The move was a rather bold one though, even for a team as versatile as the Cavaliers, because they were already without a true center (since Ilgauskas is not on the roster…..yet, and Shaqille O’Neal is still weeks away from returning after thumb surgery). Plus, Daniel Gibson has yet to return from his personal hiatus due to the birth of his son. So going against a Milwaukee team with a strong inside presence in Andrew Bogut, that has won eight of nine games since trading for John Salmons just prior to the trading deadline, the Cavaliers would have probably had their hands full even with LeBron on the floor. Getting a win without him, was going to be a significant challenge.

Jawad Williams started the game in place of James, giving the Cavaliers a starting five of Mo Williams, Anthony Parker, Jawad Williams, JJ Hickson, and Antawn Jamison. The Bucks started out fast, while the Cavaliers seemed to struggle to find any kind of offensive rhythm and ended the first quarter with a nine point deficit.

Delonte West, who seems to always play well against Milwaukee, was the difference maker for the Cavaliers off the bench, and by halftime, they trailed the Bucks only by a point, led by some inspired play by West and a solid first-half from Antawn Jamison. West’s fearless play going to the basket was key for the Cavaliers as they closed the gap to send the half, as he used his quickness to either drive to the lane in traffic, or to create a little space between him and the Bucks defense to create his own shot.

In the second half though, the Bucks started hitting a higher percentage of their shots than they did in the first half, and started pushing the ball quickly up the floor against the Cavaliers, which caused problem for the Cavs defense. The Cavaliers coaches always say that their offense starts with “stops” on defense, and that was vividly demonstrated against Milwaukee. Without getting stops on the defensive end to create offensive opportunities in transition, the Cavaliers half-court offense became stagnant at times. Delonte West, who finished with 27 points, and Antawn Jamison, who had his best game as a Cavalier as he scored 30, were pretty much the only players who seemed to be able to hit their shots. Two players seldom beat any team, especially on the road, and therefore the Cavs fell to the Bucks 92-85.

Though no loss can ever be blamed on one player, when interviewed in the locker room after the game, Mo Williams admitted that he was very disappointed in his performance. He had good reason to feel that way. Williams had the worst game I can remember him having as a Cavalier. It was almost as if he was trying too hard to replace LeBron, and as often happens when a player presses, the results were not good. Williams had a couple silly turnovers, and frequently rushed shots early in the offense. He finished the game hitting only three of his 17 shot attempts, and had only five assists. If only half of his 14 misses had gone in, the result of the game would have been much different. In a game where the Cavaliers could have used even one more player to be a factor, Williams picked a bad night to have one of his worst games. Williams said after the game that he plans on hitting the gym tomorrow, even though it is an off day for the team, so he can get comfortable with his shot once again. With or without LeBron, the team needs Mo Williams to be productive, so let’s hope the gym session is effective.

The good news is that the Cavaliers, with the best record in the NBA, had a big enough cushion over the rest of the league. So, this loss wasn’t one that knocked them out of home court advantage or anything. The Spurs are the Cavaliers next opponent, this Monday at The Q. Though a little ‘long in the tooth’, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli, and Tony Parker are still capable of playing like they did in their championship days, so this will be another big test for the Cavaliers. Chances are, after the loss to Milwaukee, Mike Brown will insure that LeBron James is back in the lineup.

So, as a way of saying “thanks” to their fans, on Friday night the Cavaliers and one of their corporate sponsors, Key Bank, teamed up to have Snuggie Night at The Q. You know the Snuggie don’t you? Those cheesy looking big fleece blankets, with big arms built in, that you put on like a hospital gown? I confess. I do not have one. I think I wanted one…..once. But that image of the guy in the blue Snuggie in the Snuggie commercial, dancing with his arms while sitting on the couch, was enough to make me take a pass on getting my own Snuggie. My kids already think I am a few fries short of a happy meal. I don’t need to wear a Snuggie to confirm their belief.

