Gilbert in Cleveland

Part of this is already included below, but in the interest of comprehensiveness, here's Gilbert in Cleveland:

When I ran into Gilbert in the hallways before the game, I asked if he'd be talking to the media yesterday.

"Nah," he said. "This ain't about me."

Reports surfaced that he had breezed through the Cleveland locker room before the game. When I got there, he was gone.

As I wrote in today's paper, he had already inserted himself into this series via blog. "I already called the [Cleveland] players," he wrote late last week. "Damon Jones ... Larry [Hughes]... LeBron didn't want to pick up the phone because he already knew what was going to happen. The message is, 'Punks jump up to get beat down'."

Sunday, Jones confirmed that he spoke with Arenas.

"I thought it was a great tactic on his part," Jones told me. "Trying to give us bulletin board material, to [make us] go out and try to do something that was out of our character, try to dominate. But you know, basketball is basketball. When you get out there on the floor, players make plays."

And for obvious reasons, Arenas made none. Indeed, despite his blogging promise to pester the Cavs all game, he was abnormally quiet Sunday. Several fans seated directly behind the Wizards bench said Gil didn't utter a peep.

"He hasn't made a sound, honestly," said Ryan Hartzer, one of those fans, said at halftime. "I haven't heard a word out of him. I've just seen him clap a couple times."

I I found Hartzer after the game and asked about Gil's second-half output.

"Nothing," he told me. "Absolutely nothing."

Disappointing. Finally I ran into Gilbert limping out of the arena after the game, and he confirmed his silence.

"I didn't say one word," he said. When asked why, he replied "I don't know, because I can't back it up," and limped off.

By Dan Steinberg |  April 23, 2007; 9:58 AM ET  | Category:  Wizards
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