Ugly Contest: Wizards, Cavaliers Leave Pretty at the Door

NOTHING ABOUT THIS SERIES is pretty.

So, when the Wizards pulled out an ugly 88-87 victory in Cleveland on Wednesday, they breathed their biggest sigh of relief to date.

Two more grinding performances like that one — in which Caron Butler scored a career playoff-best 32 points and made a game-winning layup — will get them into the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs for the first time since 2005.

Of course, the Cavs have eliminated Washington in D.C. each of the last two seasons. They play at Verizon Center on Friday night.

Butler's shot — almost identical to the attempt LeBron James missed on the other end of the floor at the buzzer — was the team's final attempt in a game in which the Wizards made just 41 percent of their field-goal tries and turned the ball over 13 times in the first half. They were playing without Gilbert Arenas, who announced before the game that he was done for the year.

"This team went through a lot of adversity all season long," Butler said. "We've been told what we can't do and what we couldn't overcome, and we've just been proving doubters wrong all season. Obviously, this is just another obstacle."

Arenas' absence resulted in Eddie Jordan's tightening his rotation and giving the bulk of the minutes to just seven guys, though only Butler and Antonio Daniels (12 points) shot well. Antawn Jamison (eight points) was just 3-for-10 from the floor.

Cleveland — which leads the series 3-2 — suffered a similar poor-shooting fate with its second-tier players failing to do enough in complementing James. While center Zydrunas Ilgauskas put up 19 points, the Cavs couldn't knock down shots at the end of the fourth quarter when the Wizards were blanketing James.

Though Wednesday's victory was memorable for the way Washington scored the last six points to steal it, the Wizards will not want Games 6 and 7 to come down to a last-minute duel between their stars. They've already seen James make too many big shots against them.

"You're not going to completely stop a guy like that. He's too talented," Butler said of James. "What you've got to do is try to make it difficult for him."

Written by Express contributor Eric Brandner
Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post