Well, somehow the Cleveland Cavalier managed to make the Snuggie seem cool…..at least for one night….as the Cavalier gave every fan in attendance their very own Cavaliers Snuggie. The players walked out onto the court ‘rocking’ their Snuggies. It was well orchestrated and everyone, including LeBron James was focused on making the night a success. When Cavs rookie, Daniel Green, was about to walk onto the court sans Snuggie, the King stopped him and sent him back to the locker room to make his entrance appropriately Snuggie-fied. Heck, even Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert wore a Snuggie in his courtside seat.

In the process, a Guinness World Record was set on Friday night for the most fleece blankets in one place. Call it ’15 minutes of fame’, or maybe it was more like shame, but in this season where the Cavaliers seem to roll through almost every visiting opponent regardless of the players they put on the floor, everything seems to be working for the Cavaliers, so I’ll go with ‘fame’. Yes, Snuggie Night was a hit. Go figure. Everything the Cavaliers do right now seems to be working. What’s next? A Cavalier Chia Pet, in the shape of Shaq’s currently swollen thumb? Or how about a Cavs Clapper? I can see it now, 20,562 fans clap in unison and the arena lights go off. Clap again, and they go on again! Hey, I think I am getting the hang of this!

Oh, and by the way, in case any of you Guinness Book of World Records folks are still in town, I think I just set a record for the most time the word “Snuggie” has ever been used in an article. Does that make me any cooler, kids? Didn’t think so.

When interviewed after the game, of which Michael Jordan was in attendance, James said that he was planning on giving up his number 23 for the number 6, and suggested that other NBA players who presently wear the number 23 follow his lead. That suggestion received mixed reaction from the other 13 players in the NBA who also wear a 23 on their jersey, and James later backed down from that suggestion. However, being true to his word, LeBron was undeterred in his plan.

On Monday, James confirmed that he had filed papers with the NBA to wear the number 6 starting next season. From the start of his career, James has always paid tribute to some of the legendary players in the game, when some of his best performances have been compared to those of the all-time greats. This move is just one more example of how much he respects the path paved by the great players who have come before him.

The NBA must approve the number change for LeBron, since the number change isn’t presently tied to James playing for a new team. However, it didn’t impact the NBA’s decision when Kobe Bryant didn’t change teams when he changed from the number 8 to the number 24 a few years back. So I think it will be highly unlikely that they will deny the request of their reigning MVP now.

For those skeptics who believe the move is simply a way of creating another revenue stream for himself, they need to keep in mind that the NBA Players Union distributes the players share of jersey sales evenly among the NBA players. As much as LeBron is a highly motivated businessman who still is trying to become the world’s first billion dollar athlete, this decision is from the heart……not the wallet.

It’s also not an ego thing either. LeBron’s jersey is presently the second-highest seller in the NBA, behind Kobe Bryant’s number 8. For all of the goals LeBron James has, I don’t think that being the King of Jersey Sales is one of them. I doubt that this move is purely driven by his desire to surpass Bryant in jersey sales. So instead, let’s take this as LeBron being LeBron….which is a player who has already carved out his own place in NBA history, and seeks to honor arguably the greatest basketball player of all time: Michael Jordan.

As for the significance of the number six, it’s not as if he just pulled a number out of the air. It’s the number he wears on his practice jersey, and it holds other meaning as well. It is the number of his second-favorite player, Julius Erving, and James’ first child was born in the sixth month of the year. It is also the number LeBron wore when he won Olympic gold in 2008. This will be the third number for James since he started playing organized basketball. He wore the number 32 playing AAU ball, then changed to 23 at St. Vincent – St. Mary High School, and has worn the same number for the Cavaliers since he started his NBA career.

