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.

…and We’re Back, second verse same as the first.  The Cavs are down in Miami to celebrate LeBron’s birthday and to take on the Miami Heat.

-  With three minutes left in the first quarter, the Cavs have again started with a half-hearted effort, while the Heat see this as a game they can steal from Cavaliers.  Dwyane Wade is still having trouble finding his shot (1-for-5, 4 points), but the rest of the Heat are doing a good job of getting to the ball, as the Heat already have 4 offensive rebounds.  Cavs trail 22-13. 

-  You would think that the good player would be the ones most suspectible to letdowns, but it seems that guys like Sasha Pavlovic and Daniel Gibson were the ones who thought things were coming too easily.  Over the last 5 games, Pavlovic is shooting just 30% from the field, and over the last 4 games, Gibson is shooting 33% from the field.  Without Wally Szczerbiak to pick up a little of the perimeter scoring, one of those guys has to step up.

-  The problems with the pick and roll continue tonight, as the Heat are getting their big men with the ball mere inches from the basket.

-  The Cavs play better in the last few possessions of the first quarter, with LeBron James getting to the line and Hickson creating a loose ball that ends with an Anderson Varejao reverse layup.  At the end of the first, the Cavs trail by seven, 26-19.  

-  Speaking of Hickson, these are the first non-garbage minutes he has gotten in a month.  So far, he looks about the same as he did a month ago, athletic but out of control.  WIth the Cavs struggling to find consistency and focus, Hickson is an odd choice for early minutes.  Still, the Cavaliers need to find some energy from someone, and Hickson is as good an option as anyone, with the rest of the bench doing precious little of late.  

-  Gibson misses another 3-point attempt with what can only be called a brick.  His shot, his rhythm, are completely missing at this point.

-  Mo Williams brings the ball down, dribbles a hole in the floor, and then launches an off-balanced jumper.  I’m not sure I blame him, because Mike Brown has him out there with the offensive firepower of Daniel Gibson, Anderson Varejao, J.J. Hickson and Tarence Kinsey.  Gibson isn’t close right now, he needs to be off the floor.  I don’t know why Kinsey is out there, but I could understand it more if he was out there in place of Gibson.  As it is, the Cavaliers have no way to score effectively with this lineup.

-  Timeout on the floor with less than 9 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, and the Cavs trail by ten, 32-22.  Heat are outhustling the Cavaliers, and the role players are melting under the increased pressure.  There is no room for excuses on a championship-caliber team, but without any effective outside shooting off the bench, the Cavaliers have a tougher time maintaining consistent offense.

-  People talk about NBA players traveling all the time, but when you see a bad travel like the one Michael Beasley just committed, it is striking.  Which means it’s pretty rare.  

-  LeBron is back in the game, and draws a foul on his first possession.  Unfortuantely, he misses the second free throw.  Including tonight, LeBron is shooting just 61% from the free throw line over the last five games.  If LeBron was knocking down a few more of late, these tight games wouldn’t be quite so tight.  To me, it looks like he’s setting up faster than he was earlier in the season, the rhythm is much quicker.  

-  The one thing the Cavs have been able to do against the aggressive Heat defense is draw fouls.  LeBron picks up another one on the perimeter, but the Heat are already over the limit with over six minutes left in the half.  This time he hits both.

-  Ben Wallace is rebounding well tonight (6 rebounds), which is absolutely necessary with Z not being effective on the boards since the injury.  Wallace has only been averaging 5 rebounds per game over the last week, despite the fact that he’s been playing closer to thirty minutes a night.  The other person shirking his rebounding duties?  LeBron, who has not been nearly as aggressive picking the ball off the glass as he needs to be, given the minutes he’s playing at power forward.

-  The Cavs cut the deficit to 10 with a couple of LeBron James free throws (LeBron is now 8-for-11 on the night from the stripe), but Miami gets two Daequan Cook three-pointers at the end of the quarter to stretch the lead to 50-34 at the half.  

-  Yes, that score is right, meaning that your Cavaliers followed up a miserable 19-point first quarter with a more miserable 15-point second quarter.  The Cavs are being out-rebounded 28-20, and they are shooting just 1-for-12 (8.3%) from beyond the arc.  All that talk of the offense being more dangerous sure has gone out the window over the last week.  With Gibson and Ilgauskas struggling as the come off of injuries, the offense is stagnating.  While I have been hard on LeBron of late, wanting to see him put more pressure on the defense, the flip side of that is that the shooters aren’t making the shots when he actually does create for them.

-  With all that being said, this game is not over.  The Cavs offense can actually score at times, and the defense will give them a chance to go on a run.  At the same time, this could definitely be a night when the wheels come off in the third quarter, and Miami runs away with the game.  That’s great analysis right there, huh?  ”The game could go either way.”  Thank you, I’ll be here all week.  If you want to see something good, flip over to the Illinois-Purdue game on ESPN2, which just went into overtime.

-  The Cavs start the third quarter hot, knocking down their first four shots, including two threes, and the Cavs are back to within 10.  There’s still a long way to go, and the Heat have been very good at making runs themselves in these two games, but at least the Cavs came out of the locker room with some sense of purpose.  Cavs trail 54-44.

-  Mo Williams dribbles a hole into the floor because Delonte West refused to leave his shooting position in the corner.  Offensive foul on Mo, and the ball goes back to the Heat.  More bad offensive IQ being demonstrated by West of late.  I like Delonte West, but he is the definition of an inconsistent player, with great plays followed by questionable plays.  As he proves by following up a great layup with a terrible one.

-  Though Mo’s not much better of late, as he has two stupid turnovers in the first 4:30 of the third quarter, and opts for the fast break jumper instead of going to the hoop.

-   The Cavs have been fighting, but the Heat are knocking down threes, shooting 7-for-10 for the game right now, neutralizing the fact that the Cavs are 3-for-5 from beyond the arc in the second half.  With under 3 minutes left in the third quarter, the Cavs trail 70-57, and the Cavs have already scored more points (23) in the third than they did in either of the first two quarters.  But this is exactly why they couldn’t come out of the gate as lackidasical as they did.

