Hey, everyone back in chilly Cleveland. It's AC again - what's happening? 

Wednesday night's win was one of the season's best. The Cavaliers simply do not lose two in a row, and that was the case in Portland. 

After the way they were treated by the Lakers, you could tell that the Cavs were not going to get beat up again inside - even though they were shorthanded. The win also gave them "the Yellow Brick Road" and what I mean by that is that they understand what intensity level and style of basketball they have to bring to beat good teams with the injuries that they have now.

And that's very important as a team. You have to have that understanding.

The Lakers' size really bothered the Cavaliers on Monday. And the Blazers were every bit as long as L.A. But the Cavaliers found a way to mitigate that size. Other than double-teaming when they got the ball in the post, they didn't allow Portland to receive the ball as close to the basket as they did against the Lakers. They pushed the Blazers out a little farther from the basket, so instead of turning around and being in business, the Blazers bigs had to turn and do something with the ball. That gave us time to double-team.

Mo was spectacular on Wednesday night. I think if he makes the All-Star team, you can point to Wednesday night's performance that did it.

On Wednesday, Ben and Anderson played like men inside. They were not going to take the whuppin' that they took against the Lakers. You could see they were not going to take the beating they took against the Lakers.

I believe much of this mental toughness, this mindset is directly attributable to Mike Brown, because it starts from the top. And they all believe - because they've had success - that defense is the reason for that success. They use that to hang their hat on. You can see, when they need stops, they work their tails off to get them. On Wednesday, it was as if they used "controlled chaos" to get those stops.

Once again, Ben was one of the huge reasons for the win. Some fans just look at numbers, but you can't understand Big Ben's contribution like that. People don't understand, that's why he won four Defensive Player of the Year awards - because he can guard a little man or a big man and still be equally effective. There aren't many guys who can do that.

The win over Portland gives the Cavaliers, mentally, the confidence that they can win without Delonte and Z. That's the first thing. Secondly, they understand what type of effort they need to win without those two. If they had lost on Wednesday, they'd still be searching. Now, they know what they have to do.

And I'd love to see them do it two more times before we land in Cleveland on Sunday morning.