INDEPENDENCE — The Washington Wizards have done enough yapping and rapping to cut a CD, while the Cavaliers hope it’s time for their first-round playoff opponent to face the music.
“Put up or shut up,” a growling Ben Wallace said Friday following a Cavaliers workout at Cleveland Clinic Courts. “It’s how you play the game. Talking doesn’t win anything.”
If it did, the Wizards would have stolen home-court advantage long before Game 1 of the best-of-seven series, which will take place today at 12:30 p.m. at Quicken Loans Arena.
“They’re talking the talk,” Cavaliers backup forward Joe Smith said. “If you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to be able to walk the walk.”
The rhetoric began March 13, when Washington’s DeShawn Stevenson called LeBron James “overrated” after the Cavaliers superstar went 8-of-22 from the field and missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer.
When asked about Stevenson’s comment the next night, James made the analogy that worrying about what the journeyman guard said would be akin to music mogul Jay-Z being concerned with Soulja Boy, essentially a one-hit wonder.
“I never said anything personal about him or his family that would tick somebody off,” James said Friday. “You never know what somebody might have gone through.
“His game? I might have said something about that.”
The Cavaliers, who have eliminated Washington from the playoffs the last two years, seem determined to let their play do the talking, but running their mouths seems to come as naturally to the Wizards as running on the court.
A week ago, Washington’s Gilbert Arenas wrote on his blog that the Wizards wanted to play the Cavaliers in the playoffs, largely because they don’t think Cleveland can beat them three straight years.
Whereas James seems quietly determined to make Stevenson eat his words, he seems to laugh off everything the good-natured, fun-loving Arenas says or writes.
“I know Gilbert personally,” James said with a laugh. “What Gilbert said was kind of surprising because it’s nowhere near as bad as I know he can get.”

Same song, third verse

The Cavaliers and Wizards have gotten to know each other so well, Washington power forward Antawn Jamison threatened to purchase a second home in Northeast Ohio.
“Preseason, postseason, regular season, it seems like every other week we are going to Cleveland,” he said. “It’s like Groundhog Day. … I might have to buy a condo or something.”
The rivalry really started in the 2006 postseason, when the Cavaliers defeated the Wizards in six games, with a number of the games featuring thrilling finishes.
In Game 5 at The Q, James tight-roped the baseline and hit a layup with 0.9 seconds left to give the Cavaliers a one-point overtime victory.
As Arenas was preparing to shoot two free throws late in overtime of Game 6, James walked by him and whispered, “If you miss these, you’re gonna lose.”
Sure enough, Arenas missed both attempts and Damon Jones, who had not been in the game to that point, hit a long baseline jumper to give the Cavaliers another one-point OT win.
A year ago, the Wizards were minus Arenas and Caron Butler as James led the Cavaliers to the first playoff sweep in franchise history.
“We didn’t play their team last year,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown conceded. “We played them the year before.”
After splitting four games with Cleveland this season — each team won twice on its home court – the Wizards are now back for try No. 3 in the playoffs.
If they’re to succeed where they’ve already failed twice, the Wizards know they can’t let James take over down the stretch, as he’s done so often in the postseason.
“We’ve been burned all kinds of ways,” Washington coach Eddie Jordan said. “We’ve doubled him and Damon Jones comes off the bench after sitting for 47 minutes and 50 seconds and hits (a long two-pointer) to win the series. We guard him one-on-one and he gets to the basket. Push him baseline and he gets to the basket.
“It’s one of those things. Sometimes you just have to hope the gods are with you and he misses by a hair on the front rim, sort of like he did in the last game we played them (this season).”

Talking the talk

For all his praise of James, it’s probably not a coincidence that Jordan’s statement ended with the 23-year-old’s failure to deliver in the teams’ last regular-season meeting.
Regardless of whether they’ve defended James one-on-one with Butler or Stevenson or aggressively double-teamed and tried to take the ball out of his hands, the Wizards haven’t been able to derail the 6-foot-8, 250-pounder too often.
Judging by the comments of Stevenson, who said he will “just put on highlights of LeBron” to get psyched up for the series, the Wizards’ latest strategy may be to attempt to get under his skin.
Perhaps they can get the NBA’s leading scorer to try to do too much. Perhaps they are hoping some early struggles may cause James to press. Perhaps they’re just grasping for something, anything.
“None of us in here play for Washington,” Cavaliers guard Devin Brown said. “We play for Cleveland, so we have to worry about what Cleveland does. Washington can do whatever they want.
“Maybe if I had four straight years of Defensive Player of the Year under my belt, I’d say (James was overrated). Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t say anything. I don’t know why (Stevenson) said anything.
“(James) is more worried about winning a ring than proving Washington wrong.”
Cleveland’s Smith took things a step further, saying Stevenson was “crazy” for calling James overrated before adding he was confident his teammate would make the Washington guard eat crow.
“I know he will, for a fact,” Smith said. “That’s just his competitive nature. All of us as players want to make someone eat their words when they say something. It’s another thing to be able to do it.”

Walking the walk

Each time he’s been asked about Stevenson’s utterance, the normally talkative and fun-loving James has chosen his words carefully.
“I’ll be ready to play (today),” he said Friday. “I motivate myself. I don’t need opponents to motivate me.
“We don’t have guys that talk. You’re not going to see (Zydrunas Ilgauskas) out there trash-talking. It’s not going to happen.”
As always, the Cavaliers are following James’ lead and doing their best not to engage the Wizards in a war of words.
“Around here, we believe our play is going to do the talking for us,” Ilgauskas said. “This series is going to be tough enough without any more distractions.”
Added Mike Brown: “That’s just our nature. If we have to use somebody’s words for extra motivation or to hype ourselves up somehow, some way, we shouldn’t be here.”
In actuality, all the talking the Wizards are doing is probably more of an attempt to convince themselves they can win than it is a knock against the Cavaliers, who advanced to the NBA Finals a year ago.
“At this level, why would you be intimidated by anybody?” Washington point guard Antonio Daniels said. “We’ve beat some of the best teams in the league this year. What do we have to be intimidated for?
“We know that’s a good basketball team. They have one of the best players, if not the most talented player, in the league. But, hell, we are a pretty good team ourselves.”
That all sounds well and good, but could all the bravado actually mean the Wizards aren’t really certain they can beat the Cavaliers four times in a best-of-seven series?
“From Washington’s standpoint, they’re trying to do anything and everything to get themselves fired up,” Devin Brown said. “At the end of the day, it’s still the game of basketball.”
At the end of the series, the Cavaliers quietly believe, all Washington’s rapping could have it singing the blues.
“Once you cross those lines,” Smith said, “your mouth can’t get you out of trouble.”
Contact Rick Noland (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

TODAY

WHO: Cleveland vs. Washington, Game 1, Eastern Conference playoffs
TIME: 12:30 p.m.
WHERE: The Q
TV/RADIO: Channel 43, FSN Ohio, ESPN; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

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