-  LeBron, proving that he’s had enough of his teammates’ ineffectiveness, starts scoring and playing defense like no other player in the league can, and wills the Cavaliers back into the game.  LeBron has 14 of the Cavs’ 33 points in the quarter, and the Cavs are back to within seven points, trailing 74-67.  On Sunday, the Cavs trailed by 10 after three, but that was in Cleveland.  It’s going to take a Herculean effort for the Cavs to steal this game, but fortunately, the Cavs have LeBron James playing like Hercules.  That dunk was amazing.

-  Daniel Gibson = slowest 6′2″ player in the league.  But the non-break leads to a Mo Williams 3-pointer, and a LeBron jumper on the next possession has the Cavaliers back to within two!  74-72!

-  Just like on Sunday, I want Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers taking as many fourth quarter shots as possible.  They might make them, but I’ll take my chances.

-  LeBron hits a three and pumps his fist right in front of the Heat bench.  Cavs within one, 78-77.  He’s loving this tonight, but was I the only one worried he might get hit up with a T for that?  He already has one, so another puts him on the bench for the night.  It would have been a cheap one, but it made me nervous.

-  LeBron’s teammates let him down on two consecutive possession, with Mo Williams and Delonte West missing wide-open threes, while Wade’s teammates Shawn Marion (big dunk) and Mario Chalmers (open three) do their job and put the Heat back up by 8 with just over 7 minutes remaining.  

-  There’s still plenty of time for him to make an impact, but Mo Williams has not been good tonight, just 2-for-8 for 10 points, while Mario Chalmers is now 5-for-7 for 16 points.  Then he commits a dumb foul which sends Cook to the line with 3 seconds left on the shot clock.  I said it earlier, and I reiterate it now, the difference in this game was that Dwyane Wade’s supporting cast played better than LeBron James’ help.  LeBron deferred too much in the fourth quarter because the other players were open.  As much as it pains me to say it, what he should have done is kept attacking, because he proved in the third quarter that he was the first, last and best option for the Cavalier offense.  Instead, he put the ball in the hands of Williams and West, and while they made some plays, they didn’t make enough.  As a result the Cavs come up short, 104-89.  

-  Mario Chalmers makes me look like a chump, knocking down threes left and right, six out of seven on the night.

-  The Heat are a quality team.  That being said, they are not better than the Cavaliers, and the Cavs should have won this game.  For the third straight game the Cavs started the game without a sense of purpose, and finally it came back and bit them.  LeBron was fantastic when he wanted to be, that was playoff LeBron you saw in the third quarter.  But his teammates came up short, and Miami made the shots they needed to make.  While LeBron needs to be more aggressive than he has been lately, I really think it was the other guys who got a little soft with all the winning.  Those other guys aren’t All-Stars, and if they get complacent (and they absolutely have been this week), the Cavs are much more vulnerable.  

Go Cavs.

Running thoughts from tonight’s matchup with the Heat here in the again-frigid Cleveland, Ohio:

-  The Heat have been playing much better than most people expected, coming in with a record of 16-10.  Miami beat the Lakers at home last week, and they have just enough firepower to be scary if you take them lightly.  Dwyane Wade is leading the league in scoring and is averaging 6.8 assists per game, meaning that the offense runs entirely through him.  If I’m Mike Brown, I’m telling the team to do everything they can to get the ball out of Wade’s hands, and make someone else beat you.

-  And the Cavs do just that, causing the 24-second violation after a good double-team from Ben Wallace on Wade.  That kind of focus on the gameplan was completely missing against Washington on Thursday.  At least the Cavs have started tonight with the notion that they have to execute if they want to win.

-  Z has been scuffling for the last few games, but is already getting touches tonight with success.  He has 5 points in the first quarter, and the Heat are already over the foul limit with 5 fouls in the first 4:12 of the game.  That causes a Heat timeout, with the Cavaliers out to an early lead 11-4.

-  From what I’ve seen this year, Dwyane Wade does his scoring in bunches.  He’ll be quiet for a bit, then score 8 straight points, then go quiet again.  It will be an interesting night, as Delonte West should be a good defensive matchup against Wade.  At least, as good as you’re going to get.  Should it get close at the end though, I would love to see LeBron defending Wade.  

-  LeBron with an absolutely sick (that’s what the kids say these days, right? Sick?) reverse layup.  

-  Cavs get really lazy defending the dribble and taking care of the boards, and the Heat are back to within 4.  Wade knocks down a tough jumper (that’s what he does), and the lead is down to 2 points as the Heat are on an 8-0 run.  You can live with the tough jumpers, but when those are combined with the easy buckets, it creates real problems for the defense.

-  Say whatever else you like about them, Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic enter the game with a defensive intensity and consistency that the Cavaliers don’t get from the rest of the team.  Yes, the Cavalier defense is good, but as of now they do not bring it every play.

-  LeBron’s lack of aggressiveness recently (only 13 shots on Thursday) is starting to weaken the Cavalier offense.  These long droughts are partially caused by guys missing shots, but LeBron isn’t forcing the action, and there isn’t as much space for the rest of the players as a result.  LeBron is the most dangerous and effective offensive player in the league (as he proves with an absurd fall-away right there), he needs to be the prime mover in the offense all the time.

-  It doesn’t help that he’s back to missing free throws (2-for-4 tonight, 6-for-10 on Thursday).  

-  Daequan Cook hits a big three to end the first quarter, and after the Cavs got out to a quick start, the Heat have come all the way back and tied the game at 22-22.

-  Miami already has 7 offensive rebounds.  That’s a result of too much dribble penetration and too little boxing out.  The Heat, just like the Wizards, are the more aggressive and energetic team tonight.

-  Mo hits a nice jumper, but when was the last time he got all the way to the hoop?  He’s settling too much for the outside jumpers of late.  He shoots them very well (as he proves again on the next possession), but those jumpers off the dribble do not create more room for the rest of the offense.  No point guard in the league ends more possessions without ever passing the ball than Mo.

-  Z is having a rough time finishing tonight, though he’s getting very good looks because he’s working hard in the post.  The Heat can’t keep him out of there, and the Cavs should keep feeding the big man because he is still getting high-percentage shots.  They should start to drop.

-  The Cavs are being outrebounded 26-19 at the moment, as the Heat have 8 offensive rebounds.  With that in mind, it’s a surprise that the score is tied, 33-33.  LeBron is stopping the ball, true, but I’m telling you that when the ball is in his hands, holes open up in the defense because everyone is leaning in LeBron’s direction.

-  Did the Cavs not do a layup line tonight?  Mo Williams butchers another layup, as the Cavs can’t knock down an easy one to save their lives.

