First of all, isn't it somewhat shocking that the Cavaliers have won only one Central Division title in franchise history - back in 1976?
I know the Cavaliers haven't always been at the level they're at now and that Michael Jordan played in the Central, but ONE Division title in 38 years? Not a single Central crown in the entire Lenny Wilkens Era. None for Mike Fratello. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?
After dropping Detroit on Super Bowl Sunday, 90-80, this year's Cavaliers are 12 games ahead of the struggling Pistons - who have won the Central in six of the last seven seasons. The Wine and Gold blew past the Pistons, 32-14, in the fourth quarter at The Palace - with Daniel Gibson and Mo Williams personally leading Cleveland's 15-2 run to the start the period.
Cleveland's 15-2 run - which erased and eight-point edge and completely turned the game around - was done with LeBron James as a spectator. That alone, should signal the changing of the guard in the Central Division. In years past, topping the Pistons at The Palace with LeBron on the bench during the Cavs' key run would have been unthinkable.
LeBron still led everyone with 33 points, but the fact that he's not doing all of the Cavaliers' heavy lifting is the reason this year's club is the Beast of the East. Although one wouldn't know it from the Eastern Conference All-Star team, this squad is loaded.
You can start with Mo Williams, who's been nothing short of sensational all season - specifically since late December. Williams heads into the break having notched double-digits in 20 straight games, averaging 19.8 during that stretch. He's averaging 24.7 ppg over his last seven outings.
"This whole season has been different, especially when you know Mo's out there controlling the offense," praised LeBron. "He can control a lot of things that go on with our offense, and then he can create for himself and for others. There has not been a time this year that pressure was on those guys without me being out there."
When Zydrunas Ilgauskas went down with a sprained left ankle, Anderson Varejao - who took five stitches to his lip on Sunday - stepped in and averaged 11.3 points and 7.4 boards per contest. In Andy's 16 starts, the Cavaliers are 11-5. When Delonte West broke his wrist against Chicago, Sasha Pavlovic stepped in and has averaged 11.3 points per game himself - with the Wine and Gold going 7-2 in that interim.
Overall, the Cavaliers bench is averaging 27.8 points per game, shooting .446 and grabbing 14.0 rebounds per game. J.J. Hickson - who some thought might spend his rookie season bouncing back and forth to Erie, Pa. - tallied double-figures in four of the six games before Z returned on Friday. Wally Szczerbiak had 14 points last Thursday and 15 one night later. Boobie is finding his stroke and Tarence Kinsey was finding his niche before rolling his ankle in Orlando.
The Cavaliers have rolled through the first half of the campaign - accruing one of the best marks in the East, going undefeated at home, winning 10 straight games in three straight months while simultaneously avoiding back-to-back losses all season. Much of these accomplishments have been done with one or two starters on the shelf.
The Pistons have been exactly average since acquiring Allen Iverson. They've gone 21-21 since the Answer came over from Denver, undergoing constant lineup mutations and struggling in their own gym. When the Cavaliers blew past them on Sunday, it was Detroit's fourth straight home loss. They've lost nine of their last 12 and had their first losing month, at 6-9, in five years.
"I'm sure everybody's confidence is still up because we've got a long way to go," said Iverson, who will start alongside LeBron James on the East All-Star squad. "At this point, even before the All-Star break, if we lose our confidence there isn't any reason to even come back after break because we would be going out there playing for nothing."
The Cavaliers won't have to travel to Detroit again this year - at least not during the regular season. The Pistons come to town on February 22 and again on March 31. They currently hold the sixth seed in the East and, if the season ended today, would face the Magic in the First Round. (The Cavaliers would open with the Sixers.)
Actually, it's way too early to be thinking about postseason seedings. But it's not too early to consider that - many years ago, while the Cavaliers were busy not winning the Central Division - the Pistons didn't make their Championship runs until they could solve the Celtics. And Michael Jordan's Bulls didn't make their runs until they could get past the Pistons.
Maybe Sunday's win in Detroit was the first step in the Cavaliers' rite of passage. Or maybe it was just win No. 37, with Toronto on deck for Tuesday night.
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.
As of Friday night's win, the Cavaliers are now the Beast of the East - and they proved that point in emphatic fashion on Friday night.
The reeling Celtics - who had lost seven of nine after winning 19 straight - got back into the win column with a win against Toronto on Sunday. But they did manage to fall behind the Orlando Magic this weekend, despite both clubs reaching the 30-win plateau.
The huge Friday night matchup was supposed to be a slugfest, especially without Zydrunas Ilgauskas in the lineup. But in the end, it was business as usual for the Wine and Gold - with LeBron James and several starters witnessing the win from the sidelines. The Cavs had been beating teams at The Q by an average margin of 16.5 points per victory. They topped the World Champs by 15.
