Wizards and Caron Butler steal game 5 from Cavaliers
May 1, 2008 by James Edwards
Filed under Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James, Washington Wizards, YouTube
NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.
There was 1:47 left in the game and the greatest player currently playing in the NBA (well, except maybe for Kobe) on the planet had the ball in his hands.
The score was 87 to 82. The game was in hand. The Cavaliers would win game 5. This playoff thing was easy.
LeBron milked the clock. The cameras showed the Cleveland Coach Mike Brown and he looked tense. LeBron shoots and misses a three by three feet. Washington flies down the court forces up a shot and gets the rebound and scores.
Cleveland would continue to mild the clock with LeBron now passing and other players missing shots.
First, James missed a wild 3-pointer and Daniel Gibson followed with another 3-point miss. Joe Smith missed a short jumper and Zydrunas Ilgauskas missed a tip shot. Instead of going strong to the hole or at least forcing the officials to call a foul, the Cavs settled for the pretty outside shots.
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Washington would continue to race down the court and score, until they were 1 point behind. Then they put the ball in Caron Butler’s hands. He had been hot all night. Caron drove on LeBron James and scored the game winner.
The Washington Wizards had won the game 88 - 87 and my thoughts were on the Cleveland Coach. Would Mike Brown retain his job for next year?
The final shot by Washington was taken by Caron Butler, who had 32 to LeBron James 34. Here is what he was thinking before the shot.
“I didn’t want to settle,” Butler said. “I didn’t want to look back on the season and say I settled for a jump shot and probably bailed out the defender. I wanted to just try to go in there and get contact and try to get it to go in.”
This YouTube will show Caron’s brilliant night including his final shot.
It is back to Washington for a game 6 and Caron Butler is the hero.
NBA Basketball special comment The old it ain’t over till it is over. Cleveland mismanaged the final minute of the game. LeBron can’t be expected to win everything.
As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.
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