-  LeBron knocks down the long two to give the Cavs a 44-42 lead at the half.  Almost won $1,000 for a lucky fan, but that fan will have to settle for a couple of tickets and a 2-point Cavs lead.  Just like the game against Washington, the problem is not the defense (which is still giving up too many easy buckets), but rather the offense getting into some bad habits.  Only 44 points, even with LeBron dropping 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting in the first half.  

-  Yes, Daniel Gibson is back to his 1-for-7 ways.  I know that he is still recovering from his injury, but on the season he is only shooting 40% from the field (42% for his career), and only 32% from 3-point range (41% for his career).  Perhaps more than anyone else, Gibson is having a tough time finding his role on this team, and doesn’t seem comfortable deciding when he should shoot and when he should create.  Otherwise known as “exactly what happened to Damon Jones when he decided his was a point guard, rather than just a 3-point specialist.”

-  Cavaliers are not defending well at all on the defensive end, as the Heat have 9 straight points and are getting to the basket too easily.  Delonte West is defending ok to start, but when Wade comes around the pick West is giving up on the play.  Wade ends up with just Z between him and the basket, and a roll-man coming down the lane if he runs into trouble.  It’s too easy for them, and the longer the Heat hang around, the more likely it is that Dwyane Wade can will the team to win a close one, like Mike James almost did on Thursday.

-  I love you Austin Carr, but the problem tonight is not “pace,” and it’s not that the Cavs are missing shots they should hit.  The problem tonight is that the Heat are running a quality pick-and-roll, and the Cavalier defense has not adjusted in the slightest.  It’s like when Team USA lost to Greece in the 2007 FIBA World Championships.  The Heat are pulling Shawn Marion away from the offense, which in turn keeps LeBron away from the defense.  Then they are attacking Z, who still looks very slow after his ankle injury.  The Cavs need to make a change if they want to shut down the Heat.

-  This is getting frustrating again.  9 third-quarter turnovers, terrible shot selection, weak defense.  This level of complacency is what held them to just 45 wins a year ago, and it’s back for the second straight game.  West, Gibson and Pavlovic are now a combined 3-for-17 (17.6%).  If that’s not reminiscent of last year, nothing is.  At the end of 3, the Cavaliers trail by 9, 67-58.  Just 14 Cavalier points in that quarter.

-  LeBron still with just 4 free throw attempts, as he has not been aggressive getting to the basket.  Part of that is Shawn Marion, who is a big, long defender.  Part of it is LeBron settling.

-  Good job by the Cavs picking up 4 fouls on Miami in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter.  Bad job missing 2 of the 4 free throws.

-  Z for 3!!!  Huge shot for the Cavs, cutting the Heat lead to 4 points and getting the crowd into the ballgame.  Like the Cavs, the crowds for these last two games have been lethargic, expecting victory instead of cheering for it.  Not that the home team is doing much to inspire cheering tonight.  Still, a boost like that could be enough to push the Cavaliers over the top.

-  Wade back in the game, and makes a shot over LeBron in the first possession.  Like seeing LeBron on Wade, but he’s going to have to stay closer to him.  He wants to shoot right now, not drive.

-  Memo to Mo and Boobie: you are being paid to make those threes.  Start doing that. 

-  Mo picks up a cheap blocking foul on Chalmers, which means a trip to the line thanks to the early work the Cavs did drawing fouls.  Still, a 6-point deficit at this point means you have to get some stops, something the Cavaliers are struggling with at the moment.

-  Wade has gotten 3 fouls called in his favor that no one else on the planet would get.  The last one, a phantom trip on Z, was probably the worst.

-  Crowd is finally fully into this game.  Anderson Varejao coming up with the steal, but LeBron never fully got control of the dribble and had to settle for free throws instead of the crowd-exploding dunk.  And he misses the second, knocking him down to 4-for-8 tonight.  Color me officially worried about LeBron’s free throw shooting.

- Austin Carr is right about the Cavs needing to attack the middle first, rather than trying to pass around the perimeter.  

-  I’ll let Mario Chalmers and Michael Beasley shoot as many of these late-game shots as they want.  Dwyane Wade is knocking down impossible shots, but the took rooks are hoisting with less than 5 minutes left?  Good plan.

-  Mo finally obliges by making the open ones, knocking down 5 straight points.  That’s why they call him the Space Cowboy.

-   Udonis Haslem catches a LeBron elbow, and he’ll be getting stitches.  That’s going to be a mess, and he is a valuable part of the Heat attack, they’re going to miss him.  Delonte West needs a new jersey because of the blood that got on him from Haslem’s forehead.  

-  Delonte wins the tap thanks to a pretty questionable toss, and the Cavs get it back up 7 points with under 3 minutes to go.   LeBron makes it 8 on another free throw (after another miss).

-  Wade has become a turnover machine.  The Cavs are swarming to him, and since all his help is coming up small, he’s trying to do too much.  But much respect to the Cavs defense, which is getting to the ball without fouling, causing Wade’s mistakes.  The knock-away by Ben Wallace was a great play.  The Heat went away from the pick-and-roll, and all of a sudden the Cavalier defense looks as dangerous as ever.

-  Mo with a dumb foul to send Daequan Cook to the line for two cheap ones with the clock stopped.  This one is in no way over, with the Cavs ahead 85-79 with 2:20 left.  

-  The home team then runs two straight terrible offensive possessions (get the ball to LeBron d*mmit).  The first one ends with a Heat dunk as Mo Williams is afraid of picking up his sixth foul.  The second one mercifully ends with a bad blocking call which sends Andy to the line, where he splits the pair.  Cavs up 5.

-  Two more Heat free throws, and it’s a 3-point game.  1:29 left in the game.  Go to LeBron, keep the ball away from Andy.  LeBron wastes a lot of time then gets the foul, got to hit the free throws…and this time he does.  33 points for LeBron.

-  Cavs are going to win their second straight bad game by relying on the refs and taking advantage.  It’s not a terrible strategy, but certainly not pretty.  Cavs need to go back on the road, they’ve enjoyed the holidays a bit too much, they’ve lost a lot of the edge they showed throughout most of the first 30 games.

