Minus Arenas, Wizards no match for Cavs

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By Mike Jones

CLEVELAND | The Washington Wizards entered Wednesday night's game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena expecting to be attacked with a vengeance.

For one, the Wizards had beaten LeBron James and Co. on national television just six days earlier, ending Cleveland's 13-game winning streak. Second, the Cavaliers are trying to maintain their narrow edge over the Los Angeles Lakers for the best record in the NBA and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. Also, Cleveland needed a win and a Boston loss to clinch the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Take all those motivating factors and also throw in the absence of Washington star Gilbert Arenas, who took the night off, and the end result was an 98-86 thumping that wasn't nearly as close as the final score reflected.

Five Cavaliers scored in double digits, led by LeBron James with 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 31 minutes of action. The Wizards, meanwhile, got a rather feeble effort from their starting lineup as Javaris Crittenton's 11 points on 4-for-10 shooting led the way, and no other starter managed to score more than 10 points. Nick Young and Andray Blatche came off the bench to score 16 and 14 points, respectively.

The Wizards fell to 18-61 with three games remaining on the schedule, while the Cavaliers improved to 63-15.