It seems, due to a rather slow time in sports news, that the popular national topic over the last couple of days has been the scene at the All-Star Game in Vegas a few weeks ago.  I find this interesting, the whole news lag of it all.

Jason Whitlock of AOL Sports and Ken Berger of Newsday both wrote some columns about what was going on there, and Bill Simmons of ESPN.com called it a "Hip Hop Woodstock," which has morphed all this into an attack on the Hip Hop Culture.  So Scoop Jackson of ESPN.com, who is often like a moth to the flame when there is a hint of a race issue anywhere in sports, came storming back to bash media members in general because, as he writes, "hip-hop thugs and their baby mammas (code: young black people) who
went to Vegas and displayed a side of ignorance that had veteran
reporters and columnists "scared" to go out of their rooms?"  Scoop also worked up a bunch of stats that made it seem like there really weren’t that many arrests per capita or whatever.

Well, you all know that I am an avowed realist and I was also in Las Vegas, so I’m going to lay it down on the line and tell it like it was.  It wasn’t about "Hip Hop culture" or "Gangbangers" or "Thugs" that was unnerving in Vegas.   It was about the lawlessness on the streets.  I’m not talking about what sort of music was coming out of clubs or what color people were. I’m talking about people smoking weed in hotel hallways and out on the street.  I’m talking about walking through a casino and as you try to sort through the crowd overhearing a handful of drug deals.  I’m talking about guys reaching out and grabbing women they didn’t know on the chest and elsewhere as they walked by.  I’m talking about seeing guys flash guns.  I saw all this with my own eyes.

No, I wasn’t afraid to leave my room.  No, I didn’t feel close to death on the streets.  But hell yes, there was stuff going on that no public organization from the NBA to the NRA to the ACLU to the NAACP would want to be associated with.  Giving me arrest numbers is meaningless.  There were no police anywhere to arrest anybody and everybody knew it.  And no, I’m no prude, I’ve been visiting Vegas on a regular basis since I was a teen-ager.  I’ve been all over that town at 3 a.m. and seen plenty.

I don’t care what kind of spin is being put on this, the truth is no organization from a city to a county to a state to a pro sports league can endorse lawlessness.  Period.  Which is why this is an issue, not fashion or music or skin color.

It is hard for me to give much praise to the Cavs tonight.  A win is a win and they all equal the same, I suppose.  Watching them again chuck jumpers in the fourth quarter left me to consider dragging out my old links again.  So on this night they made them, which will probably happen roughly 33 percent of the time.

Please allow me to point out the following:

–The Cavs have taken zero (0) free throws in the fourth quarter in the past two games yet got up 19 3-pointers.
–Zydrunas Ilgauskas was 5-of-8 from the floor in the first half and was permitted two shots in the second half and none in the fourth.
–In the fourth quarter the Hornets were using Bobby Jackson and Devin Brown to defend LeBron James and he didn’t take much advantage at all by working to get low post position, from which he would be unstoppable against those two. Which isn’t all that surprising since I watched him not abuse Jason Kapono like I thought he should Sunday in Miami.
–Without LeBron on the court tonight, the Cavs were a -7 in plus/minus.  Over the last three games, it is something obscene like a -30.  Which just shows how vital bench production is for this team.

Overall, that’s bad offensive basketball.  Sorry for writing about it again.  I can’t help it.

However…

1.  They had 19 assists and 40 points in the paint in the first three quarters.  There was driving and kicking, posting up and getting high percentage-type shots.  There should never be any qualms about giving Boobie Gibson spot up jumpers and I don’t even have a problem with plays being run to get Larry Hughes spot-up shots, not the off the dribble flings he often takes.  Shots off inside-out action is good offensive basketball.

2. LeBron is getting warm.  Over the last two weeks he’s showed some renewed intensity.  A couple of times tonight he actually seemed to get mad and just attack.  In those spots, he is quite often unguardable.  Just ask Hilton Armstrong.

3. The Cavs are vastly improved when they have their full complement of players.  This seems rather obvious.  But you can be sure they’ll need all of them Thursday in Dallas just to stay competitive.

Miami — So the Cavs lost here after a terrible offensive effort.  I simply refuse to go over all this old ground.  So I am going to do what I said I was going to do.  I will refer to this blog post and this story from December and move on the to the next game.  Oh, and, of course, the Cavs always remind me why I hate the jump shot.  Nothing I had to say back then is any different today.

