it. Now they’ll never steal Game 2. Except normal thinking goes out the window with James. He never – well hardly ever – has consecutive bad games. He could drop 40 with 12 assists on the Celtics on Thursday night.

But as bad as James played, he was matched by Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Those two combined to shoot 2-for-18 with 10 turnovers, just like LeBron. That won’t happen again. Just like it won’t happen again that James will struggle like he did. So who knows how this comes out in the wash (more of that probing analysis, eh?).

Still, even with all the problems, the Cavs had a lead late, had the ball down two late and had James at the rim with a chance to tie. He missed. As he said, it was that kind of night. The reason Boston won and the Cavs lost was that Kevin Garnett made his shot in the final minute, and James missed. Through all the troubles and struggles and ugliness prior – and it was an ugly game — it still came down to those two shots.

Not sure if this was a hard-nosed defensive game, or just an ugly game. Perhaps both. You have to think both teams will play with more skill, and play better, as the series continues. As Boston coach Doc Rivers said, it was like he was back in the old Heat-Knicks playoff series. Said Mike Brown: “The whole series could be filled with us grinding it out.”

There was a knock on Kevin Garnett, that he does not want to take the big shot at crunch time. Well he sure wanted to take it in Game 1. He did and made two. “That is why he is called ‘the big ticket,’” Boston’s Kendrick Perkins said. If this continues, folks will point to this series as the time Garnett took charge. And it would come at the expense of the Cavs.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who played a very good game (again), summed things up well when he said: “We were right there, up two points. That’s where you want to be at on the road with a minute left. They just made a couple more shots than we did at the end. They made their shots and we missed some shots. Sometimes it goes that way. You know, you have to like being up by two with a minute left on the road with a hostile crowd.”

The more I watch Z, the more I wonder why in the world anyone wants to get rid of him, or doesn’t like him. The guy is a very, very, very good player, who does a lot of things to help his team win.

James spoke of his game and Paul Pierce’s: “If you combine our numbers – 4-for-32, between me and Paul Pierce, with 16 turnovers, 0-for-9 from the three point line … I could keep going I guess. Not all-star numbers right there.”

James had a tough night. But I think we can officially state that Pierce is freaked out playing against James. He shot 37.7 percent against Cleveland during the regular season, now drops a 2-for-14 night on the parquet (the word has to appear at least once, right?). Pierce tries too hard against his rival, or at least he has to this point. He could break out of it any point, but to this point the thought of facing James is in his head. Either that or James' defense is too good.

Said Rivers: “If you’re Cleveland you are thinking that they almost won with LeBron playing like that. If you’re us, we’re thinking we won with Paul and Ray not scoring. So it’s probably a wash.”

Two-for-18 was the worst percentage shooting night of James’ career.

Interesting that Sasha Pavlovic replaced Devin Brown in the rotation. And surprising, given the many ways Brown has contributed to the team. Brown did not get a minute after playing in 78 games in the regular season.

Perspective remains amazing. Had James made that last layup and the Cavs won in overtime we’d all be talking about how he overcame the tough night. It wasn’t a bad night, because he wasn’t out of control and launching garbage. He simply didn’t make his shots.

The play goes unnoticed, but late in the game the Celtics missed a shot, then got the ball out of bounds after a scramble. Doc Rivers called timeout to diagram a play, and had the ball thrown in to Garnett 18 feet from the basket. Thing is, the original shot never hit the rim, and there was only one second on the shot clock. When the ref signaled a violation, Rivers put his hands out as if to ask what was going on. Same with Garnett. Clearly, nobody on the Celtics or on the bench was aware of the shot clock – and Boston discussed things during a timeout. Rivers skates because the Celtics won. I can only imagine the outcry if the same thing happened with Mike Brown.

Boston is one of the great sports cities in America. Passionate, involved, a bit obnoxious — but amazingly knowledgeable. Fans in Boston are some of the wisest in the country — even with their home-town biases. Too, some of the best sportswriters in our purple mountain's majesty work in Boston. Larry Bird once said of the Boston Globe's Bob Ryan that he was the only sportswriter who could watch one practice and know all the Celtics plays. Folks in Washington just couldn't seem to get past the fact LeBron James didn't like getting clubbed with a four-by-four on the way to the basket and focused on his alleged "crybaby" side. Folks in Boston have seen Russell, Havlicek, Bird and the rest. They appreciate good basketball.

