Success masked in failure for Wizards

Even after getting bounced from the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers for the third straight year, members of the Washington Wizards organization deemed their season a success.

Considering the trials and tribulations the Wizards encountered this season, the team felt like it did well to finish 43-39 — its best record in three years — and earn the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

“It was a big roller coaster ride,” forward Caron Butler said of the season. “We had a lot of highs and a lot of lows. Through it all, we stayed professional, dealt with a lot of adversity and got through it. We had a great year.”

The Wizards, who limped into the 2006-07 playoffs missing franchise player Gilbert Arenas and Butler to season-ending injuries and were swept by Cleveland, reported to training camp last fall with optimism.

They had the best record in the East last season before an injury forced forward Antawn Jamison out of the lineup for an extended stretch. The campaign went further south in April, when Arenas and Butler were injured.

But this season was supposed to be different. It was the year the Wizards would show what they were capable of doing when fully healthy.

But 2007-08 began with center Etan Thomas having season-ending surgery to repair a leaky aortic valve.

Arenas, after having surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee in April 2007, worked rigorously over the summer to return to full strength by the start of this season. But after eight games, Arenas — still experiencing severe pain in his knee — learned he had torn another meniscus in the same knee and had surgery Nov. 21. He missed 66 straight games.

But the Wizards remained afloat.

Veteran Antonio Daniels started a career-high 63 games at point guard. Seldom-used guard Roger Mason Jr. slid up into the sixth man role and had a career year.

Butler averaged 21.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the first half of the season. Jamison, a free agent his offseason, became one of only eight players in franchise history to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds for a season. Center Brendan Haywood blossomed while seeing consistent playing time, and the Wizards had a strong January.

But injuries hurt them again. Knee, ankle and wrist injuries slowed Daniels, and Butler missed 19 games from late January to mid-March with a labral tear in his left hip socket.

The Wizards remained resilient, however. Butler returned for the stretch run, Daniels played with a heavily taped left wrist, which had a torn ligament in it, and Washington closed out the year with a 15-9 burst.

With Arenas back for five of the final eight games of the regular season, the Wizards believed they were getting healthy at the perfect time to make a playoff push.

The postseason featured yet another matchup with Cleveland, and the Wizards entered with great bravado — mainly by Arenas predicting the Cavaliers could not post a three-peat and fellow guard DeShawn Stevenson talking trash with LeBron James.

But for a third straight year, the hump was not cleared. After two losses in Cleveland, the Wizards returned to the District and trounced the Cavaliers in Game 3 before losing on a last-second shot in Game 4.

Washington avoided elimination in Game 5 back in Cleveland despite Arenas — hobbled and ineffective because of his knee — shelving himself for the season hours before tip-off. (Arenas is expected to opt out of his contract and test the free-agent market.)

But the momentum didn’t carry over into Game 6 on Friday as the Wizards fell in a rout and entered the offseason with a severe case of deja vu.

“This year was up and down, but in my eyes we still had enough to get past where we were at,” Jamison said. “But it’s hard to swallow because as a team you know you’re better than what your performance has shown.”

Wizards coach Eddie Jordan appeared drained and worn after the defeat. Although disappointed by another Cleveland-induced failure, the coach praised his players’ perseverance.

“We thought it was a successful season,” said Jordan, the longest-tenured coach in the East. “We ended up finishing fifth in the conference. Us and Detroit are the only teams to make consecutive playoff appearances in the last four years. That’s good company.

“We had players with breakout years in [Mason] and [Haywood]. We had two All-Stars [Butler and Jamison]. DeShawn Stevenson, with a bounce back, had a terrific year for us. … In the history of time in the NBA, if it’s true that you have to take your lumps and your beatings before you can make the next jump in the playoffs, then certainly we are on the brink of that.”