I have seen this same game, over and over and over.  Then I’ve heard Mike Brown say he was going to watch the film over and over and over.  Then I’ve heard LeBron James say the team had good looks and they didn’t go down over and over and over.  Free-throwing shooting, 3-point chucking basketball.  Defense is good, but the rules require you to take the ball as well.

On other matters:
–Zydrunas Ilgauskas spoke to the media today about why he had to leave the team.  It was very difficult for me just to listen, I cannot imagine how hard it was for him and his wife to go through it.  They lost twins, a boy and a girl.  His wife, Jennifer, was about five months pregnant.  The Cavs officials let the media know what was going on awhile ago because they didn’t want anyone to think it was about basketball and we all, except for the Lithuanian media, respected those wishes.  It was Z’s decision today to talk about it.

In the preseason, Z joked with me at a game in Rochester that he needed to hurry up and have kids because "If I have a girl when she goes to senior prom I still want to be able to intimidate her date."  At the time he knew Jen was expecting but didn’t want to say a word.  When I found out later, I went up to congratulate him and he asked me not to tell anyone about it.  He was obviously cautious about it all.  As sportswriters, we are supposed to be like referees, icy islands of objectivity.  But when it comes to these matters, it is impossible not to be human, especially for a person who is as kind as big Z.  So as his voice was cracking as he told a few of us in the locker room before the game, I couldn’t help but experience a little welling in the eyes.

–The Cavs dearly miss…Sasha Pavlovic.  Did you ever think that would be the case?  Without him over the last two games, not only has Brown been forced to deploy David Wesley, but whenever James goes out of the game the offense gets really ugly because nobody is creating their own shot.  Before the game Brown said Sasha was so sick with the flu it was "…coming out of everywhere.  Both ends, his ears and his nose."  Gee, thanks for that, Mike.  Um, so Sasha is pretty sick.  Not sure about his status for Tuesday.

–On a brighter note, Bob Finnan of the Willoughby News-Herald delivered perhaps the line of the year for us media-types today.  As we walked into AmericanAirlines Arena there was a noticeable foul odor.  Finnan’s line: "Either the circus was just here or Shaq got some bad shellfish."

The Cavs were unable to make a trade by today’s deadline.  I am told by sources that general manager Danny Ferry and his staff worked like crazy for days trying to get something done.  They had three and four-team packages lined up, huge chucks of players moving here and there in an effort to get Sacramento to bite and deliver Mike Bibby.  It just didn’t work.

Three-team trades are hard to work out with unlimited time, much less with hours to spare.  Everything gets very complex in these deals.  Perhaps the Cavs have have laid the foundation for a big deal down the line, maybe this summer, but it didn’t come today.

In the end, it was about Kings GM Geoff Petrie refusing to budge off his wish list, which was lots of expiring dollars and picks along with a big man like Drew Gooden.  And Petrie shouldn’t, Bibby is a valuable player and he shouldn’t make a deal unless he’s 100 percent sold on it.  That’s why he has a rep as an excellent GM.

As for the Cavs, I am told they tried everything in the book and tossed all their players except for LeBron into the mix to various teams.  It seems Phoenix, who was just desperate to get rid of Marcus Banks, was in it until the end.  But the Kings didn’t want Banks and neither did the Cavs so nothing happened.

Didn’t go it to Toronto tonight, my first missed game of the season.  But this was no off day, I was working the phones hard.  I talked to several organizations and it has become clear the Cavs are going all out as to land Mike Bibby.

In my past dealings with Danny Ferry, I found him to be very calculating and cautious.  He didn’t want to make a trade unless he was pretty sure he was going to win it.  That is the Spurs way.  With the Eastern Conference faltering this season and with all sorts of signs that the Kings really just want to rid themselves of Bibby, it seems Ferry has changed his tune.  He’s willing to make a risky move if he thinks it will make the Cavs contenders.  And apparently, he’s got Dan Gilbert’s backing.

Getting Bibby might slam the Cavs into the luxury tax this season and deep into the tax next year.  But there’s no doubt the green light has been given.  As I’ve written on numerous occasions, the Kings want Gooden and cap relief. From the people I talked to today, they also want a point guard too.  Ferry has been working on it as hard as he can, but so far hasn’t been able to get the Kings to bite.

I think the ball is really in Sac’s court, they are making this trade to start to rebuild and rid themselves of Bibby and his contract.  It will come to them to bend probably.

One thing that is very important here is that Bibby can opt out of his deal in the offseason.  Though he might not because he’s making big dollars.  A huge factor is that Bibby’s agent is David Falk, the guy who landed Ferry a 10-year deal back in the day.  Trust that Ferry and Falk have talked about it a lot and obviously have a lot of trust built with each other and I’m sure the sides have an understanding about what Bibby’s intentions are.

