BY RICK NOLAND

Assistant Sports Editor

INDEPENDENCE — The Cavaliers must have all taken some Chaser before they went to sleep Wednesday night, because they insisted Thursday afternoon there was no hangover from their 88-87 loss to the Washington Wizards in Game 5 at Quicken Loans Arena.

“We woke up this morning and saw smiles on everybody’s faces,” center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said at Cleveland Clinic Courts. “We’re ready to go.”

Game 6 is tonight at 7 at the Verizon Center, but it’s a contest the Cavaliers shouldn’t be playing. They led by five points and had possession of the ball with less than 90 seconds to go in Game 5, but a lack of execution offensively cost them a golden opportunity to close out the Wizards.

“They took it from us,” Ilgauskas said. “Their backs were to the wall and they didn’t back down. But, for the most part, we gave it away.

“Obviously, it hurts, and it should. It’s the playoffs. We’ve been through this before. We just have to forget about it.”

That will be easier said than done. Starting with a bad 3-point attempt by LeBron James, who did not talk to the media Thursday, and followed by four other missed shots down the stretch, Cleveland did not score over the final 1:47.

“We can’t allow it to hang over our heads,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. “The reality of it is, we can’t do anything about it. We lost the game.”

Completely forgotten is that the Cavaliers also almost blew a lead in Game 4. Up four with 3:13 to play, they didn’t score again until Delonte West’s game-winning 3-pointer with 5.4 seconds on the clock.

Part of the problem is the Cavaliers’ natural tendency to rely on James to bail them out.

Just as big, however, is the fact too many other players couldn’t hit the ocean from a pier right now. Wally Szczerbiak (.359, 14-of-39), Anderson Varejao (.292, 7-of-24), Joe Smith (.300, 9-of-30) and Devin Brown (.267, 8-of-30) have given the Cavaliers next to nothing in the series.

Half of Devin Brown’s field goal attempts and 41 percent of Szczerbiak’s have been 3-pointers, so Cleveland might want to remember it has a 7-foot-3 center with a deft shooting touch.

Ilgauskas was 8-of-11 from the field in Game 5, but seven of his field goals and nine of his attempts were either layups or tip-ins, meaning he attempted just two jumpers or post moves.

In addition, 7-foot Washington center Brendan Haywood fouled out with 2:11 to go and the Cavaliers never got the ball to Ilgauskas, who had a 6-inch height advantage against Darius Songaila.

“That was bad decision-making on my part,” Mike Brown said. “I didn’t call his number.”

Given that Ilgauskas has been pretty much a non-factor on the road in the series — he’s averaging 19.0 points on 22-of-39 shooting at The Q and 9.0 points on 8-of-18 shooting at the Verizon Center — the Cavaliers will need someone to step up and help James tonight.

Even that won’t guarantee victory, because Washington stole Game 5 on a night when Gilbert Arenas didn’t play — he’s said to be done for the series — and Antawn Jamison (8 points, 3-of-10 shooting, 1-of-4 at the line) and Haywood (4 points, 1-of-6 shooting) did virtually nothing.

“Things didn’t go the way we wanted (in Game 5),” Cleveland guard Daniel Gibson said. “We’re going to try to move forward to the next game and do things a little differently.

“It left a bad taste in our mouths (Wednesday) night. We felt like we didn’t play as well as we could have, but everybody’s motivated.”

Noland may be reached at rickn@ohio.net or 330-721-4061.