Photo: Joshua Gunter/Plain Dealer

The Cleveland Cavaliers needed a quarter to get up for the Washington Wizards and found themselves down 31 to 17 at the end of the first quarter. Cleveland had no answer for Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas and could not seem to make a shot to gain any momentum. The second quarter brought the defense out of Mike Brown's Cavaliers and started the scoring surge from Shaquille O'Neal. The Cavs outscored the Wizards 22 to 11 in the last 6 minutes of the 2nd quarter to pull within 4 points of the Wizards at the half. Cleveland continued to shoot the ball well in the 2nd half, and the Cavaliers sent the Wizards home from the Q with a 102 to 90 loss.

Hot and Cold - The Cavalier and Wizard offenses were polar opposites in the 1st quarter. The Cavaliers played the role of cold, and the Wizards were the hot ones. The Wizards shot 55% from the floor on 11 of 20 shooting, and the Cavs went 33% from the floor on 8 of 24 shooting. The Wizards also went to the line 10 times in the first quarter making 7 of their free throws while the Cavs were 1 of 3 from the line in the 1st.

Butler and Arenas Carve Up the Cavs D -Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas combined for 23 1st quarter points. The Cavaliers had a hard time adjusting to the high screens of the Wizards, and Washington found themselves with many wide open shots to start this game.

No Hustle - The Wizards needed no extra motivation to show the Cavaliers they were ready to play. Washington came out of the gate firing and Cleveland seemed like they were still hitting the snooze button. The Wizards out-rebounded The Cavs 15 to 10 in the 1st quarter and also got to the free throw line 7 more times than the Cavs. Cleveland was a step slow on the defensive and seemed like they were in danger of letting this one get out of control. The Cavs were not doing the little things like boxing out or going after 50/50 balls.

2nd Quarter Resurgence - After going down 18 points early in the 2nd quarter, the Cavaliers turned up the defense and started chipping into the Wizards lead. The Cavs started their comeback with James on the bench. Delonte West and Daniel Gibson fed the ball down low to O'Neal who scored 9 2nd quarter points. West did a nice job of getting the Cavaliers to slow down and play back to their pace as Cleveland was starting to fall into a transition game that Washington was winning. Daniel Gibson also came up big in the 2nd quarter; Gibson scored 8 2nd quarter points off the bench including 2 of 2 from 3-point range.

Nothing Easy In Shaq's Lane - In the 2nd quarter, DeShawn Stevenson came through the lane and was planning on going hard to the hole, but Shaq had other plans. Shaq planted Stevenson on his back with a hard foul that had one of his hands coming across Stevenson's arms and the other across his head. Shaq has continued to make others pay for going hard at him in the lane which is something the Cavs have not seen in past seasons.

Washington's Foul Trouble - Before the 1st half ended, The Wizards found themselves with a little bit of a foul problem down-low. With the Cavs starting to force the ball down to Shaq, Washington had no choice but to foul and make Shaq earn the points. Well, Shaq earned his points, and the Wizards burned through some fouls. JaVale McGee, Andry Blatche and Brendan Haywood all racked up 3 fouls before halftime. Washington had a total of 18 personal fouls compared to Cleveland's 10 at the half.

Keeping It Flowing - In the 3rd quarter, The Cavs seemed to keep the momentum going. Cleveland used a 10-0 run early in the 3rd quarter to take a 62 to 58 lead that Cleveland never lost. During the 10-0 run, the Cavs got baskets by 4 different players including 3-pointers from LeBron and Mo and lay-ups from Andy and Shaq.

Parker Can't Buy a Bucket - Anthony Parker had a tough night on the floor for the Cavs. Parker shot 16.6% going 2 of 12 from the field. He also was 1 of 6 from 3-point range. Parker was shooting so poorly that Mike Brown reached into his dog house for Jamario Moon. Moon has seen little time in the past few games, but with Parker only scoring 5 points and handling out 1 assist in 28 minutes Brown had to make a change. Moon came in and knocked down a 3-point right away. Moon finished with 3 points and 3 rebounds in 9 minutes; however, Moon was very active on the defensive end bothering multiple shots.

Downtown Cleveland - The Cavaliers made 11 3-pointers tonight. After the Cavs started 2 of 12 from 3-point range in the 1st half, Cleveland hit 9 of 14 3-balls in the 2nd half to break the back of the Washington Wizards. Mo Williams and Boobie Gibson combined for 7 3-pointers on 9 attempts.

LBJ a Silent Killer Tonight - I have gone this entire article without mentioning LeBron James multiple times. James had a terrific night and it was one of the better games I have seen from him in a while. James scored 27 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, dished out 6 assists and had 3 steals, but I barely felt like I saw him the whole game. LeBron was effective at taking what the defense gave him tonight, and that allowed him to not take so many forced shots. LBJ was 7 of 16 from the floor and a dazzling 11 of 13 from the free-throw line. With Boobie and Mo both shooting the ball well and Shaq starting to find his zone down-low, you can expect to see more of these types of games from LBJ.

goes to: Shaquille O'Neal and Daniel Gibson. Tonight, Cavalier fans saw first hand just how dominate Shaq can be down-low. Shaq scored 21 points on 7 of 9 shooting and making 7 of 10 free throws. Shaq also pulled down 8 rebounds, handed out 3 assists and blocked 1 shot. Shaq's presence allowed the Cavs to slow down the Wizards 1st half of transition baskets. The Cavaliers began to feed the Diesel, and he caused the Washington big men to get into foul trouble. Daniel "Boobie" Gibson continued to show that he is ready to contribute as a solid bench player this year. Gibson scored 14 points on 4 of 5 shooting from 3-point range. Gibson also took 3 charges. Anderson Varejao also had a strong night for the Cavs with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Team Grade: B

The Cavaliers played a very solid final 3 quarters of this game and limited the Wizards to 59 points in those 3 quarters; however, the 1st quarter of this game was more than concerning. If the Cavs have a problem getting up for a team like Washington at home, Cleveland could be in for a few more home court losses than they want to see this year. Despite the early woes in this one, the Cavaliers received double digits scoring from 5 different players: James(27), O'Neal(21), Williams(15), Gibson(14) and Varejao(10). It was a very balanced game scoring wise. Cleveland handed out 25 assists on 36 field goals and only turned the ball over 7 times compared to Washington's 13 turnovers. The Cavaliers also owned the paint by scoring 40 points in the paint against Washington's 22 points in the paint. The other concerning stat was Cleveland being out rebounded 36 to 29 by the Wizards and giving up 12 offensive rebounds. The rebounding damage was done early on in the 1st quarter while the Cavs were still sleeping, but giving up 12 offensive boards to the Wizards is not acceptable. Minus the poor start and rebounding margin, the Cavs have plenty to be happy about with this game. They beat a team that will be in the playoff picture, it was the best game they have played as a team incorporating Shaq and they held the Wizards to 39.1% shooting. All in all, it is a respectable win vs. a team they may see in the playoffs.

The Cavs have one day off then Cleveland has back-to-back games starting Thursday. Thursday Cleveland hosts their division rival the Chicago Bulls, and Friday, Cleveland travels to New York to play the Knicks and be constantly asked about LeBron's plans for the summer of 2010.

Burn On!

J.V.

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