Their words about LeBron in Tuesday's Boston Globe were downright fawning. Accurate, of course. But fawning nonetheless. And perhaps they should make us all pause, head to a daffodil field, rub our chins and appreciate the metaphysical truth that James truly is the best player in the game today.

Ryan, who knows so much basketball, wrote that LeBron "is the most physically gifted player in the history of the game." Holy George Mikan, folks. He said the history of the game! That means … ever. I suggest reading the entire story.

When discussing … well … writing about the matchup, Peter May asks: "When was the last time the Celtics faced a guy like this in the postseason?" And no, he was not referring to Eric Snow.

While most in Cleveland were in despair over the near .500 Cavs following the major midseason trades, the Globe's Michael Vega writes: "… the fact that they were able to post a 15-13 record while trying to establish some sense of cohesion on the fly was remarkable." Paul Pierce talks nice about LeBron in that story, and Celtics coach Doc Rivers said the trade made the Cavs a much better team.

In the Boston Herald, Rivers is quoted saying: "We don’t have any LeBron-stoppers on our team. I don’t want to put anyone out on that island.”

Apparently, though, there's some bad feelings between Boston's Kevin Garnett and Cleveland's Wally Szczerbiak.

Few things to consider for Game 1:
—Paul Pierce shot 37.7 percent in four games against the Cavs this year.
—Doc Rivers has advanced to the second round of the playoffs as a coach one time, this year.
—Everyone earns everything this series. Boston held Atlanta to 41 percent shooting in its first-round series, Cleveland held Washington to 42 percent.
—Ray Allen has made just two of his last 13 three-point shots.
—Many are assuming that Ben Wallace will guard Kevin Garnett, and he will — early. It will be interesting to see, though, if Mike Brown uses Wallace in the final minutes. His presence on the floor is a free-throw shooting nightmare.

Finally, a special place in the underworld must be reserved for people on a plane who, when getting out of their seat, use the back of your seat for leverage. This succeeds in surprisingly bending your seat back, all so he or she can get out of his or her seat. The place for these people must be right next to those who turn in the aisle and club you in the head with the bag on their shoulder.

Game time is 8 p.m. See ya after.

The Boston Celtics are treating the Cavs with a little more respect than Washington did. The Celtics said many things that show they are taking the Cavs seriously. If they mean what they say, that is. There are some interesting feelings in this series. LeBron James and Paul Pierce do not seem to be best of friends; the two got in a tussle once, and they do a lot of talking on the floor. James said it's just two competitors. But Kevin Garnett talked quite a bit to James in the game he played in Cleveland in December. James admitted during the season that the Celtics are "up there" when it comes to talking on the court. Whatever that means, and it probably means nothing when it comes to actually playing the games. Bottom line: The Celtics clearly are not going to treat this series the way the Wizards did, by doing a lot of chattering prior.

As of early Monday morning, 71 percent of those voting on an ESPN poll said the Cavs would win one of the first two games in Boston.

One NBA writer feels the Celtics celebrated a bit too much after being taken to seven games by Atlanta. Seems he likes the Cavs' chances.

Nice lead here on the Series from Tom Withers of the Associated Press.

If artery-clogging ingredients are your cup of tea, Thursday is your day. Papa John's will sell a large, one-topping pizza (pineapple anyone?) for 23 cents as a way of making up to Cavs fans for the T-Shirts with Papa John's logos that called LeBron James a "crybaby." Those shirts appeared at Game 6 in D.C., and the PR types at the pizza place apparently recognize a mistake when they see it. The company also will donate $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund — and only have four grams of saturated fat per slice.

Roger Clemens sure has rebabbed his image, eh?

A story in last week's Washington Post detailed how the Nationals are having a hard time selling the best seats in one section of their new stadium. These seats are right behind the plate, primo location, if you get the drift. Yet they show up on TV as empty all the time — because they cost $300 per ticket. Imagine that, people actually balking at paying $300 per seat.

