Fanatical running thoughts tonight:

-  Seeing these blue jerseys in action, I’m going with thumbs down.  The Cavaliers have a great variety of jerseys to choose from, and these, while not awful, aren’t good enough to take precedence over any of them.  I’d rather see any other uniform over these.  But again, that says more about the general quality of the Cavalier jerseys as a whole than it does about these royal blue things.

-  Guys in crab costumes at the game tonight.  I have no idea why this crab dribble thing has garnered so much attention, but I’m pretty sure that it’s more proof that a star like LeBron doesn’t need a big market to be a media icon.

-  The Cavaliers are refocused, the Bobcats are winded, and after the first quarter the Cavs lead 29-12.  LeBron has 15 points on 7-for-10 shooting, and he is abusing the Charlotte defense, getting into the lane at will.

-  Kudos to the bobblehead doll makers getting the star in Daniel Gibson’s head.  And Gibson is obliging on his night, knocking down his first two threes and turning a rebound to a nice alley-oop to J.J. Hickson.

-  The Cavaliers can’t miss at the moment, as Wally Szczerbiak just hit two threes in a row to stretch the Cavalier lead to 43-14.  The Cavaliers look like a hungry, well-rested team, and the Bobcats look like a team that knows it is overmatched.  All that barking that the Bobcats were doing last night after the victory (looking at you D.J. Augustin) is gone for the moment.

-  Do you think Wally Szczerbiak looks at Matt Carroll and Adam Morrison and thinks “This is easy.  Is this what other guys feel like when I’m guarding them?”  Yes Wally, it is.

-  I got on J.J. Hickson for getting a cheap goaltending violation last game after a foul that cost the Cavaliers two points.  Just now he did the same thing, only this time it was a bad call by the officials, as the ball was still on its way up and had not yet touched the backboard.  So better play, same bad result.  Which means HIckson should probably just stop trying to block shots after the whistle.

-  Daniel Gibson with a dunk!  That’s it, we’re having bobblehead doll night every night.  We’re going to get 15 points out of Tarence Kinsey yet!

-  Three times the Cavaliers have goaltended a shot after a shooting foul.  We’ve got to be closing in on some kind of record.  Someone needs to let them know that Kevin Garnett and the Celtics only do that on shots well after the stop of play, those practice jumpers that guys take as everyone else is milling around.  They don’t hand free points to the offense.

-  I don’t know if people have noticed, but the Cavaliers are currently offering 3-game ticket packages which include either a game against the Celtics or the Lakers.  But if you try to buy single game tickets to those games, you’ll find that they are sold out.  So the Cavs have held tickets to two very coveted games in an effort to force fans to buy tickets to other, much much worse games - the Lakers tickets come with the Kings and the Grizzlies for crying out loud, two teams that are a combined 33 games under .500, a number that is only likely to be greater by the time they come to Cleveland.  I know the Cavs want to take advantage of those big games, but holding tickets from the pool just to sell others seems…dishonest.

-  Good thing we’re getting to halftime, because the refs are clearly cranky and in need of a quick nap.  Two technical fouls on Juwan Howard who was sitting on the bench, and two straight delay of game technical fouls on the Cavaliers, the second for an untucked shirt for Daniel Gibson.  That makes it closer at the end, but at the half the Cavaliers lead 60-42.

Second Half:

-  More of the same in the second half, with the Cavaliers stretching the lead back out to 28 points at 76-48.  The rebounding has been solid as well, as the Cavs currently enjoy a 27-19 lead on the glass, with a 6-3 lead in offensive rebounds.  

-  Don’t look now, but the Celtic currently trail at home to the Houston Rockets, 52-49 at halftime.

-  While the Cavaliers haven’t opened up a bigger lead in the second half, they are keeping the Bobcats at bay and getting plenty of rest for LeBron James, who will once again get to spend a fourth quarter on the bench.  The only thing I don’t understand is why Anderson Varejao isn’t joining him there, as Andy is right now the second-most important player on the team.  The Cavs have Darnell Jackson and Lorenzen Wright on the bench and an insurmountable lead, it’s time to call it a game for Varejao.  Cavs lead in the fourth quarter, 98-72.

-  The Cavs oblige me with around 5:30 left, bringing in Jackson and ending the night for Andy and Daniel Gibson.  Varejao finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds, while Boobie had 15 points and 3 assists.  While the supporting cast has been bad in the recent struggles, they looked very solid tonight, exploiting the tired Bobcat defense.  The bench bunch of Gibson, Szczerbiak and Hickson has combined for 41 points tonight, just a huge lift for the team.

