"The Thrill of Victory"

As a native Washingtonian, I was thrilled to see the parts of the Wizards-Cavs game that I did get to see yesterday. It was Game 5 of the best of 7 series. The Wizards were down 3 games to 1. It looked like Lebron James--I refuse to use his moniker "The King" as he's most definitely not my king--was going to wrap things up in Cleveland. Then we found out before the game that Gilbert Arenas, the face of the Wizards' franchise for the last several years and an athlete with enormous talents, is finished for the season. He tried to make a comeback from knee injuries twice this year. He played the first eight games of the season, and then bits and pieces of the last few games of the season. He could never make it back. The issue was compounded when he suffered a bone bruise on his surgically repaired knee early in the series against Cleveland. But Washington learned how to win without Arenas this year. That's why they were the fifth seed in the playoffs. Caron "Tough Juice" Butler knew he had to step up and deliver and ('lo and behold') he did! Butler scored 32 points on 11 of 22 shooting from the field. And the Wizards won 88-87.
I watched the first quarter of the game at "The Grad" in Chico. They have good food and a whole slew of t.v.'s, big and small. One of the Grad employees was watching from the next table over, and told me his family knows Arenas and he's a big fan of his. (It's nicer when you're not alone watching these events.) The Wizards had a steady lead through the first quarter. Then I had to go to give a test to my Logic class. So, off I ran. I was able to monitor the game through ESPN's "gamecast," which lets you know the score and who did what. Washington still led at the half. When I finished helping students after the test, I looked and saw that Lebron James had just made a slam dunk to put the Cavs up by 1 in the 4th quarter, with less that 8 minutes left, and I thought 'Uh, oh! Here it goes." I raced back to the Grad in time to see the last 4 minutes of the game. With less than 2 minutes left, the Cavs were up by 5 points. The Wizards' center, Brendon Haywood, fouled out. I figured they were finished. But the Wizards weren't finished. James missed a 3-pointer, and the Wizards got the rebound (which was not a sure thing in this series by any stretch of the imagination). The ball was put in Caron Butler's hands. He drove down the right side of the lane with Lebron James guarding him. Everyone agrees he was fouled at least twice, but no call was made and he made the tough shot that put the Wizards up by 1 with 3 seconds left. Again, everyone knew that James would get the ball for the final shot. James tried the very same move up the right side of the lane on his side of the court. Without a doubt, James was also touched on his way in, but again no foul was called and, unlike Butler's shot, James's shot rimmed out. Game over. Lest anyone feel sorry for James, I read one account that assures us that the "foul" that wasn't called was a result of James's teammate, 7 foot 3 inch Ilgouskas, pushing Wizard center Darius Songailla from behind into James. Songailla tried to avoid James. The refs just made it a no-call. James missed the shot. The game goes back to Washington for Game 6. So, the Wizards have made it a series now.