NBA Playoffs Results
Western Conference
Los Angeles Lakers 1 – Denver Nuggets 0
New Orleans Hornets 1 – Dallas Mavericks 0
San Antonio Spurs 1 – Phoenix Suns 0
Utah Jazz 2 – Houston Rockets 0
Eastern Conference
Boston Celtics 1 – Atlanta Hawks 0
Detroit Pistons 0 – Philadelphia 76ers 1
Orlando Magic 1 – Toronto Raptors 0
Cleveland Cavaliers 2 – Washington Wizards 0
Washington Wizards 86 – Cleveland Cavaliers 116
LeBron James scored 30 points, Zydrunas Ilgauskas added 16, Wally Szczerbiak had 15 points, and the Cavs played their best game since the Feb. 21 megatrade, blowing by the Wizards with a 116-86 score to grab a 2-0 lead on their opening-round playoff series.
James was scary as he scored 14 points during third quarter when the Cavs created a 25-point lead over the Wizards, whose defensive tactics was to slow James by roughing him up with clean, hard fouls. But that did not seem to bother James, who finished with 12 assists and 9 rebounds as he went to the bench with 6:12 left.
James was given more rough treatment by the Wizards. During the third quarter, Wizards’ center Brendan Haywood was ejected for commiting a flagrant foul on James. Haywood did not make an effort to go for the ball and shoved James hard with both hands while he was driving to the hoop that sent him flying out of the court. It was hardly the only physical play, in the first half, Gilbert Arenas was given a technical foul and Cavs Anderson Varejao was slapped with a flagrant foul after hitting Wizard’s Andray Blatche in the face.
Arenas shot 2-for-10 from the field and Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler were both 4-of-13 as the Wizards’ Big Three combined for only 28 points. The big three spent mort of the final period sitting and thinking about what had happened. In Game 1, the Wizards’ problem was they were missing big shots the down stretch with a chance to win. In Game 2, they were cold again, but this time the Cav;s defense was the big difference. Wizards shot 38 percent from the field, missed 11 shots from the foul line and was outrebounded 49-34 and was also outscored 80-50 over the final 30 minutes.
Utah Jazz 90 – Houston Rockets 84
Deron Williams shook off an ankle injury and was able to score 22 points and dished out 5 assists, Mehmet Okur added 16 points and 16 rebounds and Carlos Boozer had 13 points as the Jazz won over the Rockets 90-84 to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven series.
Tracy McGrady scored 23 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and had 9 assists but he went 0-for-4 from the field and scored only a point in the fourth quarter as the Rockets lost to the Jazz. Bobby Jackson rebounded from a 3-for-15 effort in Game 1 to score 18 points.
The Rockets did play better compared to Game 1, but they still had no answer for Williams, who was able to hit his first three attempts from beyond the arc. Rockets also shot and rebounded better than it did in the first half of Game 1. Okur, who scored only four points in the opener, had 10 in the first half on Monday, including two 3-pointers in the final 35 seconds.
Source: ESPN: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/
