The Wine and Gold just returned from their most successful road trip of the season, and while they were away, one of their most critical cogs was toiling away at Cleveland Clinic Courts. 

On Monday, Zydrunas Ilgauskas was splashing down one jumper after another, from the elbow, from 18-feet, from three-point range. He had just finished his first practice in weeks. (Unless you count his one-on-one battles with Danny Ferry. "Obviously, playing Danny one-on-one isn't the same thing as going against Dwight Howard," joked Z. "But he's dirty and he made me work. We didn't keep score, but he fouled out a lot.")

Although Mike Brown refused to put a fixed date on his return, it's looking like Big Z could be ready to return by Thursday night's heavyweight showdown in Orlando.

"(There's) no timetable right now," said Brown. "He did practice, and it was good to see the big fella out there. But I haven't thought about a timetable just yet."

Without Big Z - and Delonte West, whose return will probably be on the other side of the All-Star Break - the Cavaliers still managed to go 3-1 out West. Anderson Varejao has proved to be a rock-solid alternative in the middle. Although he's a Z disciple, their games couldn't be much different. Still in Andy's last 14 games (11 starts), he's averaging 10.7 points on 53 percent shooting, grabbing eight boards per contest. In his 14 starts this year, the Wild Thing is averaging 11.7 points and 7.5 rebounds per.

Like Andy, Sasha Pavlovic has come up big in the absence of Delonte. Battling a respiratory infection for most of the West Coast trip, during Pavlovic's last five starts, the Cavs are 4-1 and the Serbian swingman is averaging 11.6 points, 4.4 boards and 2.6 assists in 34 minutes per game. On Friday night in Oakland, he grabbed a career-high nine boards and the next night in Utah, he canned two free throws with 16 seconds remaining to ice the win.

Pavlovic got starts against Kobe Bryant - who shot .409 from the floor (9-22) - and Brandon Roy - who shot .348 (8-23).

The moral of the story is that the Cavaliers are deep. On the way home, Austin Carr and I talked about the days when Ira Newble and Eric Snow were fixtures in the starting lineup. That seems like a long time ago.

The only place the Cavaliers had trouble on their West Coast junket was Los Angeles. And the problem in Tinseltown wasn't Cleveland's depth - it was their height. The Lakers are a highly-skilled team. They're also huge. They start two seven-footers and, at certain points of the game, their smallest player on the floor was 6-7. (That was Sasha Vujacic - and Daniel Gibson found himself guarding him.)

The Cavaliers proved to be a very good team without Big Z and Delonte. And that's fine against Golden State and even Utah. But when they start rolling with this year's Big Dogs like Boston, Los Angeles and Orlando - they're going to need every tool in the box. Luckily, the Wine and Gold should get half of their dinged-up duo back on Thursday.

"I'm going to be a little protective at the beginning; that's just normal, coming back from an injury," asserted Ilgauskas, after working on Monday. "Plus it'll give me tomorrow and Wednesday to go through some plays with the guys and get some timing back. Hopefully, I won't have any setbacks. Orlando is a really good team, so it'll be a tough game to come back for, but it's tough to time these things."

Aside from Andy and Sasha picking up the slack in their starting role, LeBron and Mo Williams have been fantastic. LeBron just took home his fourth Eastern Conference Player of the Week award and Mo Williams is on the fast track to Phoenix. He's notched double-figures in 16 straight games, averaging 18.5 ppg in that span that's seen the Cavs go 12-4.

Out West, LeBron went off for 30.5 points, 9.8 boards, and 8.8 assists per game. Mo Williams averaged 22 points, 4.5 assists and 3.5 boards during the four-game roadie.

Williams worked the pick-and-pop to perfection with Big Z before the Cavs starting center went down. Mo knows that his assist totals will pick up the moment the Large Lithuanian gets back into the lineup.

"It was good to see him back - he looked good," smiled Williams. "He's been out awhile so his wind is not there. But a good week of practice will be good for him."

The Cavaliers really are a tight team. Chemistry has never been as good as it is now. The Cavaliers are incomplete without their longest-tenured player. Although possibly the team's quietest player - along with Jawad Williams - Z is one of the club's leaders. (In Utah, LeBron cited Z as the veteran he most looked up to when he arrived in Cleveland as a rookie. "I've always had a great relationship with Z, and I continue to look up to that guy. He had been here for so long, I looked up to him and asked for advice.")

Big Z is within days of his return. And as glad as the guys are to see the Big Man back, Z's just as happy to get back into the mix.

"I missed not playing. I missed the guys, being home this whole time," added Ilgauskas. "I missed the camaraderie and it's been frustrating. So more than anything, I think I'm just glad to get a sweat in and start playing and just to be around the guys. I missed it a lot."

The Large Lithuanian should be back in action within days. And with the Magic on-deck this Thursday and a matchup with the Pistons looming on Super Bowl Sunday, he'll be a welcome sight for the Wine and Gold.