-  Tarence Kinsey is coming in with 2:25 left in the game.  Any chance he ends the game without a turnover (last time the Cavs played the Bobcats, Kinsey gave it up 3 times in 4 minutes)?

-  And that’s the game, the Cavaliers prevail 111-81.  You don’t need The Diff to figure out this one was a blowout.  The Bobcats didn’t have much of chance tonight, and the Cavs jumped on Charlotte early to take all the fight out of them.  The Cavs shot incredibly well (60% from the field, 50% from beyond the arc), rebounded effectively (41-32), and moved the ball arount to the tune of 24 assists.  Good, solid win for the Cavaliers as they get ready for the Celtics on Friday.

Go Cavs.

Update: ”He’s not a cookie, he’s not a cracker, he’s Von Wafer!” The call from Houston radio announcer Gene Peterson (I think) when Rockets guard Von Wafer knocked down a three to give the Rockets a 2-point lead late in the game.  The Rockets picked up a few more points, and beat the Celtics in Boston, 89-85.  The Celtics have now lost 6 of their last 8 as they come into Cleveland on Friday.  

As much as I was rooting for the Rockets at the end of this thing, this now changes some of the dynamics of Friday’s game.  If the Cavs win, they are just one of a list of teams to beat the Celtics of late, a list that includes the Knicks, Bobcats and Warriors.  If the Celtics win, they re-establish their supremecy in the East despite their recent struggles.  

I’m still psyched for Friday, but these kinds of things always bother me, especially when ESPN is intimately involved.  Look at what that Celtics loss on Christmas did to them.  But I have to admit, I’m shocked that this game on Friday now means more for the Celtics than it does for the Cavaliers.  What a difference two weeks can make.  

Finally, Carmelo Anthony stole DeShawn Stevenson’s red velvet blazer.

What to watch for tonight as the suddenly dangerous Charlotte Bobcats come into Cleveland to threaten the Cavaliers’ home unbeaten streak.

1.  Can the Bobcats beat the Celtics and the Cavaliers on consecutive nights?  That’s an amazing question, and if you would have asked it yesterday you would have been the object of much ridicule.  But the Bobcats come to Cleveland having just pulled off an impressive 114-106 overtime victory last night against Boston, outscoring the supposedly super-clutch Celtics 18-10 in the extra period.  Charlotte has won 5 out of their last 7 games, and has been a significantly improved team since the Bobcats added Boris Diaw and Raja Bell in a trade with the Phoenix Suns for Jason Richardson.  

While the victory last night certainly has the Bobcats feeling positive, it also means they are coming into Cleveland a little worn down, as four Charlotte starters played over 40 minutes last night.  If the Cavaliers make the Bobcats work throughout the night, by the end of the game Charlotte should be running on fumes, and the chances of a miracle back-to-back will be washed away.

2.  Will the Cavaliers rebound?  I was pretty passionate about my disappointment in the Cavaliers’ rebounding efforts on Sunday, and with good reason.  The Cavs were outrebounded 52-35 in that game, and allowed the Wizards to gobble up 19 offensive rebounds, completely neutralizing what was otherwise a good defensive effort from the Wine and Gold.  Tonight they face a Bobcat team short on size but long on hustle, and Diaw (7.3 rpg as a Bobcat), Emeka Okafor (11.2 rpg) and Gerald Wallace (7.7 rpg) will actively crash the offensive glass if the Cavaliers don’t box them out.  

While Zydrunas Ilgaukas gets more of his rebounds due to size, not tenacity, he is pretty reliable in grabbing the easy ones.  While Anderson Varejao is a good rebounder, his help defense often leaves him out of ideal rebounding position, something that opposing bigs are exploiting whenever Andy comes over to challenge a shot or draw a charge.  That means the far-side defender has to get into position and put a body on those bigs, and so far LeBron James and Delonte West (among others) haven’t done a great job of doing that.  The Cavs might have to bring the help defense a little less often while Z is out, to avoid wasting their good defensive efforts by giving up easy put-back baskets.

3.  What about the new jerseys?  I showed the layout yesterday, a throwback to a never-was color scheme, something I thought only happened to expansion teams like the Colorado Rockies or Memphis Grizzlies.  The “swingman” version is available now at NBAStore.com here, and that nifty new WordPress plugin should allow you to see it just by hovering over the link (stole that one from Mark Cuban of all people).    The red piping still looks bad, but without it the jerseys become Golden State Warriors throwbacks, and we can’t have that.  You would think that since this isn’t a “real” throwback, the design team could have added a few extra flourishes to make it unique, rather than resorting to the red.  But those complaints aside, I like the addition of any interesting aesthetic changes, especially this kind of one-time thing. 

