Cleveland Cavliers Washington Wiards preview 12/05/07
GAME: Cleveland Cavaliers (9-10) at Washington Wizards (8-9)
DATE/TIME: Wednesday, December 05 - 7:00 PM EST
SPREAD: Washington -11.5 TOTAL: 186
Washington Wizards are playing better without Gilbert Arenas than the Cleveland Cavaliers are without LeBron James.
Both superstars could again be out Wednesday night when the Cavaliers visit the Wizards in the teams' first meeting since last season's playoffs.
While Arenas is set to miss the next three months due to knee surgery, James has sat out three straight games - all losses - for the Cavaliers. Cleveland (9-10) has looked listless through most of those games, including a 100-79 loss to New Jersey on Tuesday.
"Tonight, I felt we gave in as a team," Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. "We gave in to whatever they were doing and we didn't fight back until late. I'm disappointed that we gave in the way that we did."
James, who leads the NBA with 30.7 points per game, is out due to a sprained left index finger, which appears to be taking longer than anticipated to heal. It's unclear whether he will return Wednesday.
The Cavaliers are averaging 76.3 points during their current four-game losing streak.
"We can't just sit back and wait for him to get back and say we will be all right when he gets back," forward Drew Gooden said. "We have got to do something now."
After two ineffective performances by Devin Brown in place of James, Shannon Brown got his first start Tuesday and took advantage for a career-high 20 points. The performance likely earned him another start if James cannot play.
The Wizards (8-9), meanwhile, have won five of nine games without Arenas, including a 101-97 win over Toronto on Saturday. Caron Butler scored 29 points and Antawn Jamison added 28 and 14 rebounds for Washington, which avoided a third straight loss.
"It's incredible, man," Washington coach Eddie Jordan said. "Defenses are loading up on them. They're denying them. They've been making it hard for them to catch. They've been making it hard for them to make their moves. But they're getting it done."
Saturday's win opened a five-game homestand for Washington, which plays nine of its 13 games this month at the Verizon Center after spending most of November on the road.
"This is a great opportunity for us," Jamison said.
Jamison is averaging 25.6 points and 10.8 rebounds this season in games in which Arenas has missed. It's not much of a surprise since Jamison shined in last year's playoffs against Cleveland, averaging 32.0 points and 9.8 rebounds as the Wizards played without Arenas and were swept.
But with Arenas out due to knee surgery, James and the Cavaliers took advantage and swept the series. James averaged 27.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists in the four games.
It was far less dramatic than the Cavs' six-game victory over the Wizards a year earlier in a series that featured plenty of scoring duels between James and Arenas.
