CLEVELAND — LeBron James vowed to be ready if the Washington Wizards resort to the strategy many teams use against poor foul shooter Shaquille O’Neal.
“Like Hack-a-LeBron or something?” the 6-foot-8, 260-pounder said Monday at Quicken Loans Arena prior to Game 2 of the best-of-seven series. “I guess teams might think I have a temper problem or will get upset. No, I’m not going to get upset.”
James, who shot .712 at the line during the regular season, made just 8 of 14 free throws in Game 1, but Cleveland coach Mike Brown is confident his superstar will deliver in the clutch.
“I think he shoots free throws, especially when the game is on the line, very well,” said Brown, who for the third straight day lobbied for James to get more calls from the officials.
“If they didn’t hear me (complain Saturday and Sunday), I’m sure they have to go back and review the tape. The no-call LeBron got hacked on (by Andray Blatche in Game 1), they have to see that. I don’t know how much more obvious it can get than that.”
James, whose 10.3 free throw attempts per game in the regular season were the second most in the league behind Orlando’s Dwight Howard, has no plans to steal a page from Oscar-winning teammate Anderson Varejao and start falling all over the place in an attempt to get more calls.
“I’m going to save that for Andy,” James said. “That’s never been a part of my game. I don’t want to say he’s flopping. He just takes contact a little differently than I do.
“If I get hit, of course you expect to get the call. If I don’t get it, I just have to keep playing.”

Coach Snow

Cavaliers point guard Eric Snow, who is on the inactive list, wants to be an NBA head coach some day. Two years ago, he finished first in a survey of NBA general managers on what current player is most likely to do just that.
“That would be a goal, yes,” the Canton McKinley High graduate said.
Snow, who is slated to make $7.3 million next season in the last year of his contract, is already doing a bit of coaching with the Cavaliers. He sat in on a meeting between Brown and his staff last week, and at the end of it suggested the Cavaliers consider using a play where James runs off a baseline screen and catches the ball at the top of the key, in position to drive. That play resulted in two pivotal hoops for James down the stretch of Game 1.
“It was a different way to get LeBron the ball,” Snow said. “He’s that big and that strong, he can always finish going to the basket. A pin-down is just like a pick-and-roll, but he doesn’t have the ball.”

Whistle blowing

Late in Game 1, Cleveland guard Delonte West deflected and caught a Washington inbound pass from the baseline, but a whistle blew and a jump ball was eventually conducted at midcourt. The call was announced as a double violation on the public address system, but Brown said the officials actually held a jump ball due to an inadvertent whistle.
“(West) didn’t do anything but make a great steal,” Brown said.

76ers ‘86’ Pistons

James wasn’t overly shocked that Philadelphia went into Detroit and beat the Pistons on Sunday evening.
“They’re playing well,” he said of the Sixers. “If you let that team gain confidence, they’re very dangerous. They do have an extremely good point guard in Andre Miller.”

Tip-in

The Cavaliers outscored Washington by 22 points in Game 1 when Zydrunas Ilgauskas was on the court.
Contact Rick Noland at
(330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

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