Though I reserve the right to change my mind when I see them in action tonight.

Go Cavs.

Just a few extra things to start your NBA week.  Not so much a week in review, more just some things I’ve been wanting to talk about.

-  It took a while to get an official word, but yes, the Cavs will be wearing blue “throwback” jerseys to complement the blue-jerseyed Daniel Gibson bobblehead in Wednesday’s game against the Bobcats.  I think the red piping is a mistake, but otherwise the jersey gets dangerously close to the old San Franciso Warriors jerseys.  

-  The team shop has also been selling white versions of the jersey (with blue numbers and letters).  Is that look also in the future?

-  I’m not sure what exactly LeBron is watching when he says he didn’t travel on that last play against the Wizards.  If he had landed with a clean jump stop, maybe I buy it, but a two-point jump stop and two extra steps is a traveling violation.  But you have to admire his argumentative skills,  calling it a “crab step” almost legitimizes it.  I guess that PowerAde commercial wasn’t that far off. 

-  The Cavs are currently playing without much fire, which I would attribute to too much time in the comforts of home around the holidays.  Anyone can get lazy at this time of year, and the Cavs certainly fit that description.  LeBron is just as guilty as anyone, as part of being a good leader is getting your team focused when they don’t want to be.  Mike Brown has also been a bit soft of late, evidenced by Delonte West’s talk about giggling his way through recent practices.  The Cavs need to tighten it up, and they know that.  It’s just a matter of doing the work.

-  That being said, the Celtics are also scuffling, losing four out of their last six to teams like the Golden State Warriors and New York Knicks.  The Celtics, like the Cavaliers, were clearly reading their own press and took the foot off the gas over the holiday season.  And I ask, “how is this possible?”  I thought Kevin Garnett, that ever-passionate, ever-hungry leader of men was the kind of inspiration that wouldn’t allow his teammates to get complacent and lethargic.  I thought he was molding Rajon Rondo into a hall-of-fame point guard, not a guy who scores three measely points in a 12-point loss to the Knicks.  How could this be?

-  I’m not saying that the Celtics aren’t great; I’m just using this as an opportunity to point out that the so-called common knowledge that the national media assaults us with constantly (KG never takes a game off, Michael Jordan never took a game off, etc.) just isn’t true.  Over an 82-game schedule, teams and players go through ups and downs.  Players get lazy, they stop practicing as hard, they lose to an inferior team that wants it more.  But all of that gets cleaned up in the history books if you win championships.  If you win, you’re a winner, if you lose, you’re a loser.  Situations and circumstances be damned, we don’t have time for that level of analysis.  

-  Speaking of the Celtics, the possibility of Stephon Marbury becoming a Celtic is getting a lot of play.  Apparently the Celtics are interested, which I guess means that Doc Rivers thinks his team needs to be handicapped by distractions in order to make it fair for the other teams.  It’s almost like people don’t remember that Sam Cassell was much more of a hinderance than a help for the Celtics last year, because for every big shot he made, he took two shots that he had no business taking.  Cassell was an inefficient scorer on a team that prided itself on efficient scoring - he was the exact opposite of what they were trying to do.  Marbury would be the same thing, a guy who is self-centered on a team full of cooperative personalities, a guy who wants so desperately to be the man that is won’t give up the ball unless he is sure it will lead to an assist.  And what’s worse, unlike Cassell, Marbury has proven that he cares far more about his own legacy than he does about winning, meaning that you can’t count on him to sacrifice himself for the good of the team just to win a ring.  Heck, at the moment he won’t even accept a pay cut to just $17.8 Million to go to Boston.  Adding Marbury would be a terrible idea for the Celtics.

- Now, as a Cavs fan, I hope the Celtics don’t listen to a single thing I’ve said and go ahead and bring him to Boston.  I mean, what’s the worst that could happen (besides a sexual harassment suit in which he testifies that he’s getting intimate with your interns in his truck)?  It’s not like the Cavaliers have ever beaten a superior team because of a headcase player (Wizards in ‘06, Pistons in ‘07).  

-  Not every LeBron commerical is golden, but those Chris Paul Right Guard commercials are atrocious.

Go Cavs.