Shaq and LeBron also had solid games, as usual. The problem for the Cavaliers was that the other starters for the Cavaliers had horrible games. Mo Williams, JJ Hickson, and Anthony Parker all finished the game with four points each, and in fact Williams did not get his first field goal until late in the fourth quarter. When you factor in that every Magic starter scored in double-digits, it is almost a miracle that the Cavaliers kept the game close enough to keep the game in question right up until the very end.

The Cavaliers offense once again seemed to struggle to find any consistency, settling too often for three-point shots, which they completed at a season-low 18.8%.

With a few days off, and a game at home against the Hornets on Tuesday night, the Cavaliers will need to get back to basics. They need to focus on ball movement on offense, more aggressive play on defense, and Mike Brown is going to have to find some kind of rotation that works. One thing that we can pretty much guarantee is that Antawn Jamison will likely replace JJ Hickson in the starting lineup. Their first unit needs to establish some consistency and though it’s nice to have someone of Jamison’s caliber coming off the bench, the starting offense is in need of a spark as well. They worked so hard to get Jamison, so there’s no reason not to maximize his value.

Call it karma, chemistry, or whatever, but right now the Cavaliers are not clicking in any area of their game. There is stil plenty of season to go though, and the team still has the best record in the East and in the NBA. It’s not time to panic….yet…..but everyone in the Cavaliers locker room had better dig deep and focus, before this slide turns into anything more than a speed bump on their way to a great finish to the season.

The gentle giant, known simply a “Z”, is not an arrogant man. In fact, he’s actually quite humble. So he’s not so foolish to think that the only reason for the team’s sudden struggles, is solely because he’s no longer on the floor for half of the game. Yet, he’s also not foolish enough to think that he isn’t missed right now, as the team tries to sustain any consistency, particularly in the middle each half of a game…..those same times of the game when he used to flourish.

He watched Friday night as his replacement in the rotation at center now, Anderson Varejao, had some of the same plays ran for him that used to almost automatically lead to points. Yet instead of the ball being popped back outside to around 15 feet to “Z”, it was Varejao who was the recipient of the ball and all three times, the shot failed to go through the net. The big man thinks to himself, “I would have made that shot”, and you know what? He’s right. For all of Varejao’s skills, hitting a mid-range jump shot with consistency, is not one of them.

As the big man flips through the local DC TV channels, he can’t help but get at least a little pleasure out of the fact that the guy who used to be in DC, that now has his spot on the Cavalier roster (Antawn Jamison), went 0-12 in his first game in uniform for the Cavs. He knows that his replacement will eventually find his comfort zone within the Cavs offense, and that this game could have very well been one where he pressed a bit trying to make an impact for the team who worked so hard to get him on their roster. Still, he knows that at least some of his teammates had to be thinking that it would be nice to have their former teammate still contributing so consistently as he always had. He feels, and probably rightfully so, that if he had been there tonight, the outcome of the game may have been different. Maybe not a win, but certainly not a complete butt-kicking at the hands of a team that has lost as many games as it has won this season.

The Cavaliers have struggled mightily in their first two games out of the All Star break. The first loss was a thriller where LeBron James having the best overall game that a player has had since Pistol Pete played years ago, wasn’t enough for them to beat the Nuggets at home in a game that went to overtime. Now, the Bobcats out-shot, out-hustled, and out-defended the Cavaliers to hand the Cavs their second loss in a row. There are many reasons why the Cavaliers may have looked disorganized, none more valid than the fact that the Cavs are once again juggling a rotation with the return of Mo Williams, and the addition of Jamison, who played extended minutes in spite of not being able to yet practice with his new teammates. The Cavs will snap back into shape rather quickly, but it doesn’t make the past two games any less frustrating for them and their fans.

It will get better, and it could happen as soon as Sunday when the team travels to Orlando to try to keep the Magic winless over the Cavs thus far this season. Then again, it could be ugly again while the Cavaliers try to find the chemistry that made them so dominant over the past month. Only time will tell.

For now though, somewhere in a hotel room in Washington DC, there a 7’3” player watching Sportscenter, with a big smile on his face.

