Cavs/Wizards Game 2

What a difference a couple of days make.

In Game 1, LeBron dominated the flow of the game on the way to a Cavs victory. In Game 2, well, not so much, as the Wizards took it by a 89-84 score.

For the Cavs, LeBron led them in scoring with 24 points, but that's a little misleading, in that he shot 7/25 from the floor including 1/6 from downtown. He did pull down 9 rebounds, but he only had 2 assists to go along with 10 turnovers. All night long, he made stupid turnovers and tried to make impossible passes, missed a wide open dunk, and misfired on a lot of close shots. Jared Jeffries, who guarded him for much of the game, sagged way off and basically dared LeBron to shoot jumpers, and LeBron wasn't overly eager to comply.

The real star of the game for the Cavs was forward Drew Gooden (who's working for a new contract), who finished 24 points on 11/12 shooting, and pulled down 16 rebounds. He was seemingly everywhere, and really kept Cleveland in the game.

On the Wizards side, we got our first real look at the Big 3, as all of them scored over 20 points for the Wizards. Gilbert Arenas led them with 30, while Butler and Jamison each had 21, including some big 3s down the stretch from Jamison. They all had at least 6 rebounds as well.

Remember the hype surrounding Caron Butler out of the draft, and all of the comparisons to Paul Pierce after he slipped to #10? Well, he's really living up to them now. He's an excellent shooter, both from the mid-range, from downtown, and from the FT stripe. He's a solid rebounder, and he's a good defender.

In the end, too many turnovers for LeBron, too much offense from the Big 3, and we're headed to Washington with the series tied at 1. Game 3 is Friday night.