The Cavs invade Washington to take on the Wizards in a rematch of the Christmas Day contest that almost ended the Cavalier home unbeaten streak.  Here’s hoping the Cavaliers bring a little more effort tonight than they did on Christmas, especially early.

-  The Cavs have to do a better job against Mike James, who did his best Mo Williams impression last week, killing the Cavaliers on long jump shots.  But so far in this game, the Wizards are making some tough shots, and are out to a 12-6 lead, as LeBron already has two turnovers, and the Wizards are getting into the lane too easily.

-  Anderson Varejao = the post scorer everyone has been clamoring for.  Seriously, when he is a focal point of the offense, Anderson is thriving.  Andy set a personal best in scoring on Friday, and is off to a hot start tonight, with 6 points on 3-for-3 shooting.  He looks at least as good as Elton Brand has looked in Philly.

-  At a timeout with 2:43 left in the first quarter, the Cavs trail 22-17.  The Wizards are currently shooting 67% from the field (10-15), and they are mixing tough shots with easy ones.  Jamison and Butler have combined for 14 points already, while the Cavalier scoring has come from LeBron (8) and Andy (6).  The Cavs need to keep attacking the basket, and they need to stay home on defense, forcing the Wizards to shoot over the top.  Eventually those shots are going to stop falling.

-  Delonte West joins the party offensively, following a tough layup with a three-pointer to cut the Cavalier deficit to 2 points.

-  I’m very surprised to see Javaris Crittendon in the game, where he misses two free throws.  Crittendon hasn’t been playing at all since he was acquired from Memphis last month, but he got 21 minutes when the Wizards got drubbed by the Celtics on Friday.  Crittendon has the size (6′5″) at the point guard position that many coaches and fans covet, but he has already been traded twice in his young career.  That likely means that he is still more potential that product, and he is still a long way from being a productive NBA player.  

-  LeBron with 5 assists in the first quarter, thanks to some good shooting (53%) from his teammates.  

-  Again, offensive rebounds are a problem, as the Wizards already have 4 in the early going.  With Vareajao and Hickson out there, and Andy having to follow Jamison out to the perimeter, the other players have to be better on the boards, and so far they haven’t been.

-  Andre Blatche is playing well in the first half, with 4 points, 3 assists, a rebound and a block of J.J. Hickson which led to a jump ball.  He has a significant size advantage over Hickson (6′11″ v. 6′9″), as he shows tipping in a put back on the offensive end, ending a possession where the Wizards pick up another two offensive rebounds.  Rebounding continues to be a problem for the Cavaliers, and if they think they can beat the Celtics this Friday without crashing the boards, they are in for a rude awakening.

-  Mo air-balls a 3, and the Cavs are down 8 points with 7:41 left in the first half.  LeBron is back in the game, guarding Jamison, which is a good matchup for him.  Jamison is no banger, and LeBron can harass him on the perimeter effectively.

-  Memo to J.J. Hickson: if you learn how to catch those super-hot passes from LeBron into the post like you did right there, you can be a star.  Second memo: don’t try to block shots when you’re five feet from the shooter.  Even if you do get your hand on the ball, it’s going to be a goaltending violation.

-  LeBron scores 6 points in two possessions to get the Cavs within 5, then finds Mo for a three to get it to 4 points.  The Cavalier offense is much, much better when LeBron is putting obscene amounts of pressure on the defense.  Even Caron Butler, a quality defender in his own right, has no answer for LeBron, fouling him on a three pointer that LeBron turns into a 4-point play.  Remember, Butler fouled LeBron on a three late in the Christmas game that kept the Cavaliers alive.

-  The Cavaliers are shooting almost 52% from the field, LeBron has 17 points, and still the Cavaliers trail.  The reason is simple: 9 offensive rebounds for Washington and 9 Cavalier turnovers leading to an extra 16! shots for the Wizards.  The Cavs are somehow within 4 points at the half, 47-43.  But unless the Cavs come out with a dedication to rebounding that has been missing for two weeks, they are in for another four-quarter struggle against a vastly inferior team.

Second Half:

-  Really, I’m supposed to choose between Russell Westbrook, Joe Alexander and Rudy Fernandez to compete in the dunk contest?  I’m sure they idea was increasing the exposure of three small market rookies through the campaign, but none of those guys has a chance of winning unless the other competitors just fall apart.  At least they were smart enough to focus on little guys, because we all know that non-Dwight Howard big men get no love in the Dunk Contest

-  But for the record, Fernandez’s “Vote Me” song with the guitar gets my vote.

