When the Wizards went to Cleveland at the beginning of the month, DeShawn Stevenson tried to take the safe road and not inflame his rivalry with the Cavaliers. But he couldn’t help himself and ended up running the whole city over with a bus.
After shutting down LeBron James in the fourth quarter on Wednesday — a night in which the Wizards handed out Stevenson bobblehand dolls — during Washington’s 108-91 win over the Cavs, Stevenson disappeared from the locker room before reporters could ask him about his performance, and on Thursday after practice, he still played down the rivalry, albeit with a slight grin.
“I was in the zone,” Stevenson, asked about the crowd reactions every time he forced James into a missed jump shot. “It just felt good being out there, playing against a team that you like playing against.”
James racked up seven assists in the first quarter alone — with equal parts boos and cheers raining down on him from stands every time he made a play. But then he took it upon himself down the stretch – “He looked like NBA Jam for a little bit out there,” said Gilbert Arenas, “Remember that game back in the day? – playing into the Wizards’ hands.
LeBron was 3-for-7 in the final quarter, but two of his field goals came on vicious dunks after the result had already been determined. On at least two misses, Stevenson had a hand in James’ face.
“What I was trying to do is make it a one-on-one thing so he’d forget about his teammates,” said Stevenson. “Even though he’s a good player, if he gets in that mode where he’s shooting the ball every time, I know it’s going to be hard for them to win.”
Washington head coach Flip Saunders also talked about the influence of 5-foot-5 Earl Boykins: “Everybody thinks when he comes in the game, you’re either going to go at him or post him up. So they went and [Mo] Williams scored a jumper at the elbow. Then they went four straight times and came up empty. We got run outs on all of those so sometimes what happens is, you go at him, he’s just a guy you’ve never been able to post up because he’s just so strong, he gets into you, he fronts you. Other guys, teammates, know they’ve got to give a little bit of help and sometimes, unless you have a Sam Cassell or even a Chauncey Billups, for guys like Williams, that’s unknown territory. You’re asking them to do something that’s probably not to their strength and so they bail them out by taking a turnaround jump shot or something like that.”
The only other news from practice was Mike James has shed his cast. He’s now wearing a splint, and he said his timetable for return, which had been 4-5 weeks ten days ago, could be shorter.
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