When the Wizards went to Cleveland earlier this month, DeShawn Stevenson tried not to inflame his ongoing feud with the Cavaliers but couldn’t help himself. He ended up running the city itself under a bus [“Ain’t nothing to do in Cleveland. You been there?”].
But after shutting down LeBron James in the fourth quarter on Stevenson bobble-head night, D-Steve disappeared from the locker room before reporters got there, and Thursday after practice, he didn’t gloat. But he couldn’t hide a slight grin either.
“I was in the zone,” said Stevenson, who was asked about the crowd reaction 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.”
Despite trying to win the game by himself, James had just six points in the final period. He was 3-for-7, but two field goals were vicious dunks — “He looked like NBA Jam for a little bit out there,” said Gilbert Arenas — after the result had already been determined. Prior to that, a stone-faced Stevenson had a hand up nearly every time James shot the ball. He forced one shot clock violation and later rejected James on the break, which led to a technical foul when James questioned the call.
“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.”