-  So far, the Cavs have been able to keep Mike James off of the scoreboard (3 points in 18 minutes).  That’s not a big surprise, as James is the quinessential streaky shooter, the guy who can keep you in a game by himself, but can disappear for long stretches as well.  Still, he showed that he can make tough shots last week in Cleveland, and if the Cavaliers don’t start playing better, James is the perfect candidate to hit the back-breaker.

-  The Wizards are packing the paint and daring the Cavaliers to shoot over the top.  While the Cavs have occasionally worked their way into the lane with some success, they haven’t done it consistently.  When they do, they aren’t converting at the free throw line, as they are currently shooting just 8-for-15 from the line.  We get a Wizards timeout with 8:18 left in the third quarter and the Cavs trail 52-46.

-  Too many offensive rebounds.  Two more lead to a layup to stretch the Wizard lead to 8 points.  Give them 12 for the game, and the shot differential is now 19.  19 extra shots!

-  The Cavaliers have gone cold, down to 42% from the field, while the Wizards are popping in a bunch of tough ones.  As a result, the Cavs now face a 12 point deficit late in the third quarter with a miserable 54 points.  They aren’t out of this game, but everyone not named LeBron still can’t figure out what they’re doing.  

-  Memo to Fred and Austin: One shot and out is not the problem.  MISSING the shots is the problem.  I’m getting very tired of watching Cavaliers miss good shots, or worse, pass up good shots so they can take a dribble and hoist and off-balanced jumper.  The designated Cavalier “shooters” are 7-for-20 (35%).  

-  The Wizards are outrebounding the Cavaliers by 16.

-  On that 3-pointer, Gibson was more worried about drawing contact than he was about making the shot.  He missed the shot and committed a lose ball foul.  Great stuff there.  Then Wally fouls Butler on an inbounds play, which is an automatic too free throws.  The supporting cast is a mess right now.

-  That was a terrible call by the official that led to the Mike Brown ejection.  

-  Anyone want to guess what happens to Delonte West when he disappears for long stretches of the game?  You’re starting shooting guard has played 30 minutes, and he has a whole 6 points and 2 rebounds to show for it.

-  If the Cavaliers lose this game, it will because they have not done the job rebounding.  The defense has been vice-like against the Wizards in the fourth, but Washington has come with just enough cheap second-chance baskets to keep the lead.  The shot disparity is back down to 7, but the Wizards are still dominating the board winning the rebounding battle (49-34) and dominating the offensive rebounding battle (17-9).

-  Daniel Gibson how we’ve missed you!  Gibson has played fantastically here in the fourth, knocking down a three, drawing a foul, hitting three free throws, and tossing a long pass ahead to a streaking Mo Williams to cut the lead to two.

-  Get the d*mn rebound!  Mike Brown better tear these guys a new one this week, they have absolutely wasted great defense with awful rebounding.  All that laughing during practice that Delonte West was talking about better be missing.

-  LeBron James = the most unstoppable force on the planet.  Butler actually goal-tended the ball, but LeBron put it in anyway.  We’re tied, 77-77.

-  On that turnover, Darius Songalia committed an egregious moving pick that was not called.  Cavs get the ball back anyway.  

-  See the above post about LeBron being unstoppable.  Then explain why he didn’t go up when he got the ball two feet from the hoop, but opted to pass to Delonte West, who bricked the three.  It’s the right basketball play, but if the Cavs come up short, count this as the second game this season where Delonte West missed an open shot that the Cavaliers really needed.

-  LeBron did travel on that possession.

-  And with that, the Cavaliers fall in Washington, 80-77.  The holidays are over for the Cavaliers, here’s hoping that they get the message.  This was a winnable game, but the Cavs, especially the supporting cast, didn’t bring the necessary effort until the very end of the game.  Terrible job on the glass, poor effort offensively through the first three quarters, and without Zydrunas Ilgauskas the Cavaliers just can’t get away with what they did in the third quarter (11 points).  

Go Cavs.  Quiet start to the week, but by Friday things should be absolutely electric.  It just would have been nice if that game could have been for the best record in the East.

Here we go, another Friday matchup at the Q.  The Cavaliers have three of these in a row in January, including tonight, next Friday against the Boston Celtics, and the Friday after that against the New Orleans Hornets.  The schedule makers have been nice to Cavs fans to start the new year.