The Cavaliers completed their much awaited trade to improve their team even further for this season’s playoff push, but it was not for Amare Stoudemire as expected. Instead, the Cavs were able to work a deal for the player they have wanted for over a year…..Washington’s Antawn Jamison.

The former all-star power forward was acquired from the Wizards as part of a three team trade that will cost the Cavaliers Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and their first-round pick in the 2010 NBA Draft. In addition to acquiring Jamison, the Cavaliers will get Sebastian Telfair from the Clippers. Telfair entered the NBA as a first-round pick and has never truly developed into the star he was projected to be, and is presently out with a groin injury.
The two stories of this trade though are Jamison and Ilgauskas.

Jamison is a very productive player, who is averaging over 20 points and nine rebounds per game. Unlike Stoudemire, he is a threat to score from anywhere on the floor, and still have one more season left on his existing contract. He will give the Cavaliers arguably the best starting-five in the Eastern Conference, which will now have four either current or former all-star players (Mo Williams, Jamison, LeBron, and Shaq). The question will be how quickly Antawn can adapt to being a more complimentary player than “the guy” for a team. I am sure he will find it an easy adaptation though as his only focus prior to his planned retirement at the end of his contract, is to win a championship….something he had no chance of doing in Washington.

The tough part of this trade for Cavs fans will be the loss of Ilgauskas. “Z” has been with the Cavaliers for his entire career and with this season being the Cavaliers best chance at winning a championship, you can’t help but feel for him if he misses out. However, Z’s true value to the Wizards is his expiring contract and it’s very possible that the Wizards may negotiate a buyout with him and give him his release, after the NBA’s mandatory waiting period expires. NBA rules state that a player acquired via trade cannot be released or bought out until that player has been with the team for 30 days. So for Z and his fans, it will be 30 days of waiting to see if there is an opportunity for the big center to rejoin the team he had publicly stated he wanted to retire from when his career ended.

If Zydrunas does get back to Cleveland, the Cavaliers will have traded a late first-round draft pick for a player of Jamison’s caliber. That would be considered a “steal” by anyone who knows the NBA. Even if the Cavs don’t get Ilgauskas back, it still is a very good deal for the Cavaliers.

The landscape of the Eastern Conference….and really the NBA……changed today with this trade. The Cavaliers already have the best record in the NBA after the All Star break. Adding Antawn Jamison to a their team, will now make them a defensive nightmare for any opponent

Not letting their league-leading record dissuade them from seeking out ways to further improve their team, according to league sources, the Cavaliers have been investigating two and three team deals to help further improve their team for the second half of the season.

The most talked about target for the Cavaliers is Amare Stoudemire, the all-star forward from the Phoenix Suns. The addition of Stoudemire would give the Cavaliers a starting five of four current or past all-stars (O’Neal, James, Stoudemire, and Williams), plus Anthony Parker. What it would probably cost them though would be JJ Hickson, whose stock has been rising for the past couple months, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, whose expiring contract is very attractive to less cash-heavy teams than the Cavaliers. The other forward being discussed is Antawn Jamison, from the Wizards. Short-term, it’s hard to argue that either Jamison or Stoudemire would be an upgrade over Hickson. Long-term though, it could be perceived as a step backward because it would take the Cavaliers extending contracts to keep their services next season and beyond. Combine that with Shaq being in the last year of this contract, and the pending free agency of LeBron James, and next season’s roster could be very different than it is this season.

However, next season is a long ways away, and the Cavaliers are (as they should be at this time) focused on this year and winning a championship now. The addition of either Stoudemire or Jamison would make the Cavalier a very tough team for any other team to matchup well against, and would have to make them the odds-on favorite to win their first championship this season.

