The Emergence of LeBron James in the Playoffs Against the Washington Wizards
The first round of the NBA playoffs was exciting for so many reasons and one of them was because this was LeBbron James’ first playoff series in his career. Many NBA fans and experts were curious to see how LeBron would play. Would he play like Michael Jordan in the playoff series and play like a superstar? Or would he pass up the big shot and crumble under the pressure?
Well LeBron had a great series and exceeded everyone’s expectations of him. He averaged nearly a triple double in the series against the Washington Wizards and most games he just took over and dominated. The Wizards had no defender to stop LeBron and they just watched as he had several games with over 30 points. Most games in this series were not even close in the final score.
The Wizards did have some games in which the Wizard’s star player Gilbert Arenas tried to match Lebron with his quickness and three point shooting but Lebron also got help from his supporting cast while Arenas did not. The center on the Cavs IIlgaskas had a good series and dominated with his height. LeBron was also able to effectively get his teammates involved in the series with his great passing skills since the Wizards often futilely tried to double team LeBron. The Cavs also got some points and rebounds out of their power forward Jamison but he was inconsistent throughout the series.
The Cavs held home court advantage in the series and they took advantage of it as they won the series. The new Cavs coach Mike Brown performed well in his first full year as coach and he and LeBron bonded well in the series. The Wizards coach had no real answer for the Cavs and LeBron.
In this series LeBron James showed that he will only get better as his career moves along. In the second round of the playoffs against the Pistons, LeBron would prove to the world how great he truly is as he almost single handedly beat the Pistons when he extended the series to 7 games when everyone thought that the Cavs would get swept in the series.
