CLEVELAND -- The Washington Wizards had barely let the echo from the buzzer clear from Friday's electrifying win over the Los Angeles Lakers at MCI Center before they started stressing the importance of winning last night in Cleveland against the Cavaliers.
After all, what good would come from beating the wounded three-time defending champions if the Wizards couldn't beat a hapless team they had dominated three nights before in Washington?
The Wizards validated Friday's triumph with a grind-it-out 93-79 victory over Cleveland before an announced sellout crowd of 20,562 at Gund Arena last night.
"I said [Friday's game] didn't mean anything if we didn't come in and win [last night]," guard Jerry Stackhouse said. "We're in a good situation right now. We lost a couple of early games that we thought we should have won. Even though we are above .500, we feel as though we are better than we are. We're still getting to know each other. That's the positive thing. That's the plus. I think we'll be fine."
Stackhouse, the hero of the win over the Lakers, was at it again last night with a game-high 27 points and nine rebounds. His 18 points before halftime got the Wizards (4-3) moving and on the way to their first road win of the year.
"I love him," said Washington coach Doug Collins. "We were tired to start the game, but he's the one that really led us in the first half. He gave us a chance to win the game by just continuing to do what he's done all season long. We had guys who picked up the pace with him as the game went along. Jerry has been great. He's fearless. He's a winner. I love having him on our team."
When Stackhouse got tired in the second half, the Washington bench, which outscored Cleveland's reserves 39-11, provided badly needed support. The starters had logged heavy minutes as Washington was playing its fourth game in five days.
Tyronn Lue had 12 points off the bench, and the Wizards' rookie tandem of guard Juan Dixon (Maryland) and forward Jared Jeffries combined for 15 points. Dixon's nine minutes were a season high as he came off the bench in the second quarter, his earliest entry of the year.
Meanwhile, Michael Jordan, who has personally stuck the dagger to Cleveland fans on occasions too numerous for them to remember, had a solid night: 12 points, eight rebounds, a team-high six assists in a season-high 31 minutes.
Jordan appears to still be feeling his way in his new role as sixth man, but he did just about everything Washington needed for him to do last night, even as Cleveland guard Smush Parker dismissed him in post-game remarks heard in the arena as "just another player."
"Doug has a vision and I'm glad to do what he wants," said Jordan. "I'm going to stick with the game plan, whatever he wants to do. When I have the opportunity, I'll take it. If he wants me to pass the ball around, on the road especially, we've got to play that way. So I'll just administer what he wants."
Said Collins: "He [Jordan] ran our offense. We ran the offense through him when we broke the game open. He was at the pinch post where he really likes it and he operated almost as a point guard. He controlled the flow of the game. Night to night, it's going to be a different role for him and I think he likes that."
The Wizards moved over .500 for the first time since Feb. 21 by slogging it out with the talented but young Cavaliers, who placed four players in double figures. Center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and forward Tyrone Hill logged double doubles, but Cleveland couldn't sustain enough offense to stay with Washington.
The Wizards led by as many as 12 in the fourth quarter, and while Cleveland (2-4) trimmed it to eight a couple of times in the final four minutes, they were never seriously threatened.
Kwame Brown scored 10 points for Washington. Ilgauskas and Ricky Davis had 19 points each, albeit on a combined 11-for-39 shooting from the field, for Cleveland.