Even if this doesn’t get done, remember two things: 1. Ferry worked hard to make a major deal.  2. This might very well get done next summer.

On the Toronto game:

–It was a super quality win, the second in-a-row and the Cavs did it with defense and scrappy play.
–Anderson Varejao and Eric Snow get gold stars for the second straight game.  These guys have been just as important as Sasha Pavlovic and LeBron in this blitz of seven wins in 10 games.  Snow made all sorts of plays that didn’t show up in the stats, including driving and drawing defenders and some great defensive plays.  What can be said about Varejao, he’s playing some of the best ball of his career when the Cavs really need it.
–LeBron and Chris Bosh were both guilty of taking some bad shot down the stretch, but the Cavs supporting cast was better.  That is a positive sign because the Raptors have a quality team and the Cavs were on the road and not at full strength.
–This game and tomorrow’s against the Bulls are important because there are tiebreakers at stake for playoff seeding.
–Larry Hughes average for bad shots in a game is like at 5 these days.
–Mike Brown may be calling fewer plays, which makes the Cavs feel better about themselves after they erred in calling out their coach publicly, but it is the defense that he’s instilled that has carried things for most of this run. 

Vegas — Here’s an idea for the next time the NBA comes to LVNV for the
All-Star Game, and we all know it will happen.  Play the game on
Friday.  After three days in Vegas, the players didn’t seem to have
much energy left to actually play the game tonight.  After all this
flash and dash, the turnoverfest/blowout was a letdown.  Most All-Star
Games are, this one especially so since it was supposed to be "special."

LeBron James had a good game.  He had 28 points, six and six.  He made
4-of-6 3s and you want to know why?  Because he wasn’t double-teamed
shooting a fallaway at the end of the shot clock.  He took 20 shots and
played 32 minutes, which is an awful lot.  But he got the most votes so
I guess people want to see him play a lot.

Kobe Bryant wanted the MVP
bad, after all this is after all his "restoration year" as he’s "showing he’s a
team player" and doing a bunch of positive PR gigs.  But it would’ve
been nice to yield to Amare Stoudemire and let him win, that’s a real
comeback story.  Instead Kobe was all about getting his down the
stretch.  Oh well.

Here’s what I was paying attention to:
–Wayne Newton is made of plastic.  I haven’t seen so much cosmetic
surgery since I saw Chubby Checker earlier this year doing the twist at
some game.  Somewhere backstage there had to be a can of orange paint (head), a can of black spray paint (hair), and a table full of those teeth-whitening strips.
–The Pistons’ announcer John "Mace" Mason should be signed to a
long-term contract to do the PA at these things.  I know some people hate
his style, but I think he’s great.
–LeBron has always flashed that Jay-Z "Dynasty" symbol when being
introduced at All-Star Games.  This time he tossed in holding up four
fingers for the "Four Horsemen."  Even though they don’t want to be
called that anymore.  They all wear suits now and want to be known as a
corporation.
–Speaking of, when LeBron first did the Jay-Z thing a few years ago in
Denver and I wrote about it, a guy e-mailed me all upset and said he
was making an "A" for Akron.  Um, no.
–I feel bad for all those people who paid all that cash to go to LeBron’s parties this week.  His bump-and-grind with Shaq at practice Saturday was more entertaining than anything you’d see at a club.  Plus, it was free to the fans.
–Damon Jones was crestfallen he didn’t win the 3-Point contest.  He acted like his dog had died afterward on Saturday.  I was hanging out with Donyell Marshall and he told me he hadn’t seen Damon so nervous since before Game 7 of the Pistons series last year.  It showed, instead of being all flashy and funny, he was all serious before.  Hey, no one was beating Jason Kapono.  I knew it a week ago.
–Hey, there was a scandal in the 3-point contest that no one noticed.  The colored "money ball" they used for last shot in each rack the was one of those discarded synthetic balls!  If I were Damon, I’d demand a re-shoot on those grounds alone.
–So I’m checking out all the celebs sitting courtside.  There’s Adam Sandler, Eva Longoria, the chick from Grey’s Anatomy, the Governator, Steve Carell from The Office, Jay-Z himself, Beyonce herself, Jeremy Piven from Entourage, and…Harold Ramis?   I mean, listen, I was a Ghostbusters fan as a kid.  Well, Ghostbusters I.  And the cartoon when they made "Slimer" a friendly ghost was an after school staple.  And who doesn’t love Egon in general, but even he was shocked he was down there.  I mean, next year in New Orleans is Rick Moranis going to be rubbing elbows with Cedric the Entertainer?
–On that subject, how is Chris Tucker down there every year.  He hasn’t made a movie in like five years.  I guess he’s making Rush Hour 3 now, or at least that’s what he said when they interviewed him during one of the timeouts.  I hope they send Jackie Chan to Wayne Newton’s guy before the filming starts.
–Ludacris was sitting next to Prince.  What do you suppose those guys were talking about?  Their selection process for going to one name.  (By the way, English comic Eddie Izzard’s rendition of how Englebert Humperdink picked his name is priceless if you’ve ever seen it).  Or perhaps Prince was avoiding Carlos Boozer, who was across the court.  In case you don’t remember, Boozy and wife weren’t too pleased with Prince the tenant.  Maybe that’s why Prince left early.
–There were so many private jets at McCarron Airport today that they were almost parked in the street.
–E-mail from close friend at halftime…"Wasn’t Toni Braxton popular like 12 years ago."   Ouch.
–How many times do I have to hear the question asked to a player/coach/NBA official/celeb:  "Do you think Las Vegas could be an NBA city?  Heard enough of that politically correct stuff already.  Someone asked Kobe after he won the MVP.  It’s like these rock-headed TV folks who hustle up to an All-Star and ask:  Are you excited to be here?  No, they’re not excited, they’d rather be in Mexico, where everything, and I mean everything, is cheaper.