Mike Lupica details here that the Yankees charged $150 for a ticket behind the dugout last year. Same seat is $250 this year, the last for Yankee Stadium. Next year in the new Yankee Stadium it will cost $850 (If there's a Yankee Stadium next year then I guess this is not the last year for it, eh?). And seats right behind the dugout will cost $2,500. For one stinking seat. Folks will be lining up like they're at Filene's basement for those.

I like to refer to all these trips to cover these games the way players do — they are "business trips." There to focus on a job, to do a job. to get something done. A business trip. That being said, there are occasional yet rare opportunities to actually get out and learn something about the local culture where the games are played. So it was in Washington, D.C., when there was perhaps a 15-minute window (business trip, remember) to sample a restaurant. Now … there are certain principles for dining on the road. It's easy to eat at chains. Why go to a restaurant in Washington one can eat at in Cleveland? Makes no sense, really, to go with the Big Mac and fries just because it's within one mile of the Capitol. Ruth's Chris or Chris' Ruth or whatever it is may have the best steak in the Western Hemisphere, but why eat there on the road when you can go to one locally? Best to find the small, local place. Doesn't have to be fancy, but should have some character. So it is that the best walleye you may ever eat will come from the Tavern on Grand in St. Paul, Mn. In Washington, then, one might wish to try La Tomate on Connecticut just off Dupont Circle (unsolicited promo photo above). Small family-owned Italian place, lot of character, all fresh food — very friendly and inviting and warm. Yes, that's it. Warm. A restaurant is always best warm. W-a-r-m. Don't leave without trying the spinach appetizer. If you get lost, it's right across the street from the Church of Scientology; maybe Tom Cruise will stop by and jump on the table. Joggers (like myself) have to appreciate D.C. too. Best path takes ya past the White House and south to the Mall and past the Lincoln Memorial. Not the Soldiers and Sailers Monument on the square, mind you, but it'll do. Again … if there's time on these "business trips."

Oh … the best and only way to get around in D.C. is via Metro, the subway. It is a great subway system, paid for by our tax dollars, and very convenient — primarily because it saves the headache of driving in D.C. Take it everywhere — even to bed. But there are a few rules to follow. First is the fare card system. One-day graduate classes are offered on how to use the fare card at both Georgetown and American University. Take one on arrival. I'd offer advice on the fare card, but it's against the rules. Part of the tradition of riding the Metro is being baffled the first time you try the fare card. The only thing to say is everyone has to have their own fare card. Don't buy one $20 fare card and expect it to cover Mom, Dad, Grandma, the dog, lizard and the kids. Everybody needs their own fare card. Second, one must never ever actually talk to anyone on the Metro. One must only sit in their seat silently, staring straight ahead or at the ground (the woman on the right technically is breaking the rules). If you are with a group or a friend, it is acceptable to talk so long as the talk is muted. God fobid you would actually make conversation with a stranger. This would make the Metro warm, and only D.C. restaurants are allowed to be warm (w-a-r-m). Talking to someone on the Metro apparently will cause antenna to grow out of your armpits. Third, when taking the escalator down to the Metro, stand TO THE RIGHT. Folks who walk down go on the left, and if you are in the way they will admonish you sternly: "Stand to the right please." Then they'll run you over like they have to get to some meeting at the Interior Department — and we all know how busy those folks are. Finally, when entering the Metro car, if there are no seats do not move to the middle of the car. Instead, clog the area right inside the door. This seems to be almost as important as not talking to the folks who ride. No reason can be given, it just happens. Make the area by the doors as crowded as possible, thus making it inconvenient for those getting on and off. Seems to be a matter of policy, and again we all know how important "policy" is in D.C.

Last, these suggestions are offered only to give a local flavor to the visit, not for financial gain.

There are some bitter folks in our nation's capital. And it has nothing to do with John McCain's energy plan. Fans of the Wizards — and the folks that cover them — seemed especially bitter about the suspension of Darious Songaila, aka Shaquille Erving Magic Jordan, for Game 6. The suspension was a surprise, given much worse had happened. But the league had its reasons.

The Washington Post's Mike Wise wrote that the suspension was "one of the great miscarriages of playoff justice ever meted out by the NBA, a travesty that cheated the Wizards out of having a legitimate shot of bringing the series to a Game 7 climax, irrespective of the final score."

