It was a tale of two stories. In the first half, James set franchise playoff records for points in a quarter (18) and half (25), while Arenas was struggling, and Cleveland was up 57-46. Then, LeBron James suddenly, stunningly, became quiet. Gilbert Arenas recovered from an awful start to lead Washington’s comeback for a 106-96 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, tying the first-round series at 2-2.

Lebron was called for 4 offensive fouls! After one in the fourth quarter, he put his palms up and mouthed, “What did I do?” His coach, Mike Brown, crumpled a paper cup and threw it to the ground.

“I’ve been called for more offensive fouls in this series than all 82 games combined, probably,” James said. “I don’t know if they’re trying to take my aggressiveness away, make me play outside.”

It’s total B.S., the refs caved in to pressure from Wizards’ lobbying after Game 3. They took away his inside game because he was constantly called for offensive foul on every flop. Game 5 is Wednesday.

Lebron’s Line: 38 Pts (13-23), 6 Rebs, 5 Assists

Washington 106, Cleveland 96

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hold on, LeBron. Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards aren’t quite ready to pack it in.

With LeBron James suddenly, stunningly, quiet after a tremendous first half Sunday night, Arenas recovered from an awful start to lead Washington’s comeback for a 106-96 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, tying the first-round series at 2-2.

“Oh, man, that was night and day, wasn’t it?” Arenas said after putting behind a six-point, 1-for-9 first half to finish with 34 points — 20 in the fourth quarter.

So much attention during this series has been focused on James’ NBA postseason debut, leaving Arenas feeling a tad overshadowed. He is, after all, a two-time All-Star who finished fourth in the league in scoring this season.

“This is LeBron’s show, you know. We’re just all witnesses,” Arenas said with a broad smile, mimicking a catch phrase used in James’ shoe ads.

At halftime, everything looked quite good for James and Co. and rather bleak for the Wizards. James set franchise playoff records for points in a quarter (18) and half (25), Arenas was struggling, and Cleveland was up 57-46. Another half anything close to that, and Cleveland would head home for Wednesday’s Game 5 with a 3-1 edge.

But two key things happened in Washington’s locker room.

First, the always-quirky Arenas changed his jersey, shorts, shoes and tights, saying what he was wearing had brought bad luck. Then — and, quite likely, more importantly — Wizards coach Eddie Jordan told his players he’d deviate from his highly regimented Princeton offense and wouldn’t dictate plays.

“That’s all we said: Just loosen up, got out and have some fun, I’m not going to call plays,” Jordan said.

It worked, of course, but there was much more to it than that, as Washington outscored Cleveland 60-39 after the break. For one thing, James was nowhere to be found at times in the second half. He took only three shots in the third quarter, missed all, and wound up with 38 points.

James finished with six rebounds and five assists, but he also had seven turnovers, including four offensive fouls. After one in the fourth quarter, he put his palms up and mouthed, “What did I do?” His coach, Mike Brown, crumpled a paper cup and threw it to the ground.

“I’ve been called for more offensive fouls in this series than all 82 games combined, probably,” James said. “I don’t know if they’re trying to take my aggressiveness away, make me play outside.”

During Saturday’s off-day, it was Jordan who spoke about the referees, saying he thought James was getting preferential treatment.

“Whatever they said, it obviously worked,” Brown said, noting that Arenas took 17 free throws, James seven.

Still, in crunch time, as Washington was padding its lead and using smaller, quicker players to guard James, the 21-year-old star wasn’t taking Cleveland’s shots. Nope, it was the likes of Donyell Marshall, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Damon Jones who were getting touches. Flip Murray wound up scoring 19, and the only other Cavaliers player in double figures was Ilgauskas with 13.

“If I’m double-teamed, I’m going to give the ball up,” James said.

Arenas got going a bit with eight points in the third quarter, as Washington whittled a 13-point deficit. He was fouled on a drive to the basket with 0.4 seconds left in that period, and with chants of “M-V-P! M-V-P!” ringing off the rafters, he made both free throws to tie the game at 72.

That figured to set up Bron-Bron vs. Gil, Part II, after their down-the-stretch duel in Game 3. In that one Friday, James hit the go-ahead shot with 5.7 seconds left in the game to finish off his 41-point performance, before Arenas — who scored half of his 34 in the fourth quarter — missed an open 3-pointer that would have won it.

On Sunday, James opened Sunday’s fourth quarter with a 3-pointer, his sixth of the game, but Arenas answered from beyond the arc. Antawn Jamison tacked on another 3 for Washington, giving the hosts their first lead since early in the second quarter, and Arenas added a long jumper to make it 80-76.

Just as in Washington’s Game 2 victory, Arenas got plenty of help from his top sidekicks, Jamison and Caron Butler. Jamison had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and Butler added 21 points — 14 in the second half — and some tough defense on James.

James began 6-for-7 from the field — 4-for-4 on 3s — and scored 15 of the Cavaliers’ 16 points in one first-half stretch.

That’s when Jordan ripped up his script, in part because former Wizards guard Larry Hughes was telling his Cleveland teammates what plays were on the way.

“Coach said, ‘Throw away the plays,”‘ Arenas said. “‘Throw away the plays?’ All right. That’s like playing outside.”