OK, it’s almost time to get out of here.  I am a fan of Vegas, but this weekend it hasn’t been much fun because of all the people jammed in.  That and a blackjack dealer who beat my 20s three straight times.  Are you kidding me!

Vegas — Let me start with this: I haven’t seen so many skintight, short pieces of clothing since I was forced to cover two days of the state wrestling tournament as a newbie sportswriter.

This is only the start of the All-Star Weekend here and it is already living up to its billing.  Overcrowded, over-hyped and overpriced.  Which is the American way of saying a great time, I guess.  The casinos are jammed, wall-to-wall people in some areas.  You can’t get a cab to save your life but the city planners did smartly install a huge new parking lot to handle all the traffic.  It is called Las Vegas Blvd.

There are parties going on everywhere.  There must be dozens of them and most have an All-Star’s or other player’s name attached.  LeBron James has like three going on at once, Dwyane Wade had one Thursday night where there was apparently a fight between a rap star’s posse and security guards.  Shaq has one, Allen Iverson, and so on and and so on.  From what I can tell, you have to pay between $100-$300 to to be seen, get your ears blown out and wave to the NBA guy when he decides to walk through for 15 minutes.  No wonder these players love the All-Star Game here, it’s a license to print money.

But there’s no shortage of takers and no shortage of fakers.  The people watching here is unreal.  Women by the gross are walking gingerly all over the Strip.  Wearing skirts and jeans two sizes too small and four-inch heels, they have no choice.  The guys are all wearing sunglasses and sparkly stuff and trying to run game.

Then there’s the general freak show.  Some very interesting fashion decisions being made.  I even saw an Elvis impersonator who was a dead ringer for Roy Orbision.  And folks, I’ve only been here for one night.

The tables are full and the stakes up.  If you wanted to roll dice at the mid-Strip casinos around midnight Friday, it was going to be a minimum of $100.  A hand of blackjack?  $50 if you were lucky.  Those were at the riff raff tables, too.  The casinos are going to have a big weekend.  Over at Wynn and The Palms, where the players are staying, the 1k and 5k chips are flowing like nickels and dimes.

What a scene.  And it’s only going to get more crazy over the next couple of days.  Basketball?  I’m sorry, no one can be bothered with it right now.

Los Angeles — It is almost 2:45 a.m. back in Cleveland.  My guess is most fans didn’t get to see the Cavs finish off a 114-108 win over the Lakers tonight at the Staples Center.  Enjoy the highlights, they will be all over the place tomorrow.  Here are some of my thoughts.

–This was a nice, quality win for the Cavs that they gutted out.  Easily could’ve won in Miami and in Salt Lake the same way.  The fact that they played well all three places perhaps bodes well for them in the future.  Nine games over .500 at the break is not bad, they have the No. 2 seed.  If they have that at the end of the season, no matter the record, it will be deemed a successful year.  Long way to go, though.

