Washington’s Gilbert Arenas tries to get the home crowd pumped up by waving a towel before playing the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3 of their playoff series Thursday. Associated Press Photo.

WASHINGTON — LeBron James couldn’t say the words without cracking up. He tried twice. The thought was just too silly to fathom.

“There’s no DeShawn-LeBron rivalry,” James said.

Maybe not. But the back-and-forth between the Cleveland Cavaliers megastar and Washington Wizards role player DeShawn Stevenson sure has made their first-round playoff series entertaining. If nothing else, it had a teenage rapper dancing in the aisle in the second half of Washington’s 108-72 victory in Game 3 on Thursday night.

The rapper is Soulja Boy, who ought to give James and Stevenson some royalties from his next CD because he couldn’t buy better publicity than this. He was in Row 1 at the invitation of Stevenson, his big hit “Crank Dat” was played on the sound system, and — in part because of him — the crowd chanted “over-rated!” at James during a free-throw attempt late in the third quarter.

James couldn’t help but laugh. He was so distracted he missed the shot. Didn’t really matter. By then, the Cavaliers were trailing by 28 points in a stunning reversal from Game 2.

In other NBA playoff games, the Houston Rockets beat Utah to cut the Jazz’s lead to 2-1, and the Toronto Raptors closed to 2-1 in their series against the Orlando Magic with a 108-94 victory.

The win took the Wizards off the ropes by cutting Cleveland’s series lead to 2-1, with Game 4 in Washington on Sunday.

“It was a good old fashioned behind-kicking,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said.

Enough of the mundane facts. The good stuff surrounds the two players and the rapper.

It started when Stevenson called James “overrated” following the Wizards’ victory over the Cavaliers last month. James said responding to that remark would be like Jay-Z responding to Soulja Boy — a hip-hop mogul answering a one-hit wonder.

Stevenson had to eat his words after Games 1 and 2, but he led the Wizards with 19 points Thursday night while going 5-for-7 on 3-pointers. After making his shots, Stevenson ran down the court waving his hand in front of his nose, the “can’t-feel-my-face” gesture that Cleveland’s Damon Jones mocked in Game 2.

Soulja Boy was loving it.

“If I was disrespected as an artist, I would have came, too,” Stevenson said. “I felt like Soulja Boy felt disrespected, and he came to support the Washington Wizards.”

So will Stevenson’s special guest be back for Game 4?

“We got to get him here,” Stevenson said. “We won with him. Me and (teammate Gilbert Arenas) are superstitious, so we have to get him back.”

What was James’ response to all this? First, he said the Wizards’ crowd wasn’t nearly as intimidating as the Detroit fans in last year’s playoffs.

And as for Soulja Boy?

“My son knows every last dance Soulja Boy does and every last song he ever made,” James said. “So if my son was watching, he enjoyed it.”

But he probably didn’t enjoy what the Wizards did to his father. Washington double-teamed James more often and forced him to take more outside shots. Booed heavily every time he touched the ball, James couldn’t get into the type of flow that had him scoring 32 points in Game 1 and 30 in Game 2.

James had said Washington’s tactics in the very physical first two games were like a “Hack-a-Bron” strategy, but there was nothing like that this time. He finished with 22 points on 10-for-19 shooting from the field and took only four free throws.

“They really turned up the pressure defensively,” James said. “They caught us off-guard at times.”

Caron Butler added 17 points and Antawn Jamison had 15 for the Wizards, who now know they aren’t destined to be forever hexed by James and Co. Cleveland had won eight straight playoff games against Washington, including a first-round sweep a year ago.

The 36-point margin of victory set a Wizards franchise playoff record. The Cavaliers, who set their own franchise margin-of-victory mark with a 30-point win in Game 2, broke the team record for biggest postseason defeat and became the first team to win a playoff game by 30 and lose the next by 30.

The one major issue for the Wizards is Arenas, who started for the first time since November but injured his surgically repaired left knee in the first half. He walked off the court late in the first half with an obvious limp and a bone bruise. He is listed as day to day.

“I think he’s going to be OK for Sunday,” Jordan said.

Rockets 94, Jazz 92

Tracy McGrady snapped out of his fourth-quarter slump and scored seven of his 27 points in the final period, giving Houston life in a series that could have been headed for a sweep.

Rafer Alston added 20 points and five assists in his first game in nearly two weeks as Houston avoided falling behind 3-0 in the series by beating the team that had the best home record in the NBA during the regular season. Game 4 is Saturday back in Utah, where the Jazz were 37-4 this season.

Carl Landry had 11 rebounds and blocked Deron Williams’ shot that could have won it for the Jazz just before the buzzer. Williams had 28 points and 12 assists.

Raptors 108, Magic 94

T.J. Ford scored 21 points, Jose Calderon had 18 points and 13 assists, and Toronto cut visiting Orlando’s lead to 2-1. The Raptors finished 12-for-34 from 3-point range and set playoff highs for points in a game and a half (61).

Dwight Howard had 19 points and 12 rebounds for the Magic, while Hedo Turkoglu added 24 points and Rashard Lewis had 19.

Jamario Moon had 11 points and 10 rebounds in his return to the starting lineup for Toronto, while Chris Bosh and Jason Kapono each scored 15 points and Anthony Parker 10.