-  Another ugly one, but the Cavs pick up the win, 93-86.  Plenty of problems tonight, from some questionable pick-and-roll defense to some lack of hustle (11 offensive rebounds allowed) and some sloppy play (15 turnovers).  Still, great play by LeBron James (33 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds), clutch scoring by Mo Williams (20 points), and good hustle by Delonte West hassling Dwyane Wade into just 6 fourth-quarter points when the Heat needed him most.  

-  I know that Shawn Marion finished with 10 rebounds, but other than that he was completely ineffective.  Part of that was by design (keeping LeBron away from the play defensively), but what an unimpressive performance from someone who considers himself a star.  It just shows how absurd that trade notion from a few weeks ago was.

Go Cavs.  Next game is December 30th against Miami, LeBron’s birthday.

Running thoughts from tonight’s game against the Washington Wizards:

-  Slow start for the Cavaliers, as Washington gets up big early.  Antawn Jamison already has 9 points.  For the Cavaliers, Delonte West has been the beneficiary of all the attention paid to LeBron and Z, and has 9 points of his own on three 3-pointers.  The Cavaliers look a little slow tonight, but one of the easiest ways to wake them up is for the Wizards to get off to a fast start.

-  But there are limits.  At the end of the first quarter, the Cavaliers trail 22-25.  The biggest problem at the moment is the Cavalier defense, which is not hounding the ball with the level of intensity that we have seen most of this season.

-  Mo Williams with 5 quick points and the Cavs are back on top 32-30.  Mo Williams is a rarity in the NBA, a player who is most effective shooting off the dribble.

-  The designated shooters are shooting so well right now (6-12 from 3 tonight) that it’s almost impossible to guard the Cavaliers.  Make that 7-13, as Mo just hit on to stretch the Cavalier lead to 40-34.  Cavs are moving the ball well now, and have 10 assists on 14 baskets at the moment.

-  Anderson Varejao has done a great job on the boards so far tonight with 7 rebounds in the first half.  The Wizards have nothing resembling a rebounder on the team right now, so the Cavaliers should end up with a major rebounding advantage by the end of the night.

-  LeBron has not been aggressive here in the first half.  Fortunately, Delonte West, Mo Williams and Anderson Varejao are coming to play, and are the difference in the game right now.

-  At the half, the Cavs lead 49-47, as the Wizards made some tough shots late in the quarter to keep it close.  Good game so far, but the crowd is quite and tired, and they’re waiting for LeBron to show off a bit.  That alley-oop was exciting, but so far it’s been a pretty pedestrian first half.  Here’s hoping for a few more fireworks in the second half.

-  The Wizards keep hanging around, moving the ball well on the interior.  Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are getting easy buckets when they execute, but too often they are standing around looking at each other.  The game is being played at the Wizards’ pace, and instead of playing in 5-8 minute bursts, the Cavs are playing in long, lackidasical stretches.  Again, the intensity just isn’t there.  Cavs up 65-63.

-  Way way way too much dribbling on the offensive end for the Cavs, and they’ve let the Wizards take a six point lead with less than a minute left in the third quarter.  The Wizards are not good, they are taking the shots the Cavaliers want them to take (for the most part), the Cavs just aren’t taking care of business right now.  There’s still plenty of time for them to do that in the fourth quarter, but a fourth quarter should be unnecessary against the Wizards.  The performance this far is unacceptable, and that’s on Mike Brown, LeBron and everyone involved.  It goes without saying that a loss tonight would not only be disappointing, it would be shocking.  The Wizards are not good.  But at the end of three, the Wizards lead by 3 points.

-  Ok, the Wizards are now up by 8 points, 76-68, and I’m not happy.  Get the ball to the hoop!  This Wizards team has Santa Claus guarding that rim, but the Cavs have been content to shoot over the top.  LeBron is the chief offender, but it’s the whole team.  Right now this is a will game, and the Cavs don’t have it at the moment.  All that barking, all that hopping around on the bench, where is that tonight?

-  MIke James is now 8-for-11.  Really?  But that’s what happens when you let a bad team hang around.  The Wizards might be one more Mike James 3-pointer from winning this game.  Was Vegas taking odds on that tonight?

-  We’re under 5 minutes remaining, the Cavs are down 2 points.  This is obviously still a very winnable game.  But the Wizards are getting two and three shots every time down right now.  Ben Wallace, the 5 offensive rebounds are nice, but how about more than one defensive rebound?  The Wizards have not been the better team tonight, they have been the more hungry team, and that has made the difference.

-  I apologize for the snarky comments about Dominic McGuire, he has done as good a job as anyone keeping LeBron from going where he wants to go.  

-  How about we get the ball out of Mike James’ hands?  Is this that hard?  He’s looking like Mo Williams last year, when he was killing the Cavs.  Mo Williams, go over that screen, not under.  

-  LeBron with the basket and the foul after Jamison throws it away.  But he misses the free throw!  3-of-7 from the line for LeBron tonight.  He’ll get three more now after the foul on the 3-pointer.  He needs to slow down…and he does, hitting all three of those.  Still, running out of time…

-  Three free throws by LeBron and a huuuuuuge three by Mo Williams and the Cavs have cut the lead to one as we head to the last minute of the game.  This is excruciating.

-  Also, I’m going to make a guess here, but I think Mike James might get a shot on this possession…

-  My guess was wrong, apparently Antawn Jamison doesn’t want this win if he doesn’t hit the winning shot.  He’s botched two straight possessions, and the Cavs somehow still have life, after being down 7 points with 2 minutes left.

-  Delonte West with an awful, awful shot, but Varejao jumps over Jamison to get the rebound and picks up the foul, fouling out Jamison (which might be bad for the Cavs).  Now Andy heads to the line with the Cavs down 1 with 26.6 left to play.   Got the first…and the second!  Cavs lead by 1.  But the Cavs have played their worst tonight with a one-point lead.  Just need one stop…

-  Caron Butler vs. everyone…OFFENSIVE FOUL!!!

-  Time to test that Mo Williams free throw shooting…Marv Albert is certainly doing his part to jinx it.

-  Got the first…and the second!  Cavs with a 3 point lead with 7.8 left to play.  Blogging combined with pacing going on right now…

-  Mike James misses the only 3-pointer that matters, and Delonte West is heading to the line to seal it.  And short-arms the first one, but knocks down the second and that’s the game.  Cavs win, 93-89.