–If LeBron James played to 75 percent of this level 60 percent of the time, he’d win the MVP award.  The 38 points is nice, the 10 in the fourth is better, the 18-of-22 at the line is brilliant.  Now, he got some calls tonight he doesn’t get other nights.  But his willingness to drive and find lanes, even against Kobe Bryant, showed how dominant he can be.  He backed down a bunch of guys tonight and that only makes him stronger.  He played an A-plus game and won it for the Cavs.  That is how he played at the end of last season.

–Sasha Pavlovic was great down the stretch.  Not just with his big 3 late, but he was strong when LeBron was resting as well.  His 11 points and Donyell Marshall’s 11 were just as vital as LeBron’s.

–Eric Snow gets a gold star with 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists.  He won’t do this every night but it shows what it means when LeBron doesn’t have to spend so much time at point guard.   Again, having one would make such a major difference on this team.

–Andy Varejao makes two starts, plays 38 minutes in both, stays out of foul trouble, makes free throws and gets 28 rebounds.  If I were his agent, I’d make copies of these two games and prepare to send them out.

–Following my ongoing theme of the season, allow me to point out the Cavs had 50 points in the paint.  This is how you win games, folks.

–In the final minutes when Kobe was guarding LeBron and he got the ball and was matched up with him, you could sense a heightened attention in the building.  There were some great battles between the two and on this night, LeBron got the better of them.  Kobe hit a couple great shots, but then he always does.  LeBron gets the nod in this one, just as Kobe individually probably outplayed him last Sunday.

–In my first three years covering the Cavs, I never saw them win a game in the Staples Center.  Now they have two wins in a month and they went 4-0 against the L.A. teams this season.  It’s too late for me to look that up, but I gotta believe if it isn’t a first in franchise history, it hasn’t happened in a while.

Also, off topic, the issue of whether an openly gay player could peacefully play in the modern NBA is obviously in the news these days.  With everyone doing issue stories at the All-Star Game, I’m sure there will be a lot of talk about it over the weekend.  Regularly spending time in NBA locker rooms, I say that time has not yet arrived and I will give you two moments from Thursday night that illustrate what I mean.

Before the game, LeBron was asked who would win the planned race between Charles Barkley and referee Dick Bavetta scheduled for Saturday night.  LeBron said:  "I’ll take Dick in that race."  As soon as the interview ended, James’ teammates started teasing him about the comment.  After the game for some reason both doors leading to the visitor’s locker room were propped open, which meant there was a view right into the shower area from the arena tunnel.  One Cav, emerging from the steam, looked and saw he was visible to passersby and asked that the doors be closed.  Then he said "I don’t know if Amaechi’s out there or not."

Look, it’s all locker room banter and there was plenty of laughter everywhere.  I’m not a prude or a  defender of social justice, I laugh at jokes.  But my point is that is standard fare in the NBA every single day.  And it seems like it is a long way from being tolerant or changing from my vantage point.  And I don’t need Tim Hardaway to tell me that.

OK, I’m off to Vegas with almost no sleep.  I’ll be writing plenty from there, but I can’t promise coherence.

Salt Lake City — Thoughts following the Cavs 99-98 loss here tonight:

–I didn’t even look at a replay to see if Sasha Pavlovic was fouled on the last play.  It doesn’t matter and I don’t care.  In short, if the Cavs had gotten the rebound, they could’ve called timeout and set up a play with at least 3 seconds left.  Secondly, it didn’t come down to that.
–The Cavs lost the game because they allowed the Jazz to shoot 61 percent in the fourth quarter.  Yes they had some terrible possessions in the middle of that Jazz run, but 98 points and 26 in the fourth is enough to win.
–Deron Williams is so amazingly quick for a guy his size.  This was one of the best games of his career, so it is hard to judge him on this alone.  He has amazing talent.  I know he’s pissed he’s not in the All-Star Game, but he’ll be in many in the future.
–Anderson Varejao had a really good game in place of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, 17 rebounds and nine points.  But he was outplayed down the stretch by Paul Millsap.  He played 38 minutes, maybe he was a little tired.
–Those of you who come here often know I usually support big Z and I put a strong faith in points in the paint.  Without Z tonight the Cavs lost that battle 46-28.  You can’t win that way.  They had 21 offensive rebounds but got baskets on just eight of them.
–The 19 points in the first half from Larry Hughes didn’t make an impression, he was shooting jumpers.  But those 14 points in the fourth impressed the heck out of me because he was driving and getting to the basket.  He was 10-of-10 at the line.  Over the last six games, he’d taken just eight free throws.  That is the Hughes the Cavs need.
