Cavaliers and Wizards Meet Again in the First Round of the Playoffs
How great is this series going to be?
The Wizards and Cavs first postseason meeting in 2006 was epic.
Lebron and Gilbert went toe-to-toe as dueling and emerging NBA superstars. The series was complete with big shots, trash talking, controversy and dramatic game winners. The Cavs won the series in 6 games, but two of the contests were 1 point games that came down to a last second shot.
So while Lebron and the Cavs survived, it appeared to be the beginning of a great NBA rivalry.
What people seem to forget is that during the 2006-2007 NBA season, the Wizards solidified themselves as legit Eastern Conference contenders. Wizards coach Eddie Jordan coached in the All-Star 2007 NBA All-Star game as the Wizards were 27-18 and at the top of the Eastern Conference standings with a surprising surge through midseason.
And then a funny thing happened. Injuries.
Wizards’ elder statesman Antawn Jamison sprained his knee causing him to miss 12 games. Ironically, as soon as Jamison got hurt, Darius Songaila made his Wizards debut after missing 45 games due to a back injury that required surgery. The Wizards went 4-8 without Jamison and ten days after he returned, Caron Butler left for 6 games with a knee injury. Three games after he returned, Butler broke his hand blocking a shot against Milwaukee, prematurely ending his season. And 3 days after that, April 4, 2007, Gilbert Arenas sprained his knee, prematurely ending his season. It’s not surprising that the Wizards were eliminated quickly by the Cavs in the first round of the playoffs.
And the 2007-2008 season? It started off with Etan Thomas and Oleksiy Pecherov on the injured list and Gilbert Arenas still recovering from his knee injury. Arenas was clearly not himself for 8 games before shutting things down and having a second surgical procedure on his injured left knee. Caron Butler, a repeat all-star, would go on to miss 23 regular season game and valuable veteran point guard Antonio Daniels would go on to miss 11 games. The Wizards would go on to finish 2-10 in games without Daniels (the only other PG on the roster besides Arenas) and 10-13 in games without Butler. The Wizards played 11 games without Butler and Daniels (and Arenas), going 3-8 in those games.
This means the Wizards were 40-27 in games in which they were ONLY missing 2 of out of the 3 of Arenas, Butler and Daniels. Let’s put that in perspective…the Wizards have been playing 50 win basketball despite often playing without TWO multiple time all-stars.
The Wizards are close to healthy for the first time since the Wizards were on top of the Eastern Conference and playing better now then they were back then. No one would deny that both Brendan Haywood and Deshawn Stevenson are playing the best basketball of their careers or that Andray Blatche is growing up quickly or that Darius Songaila and Roger Mason are very very solid off the bench. And as a team, the Wizards are not lacking in confidence.
The Wizards, based on their record when healthy over the past two seasons, are very much a threat to win the Eastern Conference.
So this matchup against the defending Eastern Conference champions should be similarly epic. With the Deshawn Stevenson/Lebron James trashtalking already including celebrity cross-overs (Soulja-boy will reportedly be sitting courtside wearing a Deshawn Stevenson jersey), the drama has already begun.