-  While a lot of people are taking notice of Derrick Rose, right now he’ll be taking notice of the rest of the first quarter from the bench, as he picks up two fouls in the first 1:21 of the game.  Rose is averaging 17.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, but he’ll head to the bench with nothing but personal fouls so far.

-  Ben Wallace is very active here to start the game against his most recent former team.  Ben has 6 points, 4 rebounds, an assist and a steal already in the first quarter.  

-  It is much more fun watching Larry Hughes hoist deep jumpers when he’s wearing another team’s uniform.  He is, no surprise, 0-for-2 to start the game from a combined 40 feet.

-  The Cavs lead by 4, 17-13 with 5:15 left in the first quarter, but the sloppiness of the Bulls has been contagious, as the Cavaliers aren’t doing a great job taking care of the ball.

-  J.J. Hickson gets some first quarter minutes with Z unavailable.  Unfortunately, he’s matched up against Andres Nocioni, a hard-nosed veteran who knows just about every trick in the book.  Nocioni pulls Hickson away from the paint, something every rookie learning a defensive system is hesistant to do, and knocks a jumper over the rookie.  The Cavs feed Hickson three straight possessions, and while he isn’t able to do much on those possessions, he does sneak in for an offensive rebound and a foul.  

-  Talk about Z’s injury, which is revealed to be a slight fracture that will keep him out 3-4 weeks.  That is going to be an issue for the Cavaliers with those big Friday games coming up.  So, yeah, that sucks.

-  Great job by Hickson running the floor on the break and getting a nice, atheltic layup to put the Cavaliers up by ten, 27-17.  Now that’s something you’re not going to get from Z, injured or not.  He also knocks down two free throws off a loose ball foul, and Hickson has 6 first quarter points.  Good stuff.

-  The Cavs end the first quarter on a 9-0 run and jump out to a 15-point lead after one, 32-17.  

-  Larry Hughes had to fill in point guard duties after Rose went down with foul trouble, and he proceeded to go 0-4 with two turnovers and a +/- of -14.  Ah, memories.

-  The only bright spot for Chicago has been Thabo Sefolosha, who has ten points after a high-flying putback dunk.  Sefolosha is like the Lakers’ Trevor Ariza, but with out the media market or the All-Star teammates.  In other words, lots of talent, not a ton of skill, but he can look really good on some nights.

-  LeBron is wearing a practice jersey, over a short-sleeved shirt, over a long sleeved shirt, over his jersey, over a tank-top.  What, is Daniel Gilbert turning down the thermostat at the Q?

-  Speaking of jerseys, I’m no fan of the Bulls’ black jerseys.  I thought the black with red pinstripes jerseys in the MJ era were kinda cool, but these are just uninspired.

-  Daniel Gibson, what are you doing?  He had a nice 3 at the end of the first quarter, but his other two shots have been a jumper that never got over the front of the rim, and an airball that might have been tipped.  He’s still operating without anything approximating rhythm.

-  Ben Wallace continues his solid play, blocking a shot to nullify a Joakim Noah offensive rebound, then drawing an offensive foul on Tyrus Thomas.  

-  Aaron Gray is a big man.  LeBron skies for a rebound and collides with Gray mid-air, only to tumble backwards like he was hit by a truck.  Gray is listed at 7 feet, 270 lbs, and he is thick.

-  The Bulls can’t get a shot in the halfcourt at all, but Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic take turns picking up dumb fouls against Ben Gordon, which sends him to the line where he makes all four.  Then Andy picks up another foul on a Cedric Simmons dunk.  And yes, that answers the age-old question, “What ever happened to Cedric Simmons?”

-  Ben Wallace stands a good six inches behind the free throw line for some reason.  It works for the first one, but the second is an airball, not because it was too short, but because it was too far right.  Must be a breeze in the Q tonight.  That might explain all of LeBron’s shirts.

-  Ben Gordon has 17 first half points, partly do to some circus shots, partly due to gifts from Andy and Sasha.  Once again Gordon is the only Bull scoring with any kind of consistency against the Cavalier defense, as the Cavs seem to have trouble identifying him as the one Chicago threat.

-  At the end of the first half, the Cavs lead 61-47.  The lead was as high as 19 at one point in the first half, but a 14-point lead is nothing to sneeze at, especially when LeBron has been held to just 6 points (though LeBron has added 6 assists in the first half).

Second Half:

-  The Cavaliers start the second half cruising, as Delonte West hits a couple of 3-pointers, putting the entire starting five for the Cavaliers in double figures for the game.  With less than 5 minutes to go in the third quarter, the Cavaliers have opened up a 25-point lead, 81-56.  The good for Chicago is that Larry Hughes is coming back into the ball game.