Aside from improving at the forward position, the Cavaliers are rumored to also be looking for a shooting guard such as Indiana’s Troy Murphy. There have been no reports on who the Cavaliers would give up in a deal such as that, but it would likely be a draft pick and a player like Daniel Gibson who is more of a shooting guard than a point guard. Once Mo Williams returns, Gibson will once again become a become bench player, and Delonte West would be first off the bench to spell Williams. There is also a chance that they would hang on to Gibson and move West, but with his recent legal issues and with him being early in his contract, West would probably be less attractive to a potential trade partner.

As much as most Cavs fans feel “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, with all of this activity, I would be shocked if nothing comes from all of this activity. Stay tuned!

In addiiton to

THOUGHT #1 – “Diesel is Superman’s Kryptonite”
Last year, the Cavaliers lost to the Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals. With no way to stop self-proclaimed “Superman” Dwight Howard without double-teaming him, the Magic presented a pick-your-poison threat. Double-team Howard, and it left the perimiter open for their shooters. Leave him one-on-one, and he would do his damage in the paint.

Enter, Shaquille O’Neal, or as he is known by one of his many nicknames, “Diesel”. With Shaq on the floor for the majority of the time Howard is on the floor, the Cavs have no need to double-team Howard, thus allowing them to play the rest of the floor straight-up. If you need any proof of what Shaq’s effect is on Howard, you need look to only the final minutes of last night’s game. In a game that was tied at 96 with under six minutes remaining, Howard was a non-factor with O’Neal on the floor for the rest of the game, and in fact was held scoreless for the final seven and a half minutes.

THOUGHT #2 – “Superman? Puhleez!”
Dwight Howard may try his LeBron wanna-be antics of the juke and fade-away jumper prior to opening tip (in contrast to LeBron’s “stardust” routine)….which I laugh at every time because if he actually tried that shot in a game, he may make it 5% of the time,……and he may take the practice balls off the rack and heave them ridiculously at the basket as if they have a prayer of going in (like LeBron has made a standard of his pre-game ritual, but usually makes one a game), but unlike LeBron, Howard is a one-trick-pony. He has no jump shot, and he is no threat from anywhere other than three feet from the rim. He is physically large and loves initiating contact when banging inside, but it is shocking to me how much he hates NOT being the one initiating the contact. With Shaq’s, and even JJ Hickson’s aggressive play inside (JJ’s block of a Howard shot was one of the 10-best plays this year), Howard quickly looked……as shocking as it would seem to be, given his size…..intimidated.

If Cleveland and Shaq can continue to get inside Howard’s head and make him painfully aware of what it’s like playing the Cavs in the paint, the Magic-vs-Cavs will be much like if the Cavs were facing a jump-shooting crazy team like Golden State.

THOUGHT #3 – “Cavs need to stand pat”
There have been many rumors about potential trades the Cavaliers could make this season. Most of the potential trading partners want “Z” and JJ Hickson.
As for Zyrdrunas, whose expiring contract is of value to most trading partners, it would break my heart so see Z anywhere else if this season is the one where Cleveland wins it’s championship. He also is the best center off the bench in the NBA. I can’t see letting him go.

As for JJ, I am the first to admit that I was not a JJ fan earlier this season, but he obviously has learned a lot playing with Shaq and LeBron, and has now become a force for the Cavaliers. His play in the first quarter where he had 9 points and 3 rebounds against the Magic, was a demonstration of what he is capable of if an opponent decides to double-team LeBron or Shaq. Hickson is young, aggressive, and has the support of the team’s superstars.

Bottom line is the Cavs have the best record in the NBA, and they have gotten there with the toughest first-half schedule in the NBA where they played more road games than anyone. Do we really NEED to make a change?

LeBron James, for the fifth time named NBA Eastern Conference Player of The Week, led the team in scoring as usual, with 32 points. Shaq had another good game as well, making his presence felt in the paint and grabbing eight rebounds to go with his seven points. The other story though was the bench play, led by Jawad Williams and Anderson Varejao.

