I remember the night the Cavaliers clinched the playoffs for the first time since 1998; the first time in the LeBron James Era.

It was a 13-point home win over Dirk and the Mavericks in late March and, although the fans went nuts, GM Danny Ferry effectively squelched an organization-wide celebration. I remember being angry about that at the time.

Now that the Cavaliers are on the eve of another Eastern Conference Finals appearance - with an even greater goal in mind - I totally understand Ferry's thinking back in 2006. Making the postseason back then seemed like THE goal. In reality, it was just a small step towards the goal.

The Cavaliers have won six playoff series since then - sweeping the last two in historic fashion. The celebrations have decreased as the goal has increased. After the Wine and Gold dismantled Atlanta in four straight, Monday night's locker room celebration amounted to a mid-February win over the Grizzlies.

(The bus ride to the airport and plane ride are a different story; but we can't go into that here.)

Zydrunas Ilgauskas sat, subdued by his locker stall, chilling (literally) with his big dogs soaking in an ice bucket. The veteran big man who's seen more playoff games than any Cavalier in team history knew that there was no reason to pop any corks after Cleveland's second round sweep.

"We have nothing to celebrate," said Z. "We have bigger goals than this. We won a game and we're moving on - that's about it."

Big Z came up bigger as the series went on - going 5-for-15 for 13 points and 10 boards in Games 1 and 2; going 12-for-22 for 28 points and 20 boards in Games 3 and 4. The Cavaliers starting center has been one of the major reasons that Cleveland has outrebounded their foe in all eight games of the postseason.

Mo Williams - who canned four three-pointers in Monday's series-clinching win - also remained calm, cool and collected in the postgame locker room, showing about one-fifth of the excitement that he did after winning a jump-ball in Game 2 at The Q.

"I don't expect to beat every team by 10 or 12 points," deadpanned Mo. "In these playoffs, teams get better and better through every round we go, so we can't expect to win every game. We just have to go out and compete and give 100 percent on our side and give ourselves a chance to win. And thus far in these playoffs, we have."

LeBron is almost never quiet in the locker room, and Monday night was no different. But you could sense by his measured approach at the post-game podium that he had no intention of getting too high after winning eight straight - piling up more mind-boggling statistics. He continues to put up numbers on par with the all-time greats, but one easy set of digits to digest is the fact that LeBron, over the four-game series, scored 135 points in 153 minutes.

"Why should we celebrate?" offered LeBron. "We're a team that's fighting for a championship. An advance is an advance - whether you win in four games or seven. We're not taking for granted what we're doing right now. We're excited, because we're playing great basketball. But we're not satisfied."

The Cavaliers' Eastern Conference Finals opponent is still unknown. What is known is that the Wine and Gold will continue to take each game of the seven-game series one at a time. They're not satisfied now. Ask them again after eight more wins.