-  Wow.  No way in the world the Cavs should have won that game.  But tonight, instead of coming up short (like in Atlanta), Mo Williams hit the big three the Cavs needed, the Wizards seized up instead of hitting tough shots, and the Cavs come away victorious.  For all of the conspiracy theorists, I don’t think the Wizards got a single favorable call in the last 3 minutes, meanwhile Jamison drew two iffy calls and LeBron apparently got fouled on a three pointer for the first time I can remember.  Still, a win is a win, and at the end of the season they don’t ask how close they were.  But this one was way, way, way too close.

Go Cavs.

Hey everyone, I decided to do both the W2W4 and the Running Notes in one post for better or worse.  What to Watch for tonight:

1.  Since Scott Brooks became the Thunder Head Coach, he has allowed Kevin Durant to be a much bigger part of everything.  I know, not exactly the most original strategy for a head coach, but it was still something the departed P.J. Carliesemo never quite figured out.  You can find and extensive evaluation of Durant’s progress under Brooks here.  In the month of December, Durant is averaging 25.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists, and his is developing into the force that he was expected to be when he was drafted number 2 overall last season.  

Unfortunately, it hasn’t led to many more wins for the Thunder, who are 1-9 in December, and 3-24 overall.  The Thunder did surprise the scuffling Toronto Raptors on Friday, but they are on a pace that approaches the worst records in the history of the league.  I don’t expect them to turn that around tonight.

2.  The Thunder have a couple of players who might interest the Cavaliers at the trading deadline, however.  Joe Smith, who had a decent run with the Cavaliers last season, might be available, and is averaging 7 points and 4.5 rebounds in just 20 minutes a night.  The Cavaliers would certainly consider bring Smith back should he be bought out by the Thunder later this season, something that might be more likely if the Thunder add former Net Nenad Krstic as was rumored last week.  Smith knows the Cavalier system, and could be the source of a few extra points from the frontcourt.  

But in addition to Smith, the Thunder have some other decent big men that could contribute for the Cavaliers in Chris Wilcox and Nick Collison.  Wilcox is a big, strong, quick forward who would thrive on the receiving end of LeBron James assists, and Collison is a hard-nosed rebounder in the Anderson Varejao mold.  Between Smith, Wilcox and Collison, there is probably one decent backup big man that could be had on the cheap.

3.  Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that LeBron told him that he will consider signing an extension this offseason.  As much as I supposed this could be construed as good news for any Cavalier fan, I don’t think you can read any more into this than any other statment by James of late, be it telling New York fans to get excited about the 2010 free agency Summer, to rumblings that he would consider playing in Europe.  LeBron didn’t even say that he wanted an extension, he just said it would be a consideration over the Summer.

At the same time, the whole “Summer of 2010″ thing has been driven with the underlying idea that LeBron would be signing a maximum extension at that time.  But from my understanding of the absurdly complex NBA salary structure, LeBron could always sign an extension this Summer that would keep him in Cleveland for another year or two beyond his current contract, while still allowing him to leave soon.  For most players, leaving money on the table would be absurd, but LeBron already did that once, when he signed his first extension, so it’s not crazy to think he would do the same thing again.  And if it’s a short extension, it will keep places like New York dreaming of LeBron even while he’s winning Championships in Cleveland.

-  Running Notes later tonight, updated at least quarterly!

-  Sorry about that, I started just about as sluggishly as the Cavaliers.  There is one degree of temperature outside, that’s it, just one.  

-  In the third quarter, the Cavs are ahead 64-60, as the Thunder refuse to go away.  The Cavs are getting worked on the glass, and that’s the reason the Thunder have been able to hang around.

-  With 3:39 left in the third quarter, the Thunder are shooting 51% from the field.  The Cavaliers have not been effective in getting the Thunder out of their comfort zone.  

-  Sorry Fred, Dick Goddard jokes when talking about the Thunder are not needed nor wanted.

-  LeBron, get your butt on Jeff Green and keep him off those boards.  The Thunder now have 10 offensive rebounds and have 13 more rebounds than the Cavaliers (31-18).  The only reason this game is remotely close is because the Thunder want the ball more.  It’s not just LeBron, as Z and Varejao have only 5 rebounds combined to this point.  

-  LeBron with a 3-point play, and the Cavaliers play suffocating defense for the last few seconds, and the Cavs end the third quarter up 82-72.  This one is a long way from over, but the Cavaliers have such a talent advantage over the Thunder that OKC would have to play a perfect 12 minutes to come away with a victory tonight.  Stranger things have happened, but the late flurry by Cleveland shows how tough it is to beat the Cavs at this point in the season.

-  Guess Gibson wasn’t working on his free throws during his recovery from the toe injury, as he misses two out of three after drawing a fout on a three-point attempt.  Still, the lead is up to 13 points, and the Cavs are starting to pull away.

-  Andy picks up 3 fouls in 3 possessions and 1 minute.  That’s not a record, but it’s close.  Joe Smith must have learned some Portuguese to agitate Varejao, because since the two of them have been on the floor going against each other, Andy has been out of control.  

-  In the words of Austin Carr, “LeBron to Boobie, from deep!”  There has never been a better cross-court passer in the NBA than LeBron James.  It allows him to be more patient with the ball in his hands, even though it causes him to stop the ball movement from time to time.

-  After what can only be called a predictable fourth quarter, the Cavaliers win 102-91, and it wasn’t that close.  The Thunder were able to stick around by working hard on the glass, but they just do not have the talent to compete with an elite team like the Cavaliers.

-  Delonte West with 18 and Mo Williams with 20, covering for the fact that the bench was unimpressive and Z couldn’t find a way to work effectively.  

-  LeBron James was impressive as always, scoring 31 points while dishing off 7 assists and grabbing 4 rebounds.  He was a little lackidasical on the boards, and he didn’t get to the line (only 2 free throws all night, both on and-ones), but even on the “average” night LeBron is the best player in the league.

-  Durant, Westbrook and Green combined for 66 points, which I’m sure is encouraging for the Thunder.  That’s a decent nucleus to build around, but the Thunder are still a long way from being competitive.  I think they’ll have a much better second half of the season as the young players grow together.

Go Cavs.

Running thoughts from tonight’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves:

First Half:

-  Before we begin, the entire first half of the Celtics-Hawks games in already in the books before the Cavaliers tip.  The Hawks are up by one, and are proving that they are a tough team to beat in Atlanta.  The Cavaliers were in a rough spot, playing the fourth game in five nights, and were still almost able to steal one.  While I won’t take anything away from Boston if they win tonight, it doesn’t mean much when it comes to comparing the Cavaliers and Celtics against each other at this point.  