Notes

The Cavaliers watched the end of the Suns-Lakers overtime game on a big-screen TV in the visiting locker room. When Kobe Bryant hit the winning shot, there were shouts of “Show-Be!” and “Kobe Jordan!”. … Jordan hasn’t heard from the NBA about his comments Saturday that James should have been called for traveling on his winning shot in Game 3, and that James is getting calls Arenas isn’t.

WASHINGTON (AP) — LeBron James drove around Antonio Daniels, collided with Michael Ruffin and banked in a 4-footer on the way down with 5.7 seconds left.

Chalk up another milestone for the emerging legend: He made his first game-winning shot in the playoffs.

James scored a franchise playoff-record 41 points Friday night, including two tough shots in the paint in the final minute. In a thrilling one-on-one fourth-quarter duel between two young stars, James had the final say over Gilbert Arenas in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 97-96 victory over the Washington Wizards.

“We are two All-Stars,” James said. “We don’t want our teams to lose the game. It was unfortunate that one team had to lose, but I am happy I was on the winning side. It was a great performance by myself and Gilbert.”

James made 16 of 28 shots and had five rebounds and three assists. Arenas scored 17 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter — making all but one of the Wizards’ field goals in the period — but he missed an open 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have won the game.

“It went in and came out. You’re going to miss more than you make in your career,” Arenas said. “I missed that one, but I’m going to have more opportunities to make them. … I thought it was going in. It was there, just a little off. It just wasn’t our day. We fought all 48 minutes of this basketball game and we deserved this win.”

The Cavaliers lead the series 2-1. Game 4 is Sunday in Washington.

Larry Hughes, who had been struggling all series, scored eight of his 16 points in the fourth quarter for the Cavaliers. Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 15 points and eight rebounds before fouling out with 4:57 to play.

But the Cavaliers were all about James, who played all but 23 seconds. His teammates were a combined 19-for-57 from the field. The Wizards mixed up their defenses, sometimes showing double-teams and threats of double-teams, especially in the second half, but James couldn’t be stopped at the end when everyone in the building knew he would take the shots.

He gave the Cavaliers the lead with 31 seconds remaining by driving to the paint against Jared Jeffries. Jeffries appeared to tie James up, but James recovered and put in the layup.

Arenas, serenaded by chants of “M-V-P! M-V-P!” in the fourth quarter, responded by driving the paint to draw a blocking foul on James while making the layup. Arenas hit the free throw for a three-point play, giving the Wizards a 96-95 lead with 23 seconds to go — but giving James time to win it.

“I said I wouldn’t have two bad games in a row,” said James, who had 10 turnovers and shot 7-for-25 in the Game 2 loss. “I watched Game 2 over and over, and I saw the adjustment they made on me from Game 1 to Game 2. Me being the player I am, I had to counterattack, and I was able to do that.”

James wouldn’t have been in position to win the game were it not for two key defensive plays. Donyell Marshall blocked Ruffin’s layup, then was fouled at the other end and made both free throws to tie it at 93 with 51 seconds remaining. On the Wizards’ next possession, Flip Murray jumped to intercept Daniels’ pass for a steal.

Caron Butler had 20 points and 11 rebounds, and Antawn Jamison scored 14 points — but only two in the second half — for the Wizards, who shot 39 percent in the second half after making 55 percent in the first.

“It hurts,” Washington coach Eddie Jordan said. “You have to let it seep out of you as the night goes along, and tomorrow morning you go back to work for the game on Sunday.”

The game began with a blood-pumping, up-and-down pace missing from the first two games, although James was curiously a non-factor for much of the first quarter. The Cavaliers instead tried to feed the ball inside to Ilgauskas, who made a long hook for the game’s first basket and didn’t have another field goal until the second quarter.

A 15-4 run gave the Wizards a 26-15 lead, and coach Mike Brown decided he’d seen enough. He called timeout, and the message was clear: James needed the ball. He was the focus of the next three possessions, but only one was successful. He drove by Butler for a dunk, was called for an illegal dribble and missed a jump shot.

James, who had a triple-double in Game 1, didn’t get his first assist until 2:21 to go in the half, and the Wizards led by 14 before James led a late rally before the break. An 8-2 run cut Washington’s lead to 58-50 at the half.

The Wizards went cold in the third quarter, making six of 18 shots. James made two baskets and assisted on the other in a 6-0 run that tied the score at 67, and the teams went to the fourth tied at 71.

The rest of the game, it was Arenas vs. James. The Wizards made James work hard for his game-winner, but not hard enough.

“Jared was there. Mike Ruffin was there. And he made a tough shot,” Butler said. “That’s the type of shot you want him to take. Tonight he was converting a lot of those.”

Game notes

How big is the hype surrounding James? The Wizards issued a credential to a reporter from lebronjames.com, giving him a seat between The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer and USA Today. … Pregame mystery in the Wizards locker room: Someone wrote “The Hater” in block letters on the nameplate above rookie Andray Blatche’s locker. “I don’t know who did it — probably Gil,” Blatche said. But Arenas said there was no way he could be the culprit. “I have bad penmanship,” he said.