The only disgusting miscarriage news heard recently was about that Yale art student (warning: not for kids) who claimed her senior project came from intentional miscarriages. This is what we get for $40,000 a year for higher education, a byproduct, one would assume, of $3 cups of coffee.

As for the NBA and miscarriages, let's just say the league is sometimes inexplicable and leave it at that.

Tom Knott of the Washington Times is no fan of James. He wrote: "With the suspension of Darius Songaila, league officials might as well allow James to play in the Popemobile."

Perspective is an amazing thing. Be real … without perspective and different viewpoints would we ever have "Deal or No Deal"? In Washington, James is viewed as crybaby numero uno. That's fancy language for "number one." In Cleveland, James was the victim of the most egregious attacks since the James Gang. Truth be told, there were several ugly flagrant fouls in the series, and all were on James.

This might mean he was the only one going to the basket, but it doesn't. It means he was the victim of hard fouls that were excessive. Hard fouls are part of the playoffs. What happened to our LeBron went beyond simple hard fouls. They were cheap shots. He thought the Wizards wanted to hurt him; I thought they wanted to intimidate him. No matter. The fouls were excessive, period and end of discussion. The league thought so. The Cavs thought so. Washington folks didn't. Perspective.

Final result: The Cavs won the Series 4-2.

This is the point when all Cavs fans can put their thumbs in their ears, wiggle their fingers and stick out their tongues while looking toward D.C.

But I wonder this … Washington writers properly made a big deal out of Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison taking charge in Game 5 and telling their teammates just to play. If those two pros didn't think things were getting out of hand, why make the statements? And why write about them as if they had just ridden in with the light brigade?

Meanwhile, the D.C. sports blog quoted Butler after the game this way: "I'm a man, he's a man, and when the battle was over, I went up to him and gave him respect…. We fought it out, and the best man won. He said, 'Good series dog, respect, respect,' and we walked off. That's what men do."

Amen.

Said DeShawn Stevenson: "I'm a talker, you know; that's what I do. I was raised like that. We need someone on the team like that."

True that.

Meanwhile, the Post's Michael Wilbon — his relatives live just a few doors down, which must earn this neighborhood some kind of Pardon the Interruption coffee mugs or doormats or book covers or something — attributed the Cavs' victory to … (drum roll please) … LeBron James.

THAT is really true. If the folks locally who watch pro sports don't realize what a special, special player James is, what a leader he is, how mature he is on the court … well then there's something amiss in Barberton. James is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of player, the Jim Brown of his era. And we all get to follow him and watch him.

Finally, let's give Mike Brown some credit. Seems like fans in this area love to lambaste our coaches, like they're turkeys on a spit. But Brown has done an oustanding job in the playoffs. He struggles occasionally with offense, but someone made some good offensive adjustments to get the Cavs over 100 points in Game 6. Finally, his defensive coaching is unquestioned. Washington scored 31 points in the first quarter, 57 the rest of the game. And the Wizards were held below 90 points in four of the six games. Brown deserves a lot more credit than he receives, and a lot less criticism.

The final word (for now) on the series comes from James: "We had a lot of things go on besides basketball in this series, which was fun. But at the same time we took care of business. Soulja Boy, DeShawn Stevenson, my big brother Jay, myself, the crowd with 'overrated,' all that, it comes down to us winning a really gruesome series 4-2 and looking forward to the next round."

I'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?

In this Wizards-Cavaliers series we've seen LeBron James twice get knocked down going in for a layup in Game 1, then responding with an elbow to the jaw of Andray Blatche. We've seen Brendan Haywood push James when he was in the air, a play that probably was the most dangerous in the series. We've seen Anderson Varejao take a swing at Blatche's head while ostensibly going for the ball. We've also seen DeShawn Stevenson take a wilder swing at James' head, a move that was outright dirty. And we've seen Stevenson be suspended $25,000 for a throat slash gesture in Game 4.

