Written by Jerry Roche

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The Cavaliers did a lot of good things Friday night. The one thing that they didn’t do -- or couldn’t do -- was block out, and that was ultimately what turned them into April fools.

Of course, the results were predictable: Washington 115, Cleveland 107 at the Verizon Center.

Here’s the tale of the game, otherwise known as the tale of the tape: Andray Blatche 6-foot-11, JaVale McGee 7-foot-0 with a 7-foot-6 wingspan, Yi Jianlian 7-foot-0. Think Andre the Giant, Goliath and Paul Bunyan swatting at the Munchkins.

Blatche, who averages 15.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per game this season, ripped off his horn-rimmed glasses, put on his red cape, scored 36 points, yanked down 19 rebounds -- including 16 offensive boards -- and generally harrassed and hounded the Cavs all night. McGee, displaying nifty inside footwork, helped Blatche (as if he needed it) with 25 points on 11 of 15 from the field and eight bounds.

Almost unnoticed was a triple-double by Wizard guard Jordan Crawford: 21 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds.

All told, the Cavs were out-rebounded 64-47 overall and 27-12 on the offensive boards. Compounding their woes, they missed their first eight three-point attempts and finished with a dismal 5-of-22 mark (22.7%) from long range.

Yet, the game was not decided until the fourth quarter.

Score at the end of the third was Wizards 83, Cavs 82. Head coach Byron Scott’s guys had a chance to retake the lead on their first possession of the fourth, but Christian Eyenga missed a layup and J.J. Hickson missed the follow.

Cleveland trailed by just 88-84 with 10:06 left, but then the host team went on a mini-run with Crawford sinking a jump shot, McGee a running hook and dunk, and Jianlian a jumper for a 96-84 lead.

Still, the Cavs didn’t give up. They countered with six straight points to draw to 96-90 on a Boobie Gibson free throw, a Ramon Sessions layup, a Sessions free throw and an Alonzo Gee driving dunk. But when Othyus Jeffers scored on a layup and McGee on a running hook with 6:19 left, Washington had what turned out to be an insurmountable 100-90 lead.

The Wizards were playing without rookie guard John Wall, who was sitting out a one-game league suspension for slugging old pal Zydrunas Ilgauskas in a loss to the Miami Heat Wednesday night. Meanwhile, the Cavs’ physical forward Samardo Samuels missed his third straight game with a sprained wrist -- and they could have used him.

Bad and Good Numbers

“I’ve got some numbers in my head,” said Cavs head coach Byron Scott after the game. “Sixty-eight points by the (Wizards’) front line, 30 rebounds by the front line, 62 points in the paint. You can’t win if you don’t come with more toughness in the paint area. Blatche and McGee dominated our guys, period. They wanted it a lot more than we did.”

So much for the bad. Now for the good.

Though Scott’s team was manhandled inside, they played the game with quite a bit of savvy and guts. They held seven-point leads three times in the second stanza: 53-46 (as Luke Harangody hit the team’s first trey with 1:57 remaining), 54-47 and 57-50. They also led 57-52 at the half.

The good guys hit 26 of 32 free throws while Washington hit just 19 of 32. Washington drew most of its fouls with strong inside play, but the Cavs depended on dribble-drive penetration -- mostly by Sessions and Baron Davis -- to draw their fouls.

Led by Sessions’ 26 points, the Cleveland bench outscored the Wizards’ , 48-13. Harangody, who started out real slow, finished 5 of 11 from the field for 12 points and added eight rebounds.

Among the Cavaliers’ starters, Hickson led the way with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Gee and center Ryan Hollins added 12 each.

Leading us into some pretty impressive miscellaneous numbers:

>> Six Cavaliers scored in double figures.

>> Eight turnovers for the Cavs -- a statistic that had absolutely no bearing on the outcome, but it’s a nice number (especially for a young team), isn’t it?

>> Eleven assists for Davis (and he would have had another half-dozen had his teammates managed to hit some wide-open looks).

If the Cavs had won the game for their 16th victory of the season, they would have come perilously close to equalling Minnesota’s almost-as-measly 17 victories. The two teams continue to jockey for ping-pong-ball heaven. Washington, with a 19-56 record, has the third-worst record in the NBA just about locked up.

Looking Ahead

As tantalizing as Duke point guard Kyrie Irving may be in the NBA’s 2011 draft, the Cavaliers desperately need some front-line height to match up against virtually every other team in the league. Yes, they have 6-foot-11 Andy Varejao, 6-foot-11 Semih Erden and 6-foot-9 Antawn Jamison coming back from injuries this fall, and they have the rights to former Kansas Jayhawk Sasha Kaun, a 6-foot-11 center from Russia. But 6-foot-11 Enes Kanter of Turkey, 6-foot-11 Perry Jones of Baylor and/or 7-foot-0 Donatas Motiejunas of Lithuania just might be the smart choice(s) in the first round. For the rest of this year and probably next, Davis and Sessions seem pretty doggone adequate at point guard.

Up next: Sunday at 6 p.m. in Madison Square Garden for a rematch with the New York Knickerbockers, who have not played since beating New Jersey Wednesday night. The Carmelo-Anthony-and-Amar’e Stoudemire-led Knicks have won two in a row. Samuels could well return to the lineup for that game.