-  Interesting dark finish on the Timberwolves court.  Not sure if the cameras have something to do with it, but that has to be the darkest court in the league.

-  Delonte West apparently took that missed shot at the end of the game in Atlanta pretty hard.  With all due respect, I don’t care.  LeBron James got both West and Mo Williams very good looks to tie the game, and they came up short.  Delonte’s miss was worse, as the look was better and he didn’t get the ball to the basket.  The ability of role players to make shots like that is often the difference between a championship season and coming up short.  Just think where the Jordan Bulls would have been if John Paxon or Steve Kerr would have short-armed those big, series-winning shots.

-  I don’t like this matchup with the T-Wolves.  Minnesota has terrible defensive big men, but without Z the Cavaliers can’t take advantage like they should.  I’m not saying that I expect the Cavaliers to lose, but I don’t think we’re going to be getting the 20-point victory we should expect.  The Cavs have not been the same team since Z and Gibson went down last week.

-  The HD feed from Minnesota might be the best road feed we’ve seen this year.  It’s almost a shame that the T’Wolves fans can see this team so clearly, but still have to watch a crummy team.  And those new Minnesota jerseys certainly aren’t helping.

-  Anderson Varejao splits a pair of free throws, putting the Cavs up 4.  The Cavs are only 4-of-7 from the free throw line so far.

-  Sasha Pavlovic comes into the game, sporting a freshly-shaved dome.  Then knocks down a nice little fall away.  Then drives to the lane, gets in the air, and finds Varejao for the finish and the foul.  The chemistry between Sasha and Andy is very good right now. 

-  Really, Kevin Ollie is still in the league?  I guess so, because he has 4 points in the first quarter.

-  Kevin Love is Wally Szczerbiak’s size.  And Wally is doing a good job keeping a body on him and keeping him off the offensive glass.

-  Varejao with another layup.  Andy is showing much better offensive instincts than expected.  I’ve said it a lot lately, but he’s proving he’s more than just a nice role player; he can be a solid starter in the league.  Keep that in mind when you think about how hard it is to build a champion in the NBA.  Even if the Cavaliers win a title this year, there is a strong likelihood that they are going to lose Anderson Varejao.

-  Z is shooting and should be back for Friday’s game against Denver, a very tough matchup.  

-  Great, great job by Szczerbiak drawing the offensive foul on the break.  Excellent footwork moving backwards.  That kind of work defensively could keep him in this league for a few more years.

-  Kevin Love with a very good block on Darnell Jackson, a nifty bit of athleticism from the rather earth-bound forward.  Love is shooting only 40% from the field in his rookie season, not a great sign for a guy who came into the league surrounded by questions of whether or not he could play in the league.  He hasn’t shot many three pointers this season (just 1-for-10), and I have to think that he will have to extend his range if he wants to succeed.  He’d do well to try to fit into the Shane Battier mold.

-  Wally with a block, working hard on defense.  Then he backs in on the post, spins and makes a nice little jump shot.  There’s no other way to put it, Wally looks great tonight.

-  Aborted alley-oop off the glass from West to LeBron…which was just bad.  Fortunately, Sasha cleans it up with a nice two-handed dunk of his own.  

(AP Photo/Paul Battaglia)

-  LeBron goes to the hoop for another easy layup.  The TWolves can’t stop him, and there’s no reason for LeBron not to be more aggressive.  Then again, the Minnesota defense is so porous that anyone can get to the cylinder, as Delonte West proves one possession later.

-  And after another Szczerbiak 3, the Cavs are up by 13 after a 14-2 run.  These kinds of runs have been a common occurance this season, as the suffocating Cavalier defense is neatly balanced by a much more explosive Cavalier offense.

-  The Wolves are having some success isolating against the Cavs defense over the last few possessions, as Minnesota runs off six straight points.  Just something to keep an eye on as teams continue to look for the few weaknesses in the Cavalier defense.  

-  Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Craig Smith.  Yeah, me neither.  But he has 9 first half points after finding some weak spots around the basket.  Exactly the type of player Darnell Jackson needs to shut down.

-  Still, at the end of the first half the Cavs are up 44-38, holding the Timberwolves to just 17 second quarter points.  The defense has been good, at least it had been before the Cavs gave up an 11-4 run to end the second quarter.  At the very least, the Cavaliers have not demonstrated the kind of focus and intensity they were bringing in the winning streak, when they were taking down tomato cans like the T’Wolves by 20 points a night.

Second Half:

-  A quick look back to the Celtics-Hawks game, where the Hawks have a 3-point lead with 9 minutes left.  Flip Murray has made some noise in the time I’ve been watching, which is, admittedly, a surprise.  Flip is actually playing a little point, letting Mike Bibby work off the ball for a few plays.

-  Back to Minnesota, where the Cavaliers are looking lackidasical and slow.  They aren’t playing terrible, they just aren’t in that world-beater mode they were over the last month.  So far they’re playing down to the T’Wolves, who still look like a mess of a team who want to play one-on-one basketball instead of working a team concept.  Mo Williams and Delonte West have been very sloppy with the ball.

-  Meanwhile, Anderson Varejao does not stop working.  Andy has helped this team avoid getting into real trouble on the road, because he does not take a night off.  …then dammit, he tries to dribble down the lane, loses it completely, and it turns into an and-one siutation the other way.  These little mental mistakes are killing the Cavs tonight. 

-  Quick flip over to the Hawks game, which is now a 1-point Celtics lead.  And JOSH SMITH WITH A MAAAAASIVE SLAM!  I mean, there are only two players in the league who could do that, Josh Smith and LeBron James.  Video to come soon I hope.  It’s here.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2VbAj2w5uI

-  Minnesota keeps hanging around, cutting the lead to 3 points on two Kevin Ollie free thows.  This is starting to look like one of those dangerous games.  Instead of up and hollering, the bench is quiet.  And while the Cavs are shooting 51%, they are taking way too many jump shots right now, Lebron included.

-  Al Jefferson with a hook and the Wolves finish a 10-2 run.  59-58 Cavs for a moment…

(Marlin Levison/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT)

-  LEBRON JAMES showing why he’s in that elite dunker category with Josh Smith with another free throw line slam.  Cavs on a 6-0 run of their own, opening up a little breathing room and causing a Wolves timeout.