After all that the NBA decides to suspend Darius Songaila for this technical foul:

Note, though, that announcers Marv Albert and Reggie Miller both were adamant that Songaila's actions were deliberate and not, as Songaila said, accidental. Still, it didn't compare with this from Stevenson:

Or this from Haywood:

Why the suspension? According to my esteemed colleague Brian Windhorst and the Washington Post, the NBA made it clear to the teams that any more nastiness would lead to an automatic suspension. Apparently, the league thought long and hard about suspending Stevenson after Game 4, but chose not to. Instead it said any more rough play would be automatic suspension.

So the first Wizard is suspended. It's not the worst that's happened in this series; it might in fact be the most "innocent" of the hard fouls (is that an oxymoron?). But it came after warning from the league. So Washington's depth on the front line is affected.

By the way, if you didn't hear what Reggie Miller had to say about Stevenson doing his face-wave thing down 16 in Game 1, here it is:

Wizards coach Eddie Jordan said this after Game 5: "I think we are going to play great on Friday. I'm not predicting a win but I think we are going to play great on Friday and then bring it back here. … I guess I am predicting a win if I say we are coming back here for a seventh game. I'm not boldly predicting a win, but I think we will play very well on Friday." Hardly Joe Namath guaranteeing victory. Which is probably why the Cavs shrugged it off. "That's an easy guarantee, in my opinion," Brown said. "Or an easy thing to say." Brown, though, said he would not make a statement like that. "I don't know if I'd make a statement like that at a news conference," Brown said, "but it doesn't make it bad."

Put it another way: Jordan's statements are clearly no more inflammatory than James saying "No" when asked if the Wizards could get back in the series after Cleveland had won Game 4.

On the replay it sure looked like LeBron James was fouled on his attempted game-winner in Game 5. But on second review it appears Darius Songaila was pushed into James by Zydrunas Ilguaskas. This is done in the NBA; it's what happened late in the season in Philadelphia when the referees put time back on the clock. Z pushed Samuel Dalembert into Devin Brown, and that's a loose ball foul. Wednesday night, the officials rightly ruled no call.

Washington's two leaders, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison, stood up for proper play and lack of trash talk after Game 5. Said Butler: "Don't judge this team by comments. LeBron made a statement: 'these guys are talkers' but unless you hear something from the captains, which would be myself and Antawn, don't label that as the team. I'm the voice of this team and Antawn is the spiritual and emotional leader so unless you hear it from one of us, keep it moving." Said Jamison:"All the talk, all the silliness had gotten so much attention, it was time to just play ball. We were down 3-1, on the brink of elimination, I just told them that all this talking was not making them look bad, it was making us look bad. We're a veteran team and it was time for us to start acting like it." Jamison admitted he was annoyed with DeShawn Stevenson and Gilbert Arenas. "We've got a lot of personalities on our team. Sometimes you can tame them, sometimes you can't. But this was out of hand. I told them: 'You can't get your point across through the media. You have to get your point across on the court.' That's what they were doing. They've been just staying quiet and playing. For Caron and myself, it was just difficult. Don't get me wrong, I love D-Steve and I love Gil, and I'll strap it up with them anytime. You have to have your teammates' backs, but what was going on was just nonsense. It had nothing to do with getting respect, because you can only do that by playing well and demonstrating professionalism. You make your noise that way."

Butler and Jamison are pros, and extremely good players. What they said does not a surprise. And the fact that they've returned the series to basketball is a good thing.

Songaila said when his arm hit James in the first half of Game 5 that it was "an accident." He said: "We got tangled up, my arm got caught inside of his and when he tried to free himself it was just an accident. He lifted my arm and it hit him right in the face. It was caused by him. It wasn't intentional or anything like that. If anything, it was just an accident." Eddie Jordan added: "And LeBron's a terrific actor; we've seen some of his commercials."

Wally Szczerbiak is shooting 36 percent (14-for-39). Ugh. This might mean the Cavs go to Sasha Pavlovic, who may be healthy. Said Mike Brown: "It's hard for me to say if Sasha is going to be ready for a playoff ready atmosphere like this, with the way the speed of the game is. Having said that, yeah, I might throw him in there. But right now it’s not at the top of my list."

As for shooting, Anderson Varejao is 7-for-24 (29 percent). This is brutal, especially given most of Varejoa's shots come from close range and that Varejao has started to act like he's Julius Erving. Someone needs to put a choke collar on him and yank it every time he starts one of these ridiculous drives or spinning moves.