-  Now the Cavs have gotten sloppy, but the Bulls refuse to take advantage.  Lots of cheap fouls, sloppy offensive possessions, etc., but the Cavs still lead 85-62.  The Bulls are now shooting just 37% for the game, while the Cavaliers are knocking down 52% of their shots, and that’s all you really need to know about this game.  The Cavs are getting everything they want offensively when they exert even the slightest bit of effort (which is about every other trip down the floor in the third quarter), and the Bulls can’t make much headway.

-  That being said, the Bulls managed to cut the lead to 17 points at the end of the third, as the Cavs lead 89-72.  We’re not quite in “LeBron sits the entire fourth quarter” territory yet, but if the lead is still comfortable with eight or seven minutes left in the game, LeBron might get the rest of the night off.  At this point, LeBron is just 1-for-5 and has 10 points, 9 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, 1 steal and a +/- of +20.  Hard to complain about that if it ends with a blowout home victory.

-  Color me surprised that LeBron is out there to start the fourth quarter, he must want to push that point total (and assist total) a bit higher.  

-  Anderson Varejao just scored his 19th point on a free throw, setting a new career high.  More and more, Andy is proving that he can be a starting center in the NBA.  Coming into the night, Varejao was averaging 13.7 points and 8.7 rebounds in games he started, and those numbers are just going up after tonight.  The Cavaliers are going to be faced with a very difficult decision this offseason, when Varejao becomes an unrestricted free agent.  More than a few teams will be willing to have Varejao as their starting center, which means he’s looking at a contract in the same $9-$10 Million a year level he was hoping for when he held out last season.  That’s a rich contract for a Cavaliers team that has been coveting salary cap flexibility for LeBron’s free agent Summer in 2010, and the Cavs might not be willing to give Andy the contract he’d prefer.  But replacing Andy is going to be a tall order should he head out of town for a bigger paycheck this Summer.

-  And even as I’ve been typing the previous paragraph, Andy has tossed in a pretty hook shot and slammed home another one, giving him 23 points on the night.  There’s no other way to put it, Andy looks great tonight.  If he had avoided a couple of silly fouls (he has 5 at the moment)

-  LeBron has grabbed every rebound the last few times down, and now he is one rebound away from a triple-double.  Here I thought he was looking for more points…he just wanted more rebounds!  LeBron then knocks down a three, grabs that tenth rebound, then hits another three to end his night, and the crowd explodes.  With 5:33 remaining, the Cavs are back up 24, 104-80.  

-  Larry Hughes misses another jumper, and he is now 0-for-8.  Hughes hasn’t taken a single shot that wasn’t a jumper; he refuses to go to the hoop.  It’s a shame.  Whatever you think of Hughes as a person, and by all accounts he is a stand-up guy, there’s no doubt that his commitment to the game completely disappeared after he signed his big contract.  He’s content to recklessly toss up jump shots regardless of the situation, and he sees no use in getting into the lane and drawing contact.  Larry Hughes could have been a good player here in Cleveland, he just wasn’t willing to sacrifice anything to do it.  As a result, he’ll be paid very handsomely for this year and next, and he’ll end his career playing for losers.

-  Tarence Kinsey comes into the game, and not 5 seconds later has his first turnover and first foul.  I don’t know what he’s doing in practice, but Kinsey has been the least productive Cavalier when the lights come on.

-  And that’s your ballgame.  Cavs win 117-92, blowing the doors off the Chicago Bulls.  That’s 17-0 at home for the Cavaliers, and barring some sort of disaster against Charlotte on Wednesday, the Cavs will have an undefeated home record when Boston comes into Cleveland next Friday.  The Cavaliers rebounded nicely from the loss on Tuesday, and as least for a night looked like the dominant team we saw throughout most of December.  

Go Cavs.

Happy New Year everybody.  Here’s hoping the Cavaliers look as good in 2009 as they have in 2008.  If they do, an early Summer parade is in the works.

What to watch for tonight when the Bulls come into town:

1.  The Bulls have been playing very poorly on the road, sporting a 4-14 record on the season, a road record on par with the truly bad teams in the league.  While one of those wins did come against Utah, there’s little to indicate that the Bulls are poised for the upset tonight.  The Bulls are still more a bunch of mismatched parts rather than a cohesive whole, but that Derrick Rose sure can play.

