Desperate times call for desperate measures.
So on the verge of elimination, down 3-1, in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, what measures will the Wizards take when they play at Cleveland Wednesday night?
“We will throw everything at them,” said Wizards coach Eddie Jordan. “We will change the defenses up. We will try to keep them off balance as much as we can. We have to create more offense. We just have to play like it’s Game 7.”
In order to advance, the Wizards will have to win three “Game 7s,” including two in Cleveland, where Washington has lost eight straight.
“We gotta play smart. We gotta play the way we play at home,” said Gilbert Arenas. “When you’re going into an opponents’ arena, coaching doesn’t matter because half the time you can’t hear them. You gotta just do what the game plan says.”
History is not on the Wizards’ side. Teams that have trailed 3-1 in the NBA playoffs have advanced only eight of 174 times. Only two of those comebacks were accomplished by teams that had to win two of three on the road.
On the floor, Washington will have to find a way to counter the 51-31 edge on the boards Cleveland enjoyed in Game 4. Coach Mike Brown went with a bigger lineup, using Ben Wallace (12 rebounds) for 33 minutes, 10 more than any game in the series.
“They go small at times,” said Brown. “When they go small, we don’t like to chase guys. We try to stay big. All of our bigs were active on the glass.”
The Wizards also must find a way to better contest 3-pointers. Cleveland hit 13 of 28 (46 percent) shots from the arc in Game 4. Reserve Daniel Gibson hit four 3-pointers. Delonte West made three in the fourth quarter, including the game winner with 5.4 seconds left.
Defending the three has been a failing for Washington, which set an NBA single-season record for 3-pointers allowed.
“You want Delonte, Gibson, the role players to beat you,” said Arenas. “But you don’t want them to have career nights and have LeBron score 34 points.”