The Hack-a-Ben strategy - first employed by Doc Rivers when he was with Orlando and Wallace, with Detroit - didn't work at all. Wallace went 5-for-10 in the fourth quarter and Boston became more demoralized with each made free throw. The strategy also didn't achieve the desired effect of taking the crowd out of the game. The sold-out throng at The Q simply became louder every time Wallace waltzed the length of the court to shoot.
LeBron gave the deafening crowd a lot of credit following the 98-83 win.
"My first year in the playoffs, my third year in the league, (the crowd) was unbelievable," listed LeBron. "The first Finals game here, Game 3 against San Antonio, was unbelievable. Tonight, when Ben was making free throws and we were making runs, it was great. Much respect to the Cavaliers fans. They were unbelievable."
Big Ben actually led both squads with 10 free throw attempts, and he described the Celtics' scheme bluntly following Friday's win.
"It fuels me," said Wallace. "It gives me a sense that the (other) team can try and throw everything that they can throw at us, but they can't stop us and can't figure out what we're doing."
Wallace was huge for the Wine and Gold on Friday. And as good as Anderson Varejao was once again - (14 points, nine boards) - the Cavaliers are still sorely lacking a big presence in the middle. They can beat a reeling Celtic team without Big Z for one night in January. But it would be a different story in May. Kendrick Perkins and Leon Powe going a combined 10-for-12 from the floor spells that out quite plainly.
The win over Boston was big in itself - evening up the series to date and giving the Cavaliers the temporary edge for homecourt advantage. The fact that they did it without Ilgauskas is a huge confidence boost. It was also the Cavaliers' 10th straight victory against Boston at The Q - and they've won those ten games by an average of 11.0 points per win.
But when Mike Brown and his charges finish practice on Monday afternoon before flying to Memphis, the Celtics win will be the furthest thing from their minds. In Mike Brown's one-day-one-practice-one-game-at-a-time paradigm, there is no room for looking to the past. That huge, nationally-televised victory against the Champs is gone. Tuesday's matchup with the cellar-dwelling 11-26 Grizzlies now takes center stage.
The most interesting thing that the Grizzlies have done lately has been to ink former Cavalier, Darius Miles, to a 10-day contract - blowing up the Blazers salary cap and defying Portland president, Larry Miller, who threatened litigation against any team signing Miles. The former No. 3 overall pick will see his first action since re-signing with Memphis against the Cavaliers on Tuesday night.
The Grizzlies game will be about as easy as the Wine and Gold will have it for the remainder of January. After the matchup with Memphis, it's the final battle with the Bulls of the 2008-09 season on Thursday night in Chicago. The Cavaliers have trounced Chicago in the first three meetings of the year - including a 25-point drubbing on January 2 at The Q.
Cleveland comes home looking for a little revenge when they face the high-octane Hornets on Friday night before leaving for their first West Coast trip of the season. In the four-game set, they'll face the Lakers one week from Monday, before traveling to Portland, Oakland and Utah - where they'll close out the roadie against the Jazz.
It's OK to still be buzzing over Friday night's win over the Celtics. But glory is fleeting over the course of an 82-game schedule, and the Cavaliers hit the road for six of the next seven. If we still feel as good about the Wine and Gold when that run is done - this might really be Cleveland's season of destiny.
The trainer's table giveth; the trainer's table taketh away.
On Friday night, the Cavaliers will once again be without the services of starting center, Zydrunas Ilgauskas - shelved for the second time this season with a sprained left ankle that he suffered contesting a Donyell Marshall three-point attempt on December 12.
Ilgauskas hasn't quite been himself since returning to the lineup. He came back with a bang - going off for 23 points in a December 19 win in Denver. But since then, his highest scoring output has been 11 points and he hasn't grabbed double-digit boards. The Large Lithuanian was being evaluated at the Clinic after Friday morning's shootaround. He is listed as day-to-day.
Ilgauskas' production has diminished recently, but it's not all the big man's doing. The Cavaliers have attempted 27 three-pointers per contest over the last three. Two of those games were wins, but all three were a struggle, and all against teams weaker than Cleveland in the post.
Anderson Varejao will get the start in place of Ilgauskas. The Wild Thing's been great this season, but he doesn't give the Cavaliers what Z does - especially in floor-spacing. Andy's jumper has improved, but he's not the perimeter threat that his favorite teammate is. And Varejao in the starting lineup obviously weakens Cleveland's bench.
On the positive side of the injury update, Wally Szczerbiak returns to the lineup after missing the home-and-home series with Miami. Szczerbiak had been suffering from knee contusions and needed a couple games off. His return doesn't cause a seismic shift in the rotation, but Coach Mike Brown is glad to get him back.