Some more quotes from practice:

Z on the Cavs late offense: "We should have driven to the basket, made them foul us. … We made it easy on them. Especially with Haywood being out of the game."

Brown on the late offense: "We got to get LeBron moving, and we have to get him on the backside of some action. We didn’t do that. Having said that, going back and watching the tape, we got to the rim, we got in the paint. Joe had a wide open two footer, Gib had a wide open shot off the drive and kick. In the last few possessions we had some good shots. But in the same breath I agree, we do have to get him off the back side and that starts with me."

Daniel Gibson on the not going to Z late: "We definitely could have gone to Z in a couple different situations. But at the same time, when you have No. 23 out there on the floor … "

Mike Brown: "A playoff series is a season in itself." Amen to that one, especially after this series.

Tonight's loss was pretty dadgum frustrating. How else to say it when a team has a five-point lead with less than two minutes left, has the ball — and loses. This game was lost for three reasons:

1) Poor offense down the stretch. It's what I wrote for Thursday's Beacon-Journal. The Cavs didn't run an offense late in the game. They stood around and watched LeBron James dribble, then hoped he could create a shot or an open pass. This is all well and good when one play is needed to win. But when the Cavs did it over and over again in the fourth period it was maddening. What's wrong with setting picks? With running plays? Remember how aggressive James was when he curled off a pick in Game 1 to make the two key shots? That play was nowhere to be found. Zydraunas Ilgauskas had a six-inch height advantage on Darius Songaila, yet the Cavs never once posted Z up to give him the ball on the low block. They let James dribble and dribble and dribble — and when he found open guys they did not make the shots. Please … next time more than one possession is needed to win a game … how about a screen … a pass or two … some motion … something other than "give the ball to LeBron and everybody else get out of the way" (Delonte West's description).

2) Poor shooting — The Cavs shot 36 percent, 27-for-75. Joe Smith could not get a basket. James was 8-for-21, including what he admitted was a bad three late in the shot clock with the Cavs up five and less than two minutes left. Z was 8-for-11, but I'll bet the only time he touched the ball in the final two minutes was on a rebound. Wally Szczerbiak (1-for-6) and Anderson Varejao (1-for-6) struggled, as did Devin Brown (1-for-5) and Smith (0-for-6). That's 3-for-23 from four pretty key guys.

3) Too many threes — The Cavs seemed to rely on threes, taking 25 after taking 28 on Sunday. They averaged 19 threes per game in the regular season. You can make the argument that three-point shooting won Sunday's game, and it did. But in this game officials were sending guys to the free throw line when they took the ball to the basket. The Cavs simply did not do that enough.

End result, it's back to Washington.

Remember when James said he did not think Washington could get back in it. Guess what, the Wizards are back in it.

Oh … the foul call at the end of the game, or the non-call to be precise. Yes, Songaila jumped into James. Yes, it was probably a foul. But I heard Campy Russell say on TV that you're not going to get that call, that officials want the players to decide. James might have deserved a foul call, but Caron Butler also might have deserved a call on his game-winning shot.

To their credit the Cavs followed their edict: They did not make excuses.

Tom Knott of the Washington Times started his column today this way:

"So Brendan Haywood has joined the trash-talking fun by calling LeBron James a crybaby, which is an accurate enough description of someone who believes the Wizards are torturing him with all kinds of medieval devices.

'The delusion of James is encouraged by Mike Brown, who coaches under another delusion, namely that James is destined to be the best basketball player there ever was."

The column, headlined Sweet Crybaby James, also has this:

"(James') pass to Delonte West in the final seconds of Game 4 — the object of so much gushing — was hardly awe-inspiring. It was a play that as many as three-quarters of the players in the NBA could have made. It merely required James to spot the second defender drifting toward him and dump the ball to the open teammate on the baseline.

"It did not send chills down the back of anyone, excluding the LeBrohava Witnesses of Cleveland, so psychologically crippled by the John Elway Drive, the Earnest Byner Fumble and the Jordan Shot over Craig Ehlo that it indulges anyone it believes could end the championship curse."

Read the entire column here.