The entire burden of defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs now falls solely on Antawn Jamison.
The reason behind he is out of the Big Three at Washington Wizards, two are injured and these days Jamison is the key player for the team.
Forward Jarvis Hayes said Jamison is the Wizards’ leading scorer right now and would have to be much more aggressive on offense. The other players’ main job so far is to make things as easy as possible for Jamison on the court. Hayes expects things to get tough as teams will now target Jamison more than before.
Every player on the Wizards team has changed roles since Gilbert Arenas injured his knee and Caron Butler injured his hand. However, it seems that Jamison has been the most affected by injuries. He doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for time and finding open spaces as the opposing team’s defenders concentrate elsewhere. Jamison can no longer get a night off since his two teammates aren’t there to fill in for him.
Coach Eddie Jordan said that with Butler and Arenas out with injuries, Jamison would have to take on the added responsibility of being the passer, the setup man and also the scorer.
Jamison was in a similar situation for several seasons when he was with the Golden State Warriors. In fact, he managed to score 51 points in consecutive games in the year 2000.
He joined the Wizards in 2004 and has mostly played as the wise veteran against the impulsive young Arenas. These stats have been fairly consistent over the past few years. He usually scores 20 points and 8 rebounds in each game. In this year’s regular season, Jamison has averaged 19.4 points and 8 rebounds.
Jamison knows he can’t lead the Wizards alone. He said it was too much pressure and a player could get in trouble trying to do it because it was impossible to do the things that Arenas and Butler do alone.
For Game 1 against the Cavaliers, while Jamison knows he can’t beat them alone, his team will look to him for more points, rebounds and court leadership.