-  Back to the Hawks, where Joe Johnson answers a Garnett alley-oops with a beautiful jumper over Ray Allen.  Johnson is LeBron James size people, you cannot guard him with a small guard.    

-  9.1 seconds left, Hawks trail by 2 points.  And lose thanks to a Joe Johnson missed free throw.

-  J.J. Hickson with a great block on Al Jefferson after knocking down a nice 15-footer.  Hickson is getting these minutes because Darnell Jackson just isn’t being productive enough when he is on the floor.  Hopefully he can bring a little energy on a low-energy night for the Cavs, who have an 8-point lead 70-62.

-  Delonte West with a steal, hustling like crazy to get to the ball, then a layup and a foul.  That is exactly the type of play that role players need to make on championship-caliber teams.  The type of play that the (hated) Celtics are getting every night.

-  Just as I’m about the write that the offense isn’t really going through LeBron tonight, he finds Hickson under the hoop for an easy dunk.  LeBron was (a little too) willing to let the team spin its wheels for the first three quarters, but he has picked it up in the fourth as the Cavaliers have pulled away.  The turnaround is deadly tonight.  And that gets him a standing ovation as the Cavs go up by 21 with 3:20 left.

-  I didn’t know that they made such short shorts in Minnesota…

-  Lorezen Wright finds his way onto the court for the first time in a while, but it’s Hickson that is looking good down the stretch.  And as Austin Carr pointed out, he did a good job of not bringing the ball down to his shoetops on the catch, something that has been driving me crazy with Hickson.

-  Delonte West had a new Cavalier high of 21 points.  Except, y’know, the three times he scored 21 points in the playoffs last season.  Ah, the wonders of the NBA stat book.  

-  And before it’s all over, the Cavs win 93-70, outscoring the Wolves by 16 points in the fourth quarter.  Admittedly, the earlier hand-wringing was premature, but it was just a 1-point lead at one point in the third quarter.

The Good:

-  LeBron has a great night, scoring 32 points on just 20 shots, going 14-for-20 while gathering 6 rebounds and dishing off 3 assists.  When he was aggressive, as he was in the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers were by far the better team.  Shooting 70% from the field is pretty impressive.

-  Delonte West begins making up for that miss on Saturday with 21 points and 5 assists.

-  Anderson Varejao had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and provided vital energy on a low-key night for the good guys.  And has really showed me a lot since he’s been forced into a more important role with the injury to Z.

The Bad:

-  Sloppy play by Mo Williams, who finished with just one more point (6) than personal fouls (5).  While LeBron bears a lot of the tone-setting duties on this team, the point guard also establishes the tone, and Williams didn’t do that tonight.  

-  Not enough killer intinct tonight, as the Cavs played around with the Wolves on a night that the starters should have been resting for the entire fourth quarter.

The Questions:

(AP Photo/Paul Battaglia)

-  Will J.J. Hickson build on his performance tonight?  Hickson has put up some big numbers before, but he played his best game as a Cavalier tonight, with 7 points and 5 boards in 12 minutes.  There are little things that Hickson did tonight that he wasn’t doing a few weeks ago.  It was good to see that, especially the way he played in control, rather than pulling a Shannon Brown and trying to prove he deserves minutes by shooting every time he touches the ball.

-  With the exception of maybe Al Jefferson, do the Timberwolves have a single above-average NBA player?  Looking at this roster, I don’t see any of these young players developing into anything more than a bit player on a good team.  As for Jefferson, he has some skill, but he seems destined for an Antoine Walker career, a guy with plenty of talent but who lacks the work ethic to get much better, especially since he’s already the best player on his bad team.

Go Cavs.

Running Thoughts for tonight’s game against the 76ers…

First Half:

-  The Cavs are going to need a big night for Lebron tonight.

-  Mo Cheeks is not a great head coach.  But he has identified the one flaw in the Cavaliers defense (the transition defense) and he is charging his players to exploit it.  All 5 Sixers points are off the break to start.

-  With Z down with the injury, Anderson Varejao has a chance to earn himself a lot of money by proving he is a starting center in this league.  So far so good, as Varejao has 4 points and is looking very effective.

-  Keeping a running tab, that’s 8 of 12 points created by the break for Philly.

-  Rim is not being good to LeBron so far, 0-for-4 from the field.  Not the start he nor the Cavs was hoping for.  Fortunately he fixes that on the first play after the timeout.  

-  Anderson Varejao goes after an offensive board he had no chance of getting, is slow getting back on defense, and Brand gets an easy layup.  I know you can’t change a tendency overnight, but without big men clogging the lane, the Cavs have trouble defending.  That didn’t look like a transition bucket, but for all intents and purposes it was.

-  Two games ago, the only Cavalier on the Elk & Elk Injury Report was Eric Snow, who has essentially called it a career.  Now it has Ilgauskas and Gibson on it, and that makes a big difference for this team.

-  Good to see LeBron pushing more, keeping the Sixers on their toes.  Unfortuantely it could create a problem for tomorrow night’s game in Atlanta.  Sixers are also opting to foul LeBron more when he goes to the hoop, but so far he is making his free throws and making them pay.

-  LeBron in the post leads to a wide open 3 for Delonte West.  Sasha gets a wide open 3 because the the Sixers try to deny the ball getting into LeBron in the post.

-  Darnell Jackson has now passed J.J. Hickson in the rotation.  He’s clearly getting the Mike Brown philosophy much faster than Hickson.  That’s not a huge knock in Hickson, he is 3 years younger than Jackson after all.  But it should temper fan expectations around the young man from NC State.

-  I like Reggie Evans, one bad, bad, bad thing he did to Chris Kaman notwithstanding.  If the Cavaliers can add him on the cheap at some time this year, I would be in favor of that.  He’s a lot like Anderson Varejao in the way that he drives the opposition crazy and always works hard.

-  Wally has gone to the basket strong twice.  Which might be twice more than he did at any point last year.  I still endorse moving Szczerbiak to improve the team, but even I have to admit that the balance this team has, with everyone making two or three plays each night, is something Danny Ferry has to be cognizant of.