The one thing the Bulls do well under head coach Vinny Del Negro is get out in transition, something that has been the bane of the Cavalier defense all season.  While the Cavaliers have won the first two meetings with Chicago this season, the Bulls have been competitive, despite the fact that LeBron James dropped 41 points on them both times.  If the Cavaliers start settling for long jump shots - a distinct possibility given their recent play - the Bulls could get out and run and make it a tough night for the home team.

Still, I believe the loss to Miami will re-focus the Cavaliers a bit, and that the recent offensive and rebounding issues will be less present tonight.  The Bulls are allowing a bunch of points lately (104.6 ppg allowed over the last five games, even while holding the Nets to 87 in their one win), and they don’t have any kind of reliable inside presence, even if Drew Gooden returns tonight from an ankle sprain that has sidelined him for the past week.  

2.  Will the Cavs show the energy that has been lacking for the past week?  Over the last three games, the Cavaliers have not brought the same level of intensity and focus that fans have come to expect from the team, especially on the offensive end.  The Cavs have averaged just 93.7 ppg in the last three, nearly 8 points per game off of their season average (101.5 ppg), and instead of breaking down the defense with dribble penetration and crisp passing, the team has been settling for too many jump shots.

Part of that inefficiency can be placed right at the feet of Daniel Gibson, who’s shot actually looks worse than it did prior to his toe injury.  Over the last three games, Gibson has hoisted 25 shots, connecting on only 7 (28%).  In contrast, Anderson Varejao has made 10 of his last 16 shots (62.5%) in that same span, but was only allowed one field goal attempt on Tuesday.  While the two are very different players, the fact remains that the Cavaliers have been settling for lower percentage jump shots rather than creating higher percentage shots for the big men.

AP Photo/Mark Duncan

3.  Will the Cavaliers regain their commitment to rebounding?  The Heat gathered in 9 more rebounds than the Cavaliers on Tuesday, including 10 offensive rebounds.  That’s a sharp contrast for the Cavaliers, who have outrebounded their opponents by an average of 4.3 rpg this season.  While part of the problem can be attributed to Zydrunas Ilgauskas slowly recovering from his ankle sprain (he’s not rebounding well at all), the rest of the team isn’t picking up the slack.  LeBron has only averaged 5.2 rebounds a game over the last five games, 1.4 less than his season average.  Rebounding is a hustle stat, and the lack of rebounding of late is more evidence that the team isn’t bringing the same level of intensity that was their trademark over the first quarter of the season.

4.  What does LeBron do when his teammates don’t step up?  There are plenty of reasons the Cavaliers lost in Miami, but in my mind the real difference was that Miami had their point guard (Mario Chalmers, 21 points) and three point specialist (Daequan Cook, 17 points) providing solid offense, while the Cavaliers (Mo Williams, 10 points; Daniel Gibson, 9 points) did not.  

Hector Gabino/El Nuevo Herald/MCT

I stand by my statement that the Cavs would have had a better chance of winning in Miami if LeBron had decided to go for fifty points, rather than passing off to Delonte West and Mo Williams.  It’s not that LeBron didn’t shoot in the fourth (he took 8 shots), but he didn’t play with the kind of reckless abandon that got the Cavaliers back into the game in the third quarter, when he proved that there was no way the Miami defense could keep him from going where he wanted to go.  

On nights when the team just isn’t committed to the offense, I’d be more than happy to let LeBron take over and do what he does.  I know that people complain about the offense devolving into “watch LeBron dribble,” but the fact remains that there isn’t a single player in the league better at breaking down the defense and scoring the basketball.  Sure, when the Cavalier offense is flowing, and the shooters are making their open shots, the Cavs offense looks great.  But when the players stop moving off the ball, when the ballhandlers dribble away the shot clock looking for the perfect pass even as the defense crowds them, when they stop getting the ball into the lane… I’d rather see LeBron take over.  

Hopefully that won’t be necessary tonight, but if the Cavaliers don’t bring the energy tonight, they are in for the same kind of dogfight they experienced against the Wizards and Heat last week.  And if you give the opposing team enough chances, even a team like the Bulls can beat you at home.

Go Cavs.

UPDATE: People are reporting that Zydrunas Ilgauskas will miss tonight’s game to rest that sore ankle that has been slowing him down.  I’m all for that, but it will mean that some players (read: LeBron, Wally) will need to be more aggressive on the boards.  Oh, and consider that an update that Wally is expected to play tonight, after missing the last two games with a bruised knee.