Cavaliers Win Game 1, Despite James's Sprain

CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers were supposed to walk all over the depleted Washington Wizards. Instead — with LeBron James injuring his ankle — Cleveland gingerly stepped past them in Game 1.

James stayed in the game despite a sprain to score 23 points and Larry Hughes had 27, lifting the Cavaliers to a 97–82 win over the Wizards in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference series yesterday.

James rolled his left ankle in the third quarter but refused to come out, adding nine rebounds and seven assists in 44 minutes.

The Cavs figured to blow through their second straight first-round matchup with the Wizards, who were missing All-Stars Gilbert Arenas (knee surgery) and Caron Butler (broken hand).

However, Antawn Jamison scored 28 points and Jarvis Hayes 18 for Washington, which was still within 10 points with more than seven minutes remaining.

That's when the Cavs moved their offensive attack inside and fed 7-foot-3 center Zydrunas Ilgaukas, who scored seven straight points to help Cleveland push its lead to 89–74 with five minutes left.

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SUNS 95, LAKERS 87 The "Brazilian Blur" breathed life into the Phoenix offense, and Kobe Bryant went from awesome to awful.

The result was a second-half rally that gave the Phoenix Suns a 95–87 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in their first-round playoff opener yesterday.

Leandro Barbosa scored 19 of his 26 points in the second half, including 15 consecutive Phoenix points in one stretch, to match his career playoff scoring high. Amare Stoudemire, back in the postseason after missing last year's while recovering from two knee surgeries, addded 23 points and 12 rebounds.

Bryant scored 39, but only 11 in the second half. The NBA's scoring champ was 1-for-10 shooting in the fourth quarter, when Phoenix pulled away.