-  Willie Green has 11 first half points and is doing his best Andre Iguodala impression.  Between Green and Thaddeus Young, the Sixers probably have another Iguodala equivalent in the fold, making Iguodala’s re-signing this Summer a little questionable.  The Sixers had to do it to keep up appearances as a contender, but I don’t think there’s any way that Iguodala will be a lead player on a Championship-caliber team.  But the Sixers re-signed him, because that’s just what NBA teams do.  

-  Not sure how a lineup of Mo Williams, Wally Szczerbiak, Sasha Pavlovic, Darnell Jackson and Ben Wallace is supposed to score consistently, but so far it has gotten the Cavaliers out to a small lead.

-  Mo Williams is heading to the locker room.  More on that later, but this is getting ridiculous.

-  Williams’ absence means that Tarence Kinsey is in the game.  I don’t think that’s going to work so well, but this is exactly why he is on the team, as deep insurance.  He made a nice hustle play running down a lose ball, so at least we know he’ll give maximum effort.  But his overall talent level is where I have concerns.  If Williams is out, however, Kinsey will definitely get his chance.

-  And if anyone else goes out, Jawad Williams might actually see the floor.  He’s active for what I believe is the first time this season.

-  Great hustle by Varejao to get the offensive rebound, the bucket, and the foul.  Andy with 13 first half points and is proving himself every minute he’s on the floor.  Cavaliers are out-hustling the Sixers all over the floor at the moment.

-  LeBron is having the quietest 15 points, 5 rebound and 5 assist half I can remember.  

-  Mo Williams is back and looks fine.  Thankfully.  

-  There is no doubt in my mind that Joe Tait is completely honest in his patronage of DiGiornio Pizza.

-  Just a great, great, great defensive second quarter for the Cavaliers.  They stopped the break, they defended brilliantly in the half-court, and the Sixers obliged by missing the few open shots they got.   The Cavs held the Sixers to just 12 second quarter points after allowing more than twice that in the first quarter.  At the half, it’s Cleveland 52, Philadelphia 38.  As always, more to come.

Halftime:

-  Turned over to the Celtics-Hornets game on ESPN.  First thought, after seeing the score is tied, is man, those new Hornets road jerseys are pretty ugly.  

-  The Celtics are playing some great basketball, there’s no denying it.  But as the Cavs are starting to realize, it’s a lot harder to grind through the regular season when rotation players go down with injuries.  If the Celtics go through this whole season with Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce missing less than 10 games combined, it would be some kind of miracle.  

-  Chris Paul is lightning in tennis shoes, but I wonder about the rest of the Hornets’ team speed.  Their players do not strike me as overly athletic, and that allows good defenses to jam them up a little bit more than I’d expect.  If you keep Paul from getting into the lane, I’m not sure that the Hornets have anyone else who can penetrate consistently.  Newly acquired guard Antonio Daniels might help that a little bit, but at 33 Daniels is certainly not a burner.

Second Half:

-  Delonte West knocks down a 22-footer for his 11th point of the game.

-  LeBron with a bucket, a block, and a monster rebound in the first few minutes here.  Then he comes up with a huge block on an Iguodala layup.  Then fouls Elton Brand to prevent a point-blank layup, and Brand obliges by missing one of the free throws.  In short, he’s doing everything you could ask and more at the moment.  

-  The Sixers are wearing their white throwback jerseys, which I really like.  I’ve never been a big fan of their current jersey typeface, with the big “76″.  

-  LeBron’s feeling that jumper here in the third.  That’s great to see as a Cavs fan, but it has to be completely deflating for opposing defenses.  And before I’m done typing that, he rims out a three-pointer and misses a free throw.  I’ll stop the jinxing for the moment.

-  Darnell Jackson doesn’t not have huge amounts of talent, but his “want to” is certainly NBA-caliber.  

-  Sixers are hanging around…

-  And even as I’m talking about LeBron’s jump shot, just the threat of him in the post makes defenses wet themselves.  He won’t become a really dominant post player until much later in his career, when his unearthly speed starts to wane.  But when he does it will be the reason why he’s still winning championships in his 40s.

-  No dribble penetration = unimpressive offense over the last 6 minutes.

-  The only Cavaliers who scored in the third quarter were LeBron James (10) and Delonte West (7).  Fortunately, the defense was still solid, holding the Sixers to just 19 points in return.  Still, this one is far from over.

-  Darnell Jackson just picked up his fifth foul.  That’s going to happen to rookies, but it’s not getting J.J. Hickson any closer to the court.  The Cavaliers organization and the players have been very supportive of Hickson, but I’m sure that this setback is hard on the young man.  Wonder if he’s been promised minutes for tomorrow night.

-  Where is the creative scoring Mo Williams from Wednesday night?  Williams has just 7 points and 1 assist.  Wonder if there’s something physical that’s not right with him tonight.

-  Then Jackson earns his minutes with another offensive rebound, drawing the foul.  If Jackson keeps playing like this, he’ll be everything the Cavaliers would want to add in Reggie Evans.  In fact, there are a lot of similarities between those two players, as both are slightly undersized bigs who get by on guts and energy more than talent.

-  Sasha with a big three pointer with the shot clock expiring, pushing the lead out to 15.

-  Then the Sixers score the next 4 points to stay in the game, trailing 77-66 with 4:44 left in the game.  Give the Sixers credit, they have kept fighting.  They just cannot execute well enough to really scare the Cavaliers at this point in the season.

-  Mo Williams comes in like a change-of-pace running back who breaks off a big run in the fourth quarter, after the bruiser back has been punishing the defense all day.  He scored 7 straight points in about two minutes, and put the Sixers away for the night.

-  And with a minute left, here comes J.J. Hickson, with “JJ” shaved into his hair…

-  …with Jawad Williams!  Welcome to the NBA Jawad.  Be sure to get a picture of yourself in those classy gold unifroms.

-  Tarence Kinsey is not an NBA-quality ballhandler.

-  And Williams gets a bucket!  His first NBA points, and in a Cavalier win.  Can’t get much better than that.  

-  And that ends the game.  The Cavaliers win 88-72, stretching the win streak to 11 and the home win streak to 13.  The Cavs did not play especially well in the second half (36 points), they didn’t shoot well (41% from the field), but they forced 17 turnovers and they kept the Sixers from finding any kind of rhythm offensively.  That’s how you win these shorthanded games, and we’ll see if they can keep that going tomorrow night.

Go Cavs.