Williams had his best game as a pro with 17 points in 28 minutes. He was solid on defense and didn’t commit one turnover. Varejao had 15 points and nine rebounds, and played aggressively all night. The real story of the night though was the Cavaliers defense, which limited the Nets to just two fastbreak points, and had 11 steals which setup some easy baskets for the Cavs.

The best sequence of the evening was in the second quarter. After failing to get the defensive rebound on a Nets miss, Shaquille O’Neal blocked the next attempt, trapping the ball against the glass. He then passed the ball to LeBron who dribbled twice and then heaved a perfect pass right near the basket that Anderson Varejao went up, grabbed with one hand, and slammed it home. The bench and the Quicken Loans Arena crowd erupted, and the Nets…..obviously sensing a huge momentum boost…..called a quick timeout to try to stem the tide.

Honestly, this game was closer than it should have been. When you have the team with the league’s best record, playing the team with the league’s worst record, it wouldn’t be a shock to see this be one of those game where LeBron dances from the bench in the fourth quarter as his teammates finish off a laugher. Instead, you have to give the Nets credit. They fought hard and hit some key shots when they needed them, which forced the Cavaliers to play a ‘complete’ game if they were going to win.

With the Orlando Magic up on Thursday in a nationally televised game which is the last before the All Star break, I think the Nets did the Cavaliers a favor by forcing the Cavs into a competitive game. If this game had been easy, it may have been more difficult for the team to switch it back to ‘on’ this Thursday. The Magic have the second-best record in the East and will be a solid test for the Cavaliers. Personally, I am really looking forward to this game, to see if Shaq can once again do what he was brought here to do: Dominate the inside and force the Magic’s Dwight Howard into a tough night. One thing I do know is that The Q will be rocking come Thursday night!

LeBron scored a team-record 35 points in the first half, and for a time, looked as if he could have hit a shot even if he took it from the locker room. In a one spurt, he scored 24 straight point for the Cavs, including a few three-pointers from well beyond the arc. As it turned out, the Cavaliers needed almost every one of his game-high 47 points, as the Knicks valiantly fought back to within three points late in the game, only to fall short at the end.

Shaquille O’Neal finished with 19 points for the Cavaliers, and the rest of the starters (except Daniel Gibson) all finished with double-digits, and the game began with the Cavaliers showing the type of offense that has been on display during this winning streak. Moving without the ball, the Cavs were able to create some easy opportunities for the rest of the offense. JJ Hickson was the primary beneficiary early in the game with some easy layups and dunks, cutting to the basket. In fact, the Knicks David Lee (who earlier this week was mentioned by Shaq as a guy who he felt got snubbed for this year’s All Star game) ran down the court in transition and told Shaq (who was on the bench at the time), that JJ has the easiest job in the world, playing off Shaq and LeBron.

However, with how impressive LeBron’s game was, it exposed the risk of having him take over a game. After James finally cooled down and the rest of the Cavs had to do more than just stand and watch him shoot, it seemed as if they regressed into their old offense where they did just that on about every offensive possession. That was all that was needed as the Knicks put extra defensive attention on LeBron, thus slowing him down, and with little movement, the rest of the offense seemed to struggle.

As crazy as it sounds when talking about a team on a season-high winning streak, this game should serve as a wake-up call that, while it’s fun for everyone in the building to see LeBron ‘go Playstation’ on an opponent, they cannot expect him to do that an entire game, and when he once again becomes a mere mortal, they need to move and play aggressive defense. Against a better opponent, particularly a team who actually tries to play team-defense, this game could have ended with the Cavaliers on the losing end of the scoreboard.

Up next is a game against the New Jersey Nets, who are on track to set a NBA record in futility this season as they search for just their fifth win of the season. This should be win number 12 of the current streak. Hopefully the Cavs get up early, sit LeBron, and let the rest of the team get some reps because after that, the Magic come to town in the final game before the All Star break. If they try to do what they did against the Knicks, against Orlando, the winning streak will more than likely end at 13.