"When (Wally)'s playing, we have a nice little rhythm with our rotation," said Brown. "He's a guy that allows us to go small and still have a physical presence. Wally's a guy that plays very physical on both ends of the floor and it doesn't matter who he's guarding, he's going to stick his nose in and try to ruffle some feathers."
Mike Brown will have to adjust his rotation once again on Friday night and possibly on Sunday afternoon in the nation's capital. Of course, that shouldn't be a big problem for the reigning Eastern Conference Coach of the Month.
On Friday, for just the second time in his career - (how is that possible?) - Brown was named the East's top coach. In December, Brown led the Cavaliers to an NBA-best 12-2 (.857) record. The Cavaliers are off to their best start in franchise history and remain the only undefeated team at home this season.
During the month, Cleveland led the NBA in point differential (13.0) and held their opponents to an NBA-low 85.9 points per game while ranking second in opponent field goal percentage (42.6) and third in opponent rebounding (37.9).
Of course, Brown handled the award with his usual modesty and selflessness.
"(Awards) are nice to have, but I'm just fortunate to be with a terrific bunch of guys - a great coaching staff and a great team. So, although it may have my name on it - it's a team thing for me."
There's really no secret to the Cavaliers' winning formula. They're off to one of their best starts in team history at 10-3, a place they haven't been since the opening of the 1988-89 season - a year they went on to win 57 games. Cleveland is one of three undefeated teams at home and has won nine of their last ten, overall.
On the surface, it's easiest to point to LeBron James - the two-time reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week. The young King leads the league in scoring at an even 30.0 points per game. He had what some would consider an "off-game" in Saturday night's win over Atlanta and still finished with 24 points, eight dimes, seven boards and a pair of steals. He was a perfect 7-of-7 from the stripe.
But anyone who's paid any attention to the Wine and Gold knows that it's more than James (who's also logging a career-low in minutes). The Cavaliers formula for success has been their frequency and consistency at the line, their ability to protect the basketball and, of course, their commitment to defense.
All or most of this can be credited to the Cavaliers' guards, who have been as good as advertised. Mo Williams has averaged 21.6 ppg over his last five outings, simultaneously running the team to perfection. In those games, he's averaged less than two turnovers per contest and didn't record a single miscue in 37 minutes of action on Saturday.
Delonte West has been just as strong at the two-guard spot. Over his last five games, West is shooting an even 50 percent from beyond the arc and an eye-opening .529 from the floor overall. (Pretty amazing considering Zydrunas Ilgauskas - who's having a nice season shooting the ball himself - is at .507.) In that five-game span, West is averaging 35 minutes per game and averaging 1.6 turnovers per contest in that time.
Over their last six games, the Cavaliers are turning the ball over less than 12 times per contest and have given it away in single figures twice during that stretch. They only had three at the half in Detroit, before unraveling and finishing with 14.
"(Limiting turnovers) the key to success," said West following Saturday's win. "In this league, you can't turn the ball over. Guys are too talented and quick - it's like a wide receiver getting two steps on you. Once you turn the ball over, you put your defense in a bind and it leads to easy buckets and momentum swinging in the opposite direction."
"That's our goal: to keep our turnovers down and to get a quality shot on every possession."
For as good as West has been on the offensive end, he's been just as solid defensively - especially against bigger guards. On Tuesday, he held Vince Carter to 3-for-12 shooting. On Saturday, Joe Johnson was a first-quarter layup from taking the collar - finishing 1-for-8 for four points in 32 minutes.
As far as the Cavaliers killing it from the line, on Saturday night they shot .913 (21-23) from the stripe - the best mark since going .917 (22-24) three years ago in a loss to Minnesota. They've shot 80 percent or better on free throws in seven of their 13 contests - all victories. As a team they're shooting .786 from the stripe. Last season they shot .717.
Mo Williams has missed just a single free throw all season (and it cost fans their Chalupa, aggravating them and LeBron James) and even Big Ben Wallace is at .556 - almost .140 better than his career average.
Speaking of LeBron getting aggravated, the Cavaliers travel to the New York this week, where the Chosen One will undoubtedly be barraged by questions about his free agent year of 2010. It's unclear how many different ways pundits can ask the same question and still receive the same answer, but we'll find out tomorrow night at the Garden.
Luckily for LeBron, some of the New York media will actually be focused on the new-look Knicks, who are purging their roster rapidly and will have Al Harrington, Cuttino Mobley and Tim Thomas making their Big Apple debut on Tuesday.
The Wine and Gold's matchup with the high-octane Knicks tips off a brutal Thanksgiving week that will see them play four games in five days. Following their trip to New York, the Cavaliers welcome OK City to The Q on Wednesday. On Friday, Golden State rolls into Cleveland and Mike Brown's men travel to Milwaukee for a rematch with the Bucks on Saturday night.
