INDEPENDENCE — Everyone knew LeBron James could win a playoff series virtually by himself. He proved as much several times before already in the postseason.

But he might have company in this series, in the form of Wizards All-Star forward Caron Butler.

“We really believe he can win this series for them, that’s how dangerous he is,” Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said.

Butler’s game-winning layup in traffic in Wednesday’s Game 5 completed his finest playoff performance. The former UConn star went for 32 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals.

“He can do pretty much anything out there on the floor,” Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson said.

Cavaliers coach Mike Brown later listed the ways Butler can take over as a scorer by driving, shooting 3-pointers, posting up, or using the pick and roll.

“He’s a tough, tough guy,” Brown said.

So tough, in fact, Butler has one of the league’s best nicknames: “Tough Juice” — a moniker his coach, Eddie Jordan, gave him several seasons ago.

Playing alongside All-Stars Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison may obscure

Butler’s work. And he is nowhere near as flamboyant as Arenas. But with Arenas out with a knee injury, Butler’s game is on full display.

“He picked up his game a lot with Gilbert out,” Gibson said.

And Jordan is not surprised.

“He’s strong enough and skilled enough to beat good defense, and he’s smart enough and veteran enough to know when to make a play whether he’s driving to the paint or drawing and kicking to his perimeter players,” Jordan said.

“We’ve always like the ball in his hands at the top of the floor, and he made some great decisions.”

n CHOICES, CHOICES — With the Cavaliers protecting a late lead Wednesday, guard Gibson said they had to juggle working the clock with getting a good shot.

“You don’t want to take quick shots, you want to run some clock off and get the best shot you can get with running out the most time as possible,” he said. “So that’s kind of hard because in those situations, you want to get it late into the clock but you do understand with doing that, you got to make sure you’re not forcing up an ill-advised shot.”

With the Cavaliers coming up empty on three straight possessions late, it looks as if they might have waited too long before working for a shot. Each time they waited until the shot clock was under 10 seconds. “You’d probably like to go around maybe 11 or 12, after you’ve got down the floor, everybody’s gotten set,” Gibson said.

“And then you give it one good effort to the basket.”

n ON THE MEND Guard Sasha Pavlovic has missed the series with a sprained left ankle. He did dress for Game 5 and said Thursday, “I’m ready to play.” Brown did not rule out using Pavlovic, “but it’s not at the top of my list.”

Pavlovic has seen no significant live action in practice other than against assistant coaches.

“It’s hard for me to say Sasha’s going to be ready for a playoff atmosphere like this,” Brown said.

n HACK-A-BEN — Cavaliers forward Ben Wallace, a career 41.8 percent foul shooter, was intentionally fouled by the Wizards with 4:36 left. Wallace then missed both free throws and Brown quickly removed him from the game. Washington’s Caron Butler said it was a “spontaneous” decision to foul Wallace and send him to the line. He said watching the Spurs-Suns series the previous night, where San Antonio employed the 'Hack-a-Shaq' plan on Shaquille O’Neal, helped spark the idea. A team can foul an opposing player away from the ball before the two-minute mark without additional penalty. With less than two minutes, the offensive team gets the foul shots and retains the ball.

“We’ll give Ben an opportunity to stay and knock down free throws,” Brown said. “And if he doesn’t and we feel like we need to make a change, we’ll make the change. We feel like all four of our bigs are interchangeable and they can help us at any time.”

n ARENAS SURPRISES COACH — Wizards All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas ruled himself out for the remainder of the playoffs without informing coach Eddie Jordan. When reporters asked him before Wednesday’s game how he found out Arenas was not playing, Jordan said, “When he was talking to you guys.”

Jordan added after a pause, “Was that a shock to everybody?”

Arenas shut himself down because of persistent pain in his left knee, which has limited him during the series. He missed 66 games after surgery on the knee Nov. 21.