Washington, DC--

It is now becoming apparent how much the Wizards need either Caron Butler or Gilbert Arenas on the court if they have much of a chance to knock out a team in a close battle... tonight was a perfect example of how much 40 points a game average is missed with both Butler and Arenas sidelined for the season.

The biggest problem the Wizards had late in the fourth quarter was someone to challenge King James and and someone to offensively take control of the game.

James (25 points, 6 rebounds) took over the game as he has done with many games with 3:00 to play, James made a jumper and drove for a one-handed dunk to increase the lead to six. He also made 6 of 7 free throws in the fourth quarter.

"I definitely didn't have one of my best games offensively," said James, who went 7-for-23 from the field and had six rebounds and five assists. "But I tried to attack late in the game, and guys just came and stepped up."

Antawn Jamison continued to step up in the absence of the super-duo with 27 points ,Antonio Daniels led the Wizards scored 18 points and 12 assists in his second start in place of the injured Arenas.

With the Wizards battling for a playoff spot they do not need to continue to slip and lose games as they did tonight. They had control of the Cavs for the entire game and held Lebron to under double digits until the second half.

Soon after halftime ended the Cavs opened up the inside offense and found a way to get Drew Gooden and Zydrunas Ilgauskas a good amount of touches in the first half and again in the second. Gooden finished the game with 12 points and Big Z with 18 points and 8 rebounds.

"We competed at a high level, we held LeBron down to a low number, percentage-wise, shooting the ball and they scored 99 points. Those are the positives, but we want to win," Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan said. "We want to win and we didn't make the plays to win."

So what was the biggest downfall the Wizards need to look back at and correct over the next few games starting in New Jersey? Well since they 53-45 at halftime and 71-68 going into the fourth, but were outscored 31-23 in the final quarter, they need to look for defensive stops late in the game and find a way to get their bench more involved. Cleveland's reserves also outscored Washington's thin bench, 23-12.