CLEVELAND — Washington point guard Antonio Daniels insisted four times during his postgame interview that Wizards center Brendan Haywood didn’t intend to cause Cavaliers star LeBron James any harm when he shoved him to the ground during an early third-quarter drive to the basket.
James sees it a bit differently.
“That was definitely not a basketball play in any way, shape or form,” James said. “During my junior year (in high school) I was undercut the same way and I ended up coming down on my hand and breaking my wrist.
“It was scary, honestly.”
Haywood was called for a Flagrant Foul-Penalty 2 and ejected from the game. He will probably face further discipline from the league — a fine or suspension — although nobody wanted to speculate on what might happen during the two off-days before Game 3 in Washington on Thursday. Haywood left Quicken Loans Arena with an armed escort, refusing to speak with reporters after the game.
“That was just a good hard foul and that’s just playoff basketball — LeBron should expect that,” Daniels said. “I think a lot of what happened tonight was in response to what happened during Game 1. The refs watch the film like we do, they read the newspapers like we do. They saw what happened in Game 1 and they didn’t want things to get out of control.”
The brutality in the series opener was splashed across front pages and shown in high definition over and over during “SportsCenter” reruns. James took a shot across the mouth by Wizards backup center Andray Blatche during an early drive, then unloaded an elbow to the jaw of Blatche a few plays later. Neither player was accessed a foul and the play remained physical throughout the game.
And right before halftime, Haywood and James briefly tussled when Haywood stood over James after knocking him down with an illegal screen.
“Washington has come out and said, hey, they’re going to hit LeBron, they’re going to hit LeBron, they’re going to hit LeBron,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said. “You can’t have grown men saying, ‘I’m going to hurt somebody.’ If that’s the case, we, the NBA, the officials, cannot allow anything to get out of hand.”
The bad blood started nearly a month ago when Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson called James “overrated” and Gilbert Arenas said the Wizards were hoping to meet the Cavs in the opening round, despite being eliminated the past two seasons in the same spot.
Besides the physicality, Cavs backup guard Damon Jones and James have both used Stevenson’s signature “smack” move — he waves his hand in front of his face after making a big shot — to inflame the hostile situation.
“I always do that and I’ve been doing it for a long time,” Stevenson said. “I saw LeBron do it and I saw Damon Jones do it. They know that’s what I do.”
Washington power forward Antawn Jamison didn’t see a problem with the Cleveland duo’s actions.
“When we’re getting beat by 28 points, they have the right to do whatever they want,” Jamison said.
Even before Haywood’s hit on James, Arenas was called for a technical for a shot to the back of Cavs guard Wally Szczerbiak, Cleveland’s Anderson Varejao was hit with a Flagrant Foul-Penalty 1 for a shot to the head of Caron Butler and Arenas was given a personal foul for tripping Daniel Gibson before the Cavs guard even reached midcourt.
“Some of the fouls they were calling out there were like golf,” Arenas said. “When I was young and watched some of the stuff the Bad Boys (Detroit Pistons) used to do to Michael (Jordan) and each other … I think it’s just getting out of hand. I must have been blind when I used to watch those games.”
But the team leaders — Jamison and James — did agree that the bashing, both verbal and physical, must take a back seat so the teams can get back to the jobs they are paid to do.
“Some of the guys like to talk, but that’s over with,” Jamison said. “I’m the captain of this team and we’re going to go out there and play basketball.”
Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com.

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