After brushing off complaints from the Cavaliers of of vicious fouls from his team, Eddie Jordan has always explained that his players were not playing dirty, but that his players were instructed to defend the paint with good, hard fouls instead of giving up easy layups. Yesterday, perhaps tired of the continued questions, Jordan finally came out and said the Wizards and Cavaliers aren't playing each other any differently.

The coach at practice today said the fouls his players are handing out are no more violent than those the Cavaliers are laying on the Wizards. The Cavs are just doing a better job acting.

"Considering the fouls they gave on us, you at least have to go for the ball," Jordan said. "You can throw your body at anyone you want. It just seems like, watching the fouls they gave on us, pretend you're going to block the ball, and throw your body at the layup guy. That's a good technique."

Brendan Haywood, who was ejected from Game 2 for a Flagrant Foul Type 2 for knocking LeBron James out of bounds in midair, again explained that he had no ill intentions, but that he will continue to play the same way tomorrow.

"I was going to foul him so he wouldn't get a monster dunk in the halfcourt and going to foul him on Thursday to make sure he doesn't get a monster dunk in the foul court. I'm not trying to push him out of bounds and foul him hard. It was one of those things it was bang-bang, it happened at the last minute, I didn't see him but I don't want anybody to think I was trying to hurt one of the game's best players."

Later, Haywood more than implied that Cleveland coach Mike Brown needs to stop fighting so hard for James to get more and more calls.

"C'Mon Mike!" he said, heading to the locker room, pretending to have a conversation with Brown. "His name is LeBron James, not LeBron BROWN. He's not your son!"

Antawn Jamison said the talk of the Wizards being dirty is extremely exaggerated.

"We haven't been doing -- everybody has been saying we're playing him differently than what we have been doing," Jamison said. "Things got blown out of proportion with the talk that happened the course of the season, but the man is coming down the lane! Do not let him score! I mean, that's basketball. When I come down the lane, when Gilbert comes down the lane, they put you on your ass! It's no difference during the course of 82. It's just one of those things. We need to concentrate on keeping them in front of us, not giving up too many drives. We just need to prevent him from getting into a rhythm."

-- Mike Jones