Hey, Cavalier fans! It's AC, checking in. What's happening? 

First of all, congratulations to LeBron for being named Eastern Conference Player of the Week. He's really starting to turn up the heat now - and it's showing in the Cavaliers record.

I really think LeBron is starting to feel how he fits in with this new lineup that we have. He had a slow start because he was feeling his way around - to see how his talents fit in to the team concept. And you can see now that he understands how to keep the offensive flow going. 

He is definitely now understanding how he fits in, and I think by having the added talent that we have, we're now a more viable team, offensively and defensively. I think he's fresher in the fourth quarter where he can finish the game. And this weekend, we saw exactly what management had in mind when they brought in that extra talent.

In Chicago, you saw the difference. The Cavaliers had already begun their comeback when LeBron was at the scorer's table. That can be demoralizing. The good teams don't worry about it. But the average and below average teams, it has some effect on them. The good teams don't care, because they know you're going to have to deal with him either way. They're already set up to combat him.

Teams are now focused on the fact that they can't "sit on" LeBron - with us putting him in different places now. Instead of a steady diet of LeBron at the top of the key, they have to find him cutting off the baseline or coming around a screen. In the first three games, he would make cuts around the basket and the ball wasn't ready to be delivered. But now, the ball is ready to be delivered.

And now he's starting to use his little jump-hook shot. And nobody can stop him when he gets that close to the basket. Once he gets comfortable with the jump-hook, he'll be impossible to guard. He gets that position so well because he's so athletic and strong. He could shoot 15 of those a game and nobody could touch him.

You saw on Friday night how the "small lineup" can work. With the smaller lineup, the quickness is there. They don't allow as much dribble penetration as they used to in the past, and that's huge - especially from the top.

When they go to double-team out front now, very seldom do you see a guy break the double-team and get around the corner like they used to. Now, the Cavaliers send them back the way they came and that, to me, is such a key point.

In basketball, when you press a guy, the one thing you don't want is for that man to break the double-team. If a guy breaks a double-team, you make him break it up the middle because you send him into the teeth of your defense. But when he gets around the top guy and he turns the corner - then you're chasing. There's so many bad things that can happen in that situation. I'm glad to see that doesn't happen too much any more.

One of the most pleasant surprises this season has been Anderson Varejao. Andy's been huge on both ends of the floor.

Offensively, when he receives the ball in the middle, he's a good facilitator now. He's looking to pass the ball, and he's a good finisher when he receives the ball down low. He's playing well within the system.

And defensively, he just gives people fits. Players are always complaining to the referees because he's just an active guy - elbows flying everywhere. He's a key person for our defensive effort because he covers for everyone. And he's not a shot-blocker, but he covers a lot of ground. There's not a lot of passes into the basket.

Back when I played, I would have hated going against a guy like him. And back then, you could be much more physical. He could have bumped you more and put his hands on you and caused even more problems. But, back in my day, we'd have guys who'd try to hurt him because he'd get on your nerves so much. Of course, they don't allow that anymore, either.

Andy was huge in the two games the Cavs won this weekend. In fact, the two games we won this weekend are games I believe we would have lost last season. We just didn't have the firepower, first of all. And we didn't have the team unity to be able to deal with adversity.

Once we started downhill last year, there was a snowball effect. Now, the team is much more together. You can feel it. It is a true "All for One, One for All" mentality. These guys pull together and that means a lot.

What we've seen so far, they're shoring up the third-quarter lapses. You're not seeing that as much. And the fourth quarter is our quarter now. The first and the fourth quarter are ours now. We're scoring over 30 points a quarter and we're not allowing a lot of points. It's a good formula right now - to be able to get off strong and turn it up in the fourth quarter.

This is going to be a very interesting week for the Cavs. All three games are going to be tough because all three teams are better than they were last year. But we're better, as well. I think it's going to come down to getting off to good starts, getting the crowd involved and being able to sustain that level of play.

That's what we've been doing through the first six games - once we establish that level of play, it doesn't drop off with our bench. Milwaukee has a new team, but a talented team. Denver is going to be a tough match for us. Chauncey Billups gives them stability at the point guard, and that makes them even tougher. And Utah's always tough because they move the ball so well and they're disciplined. They have such a good offensive scheme that if you make one mistake - they're going to capitalize on it.

It's going to come down to that old equation, can we defend enough to win.

That's going to help us with all three games this week - even with Milwaukee, because they like to get out and run, too. Mo has a little incentive against Milwaukee, LeBron has incentive against Carmelo and everybody knows about Boozer. So these are games that will have some energy to them.

As a fan, you'll be seeing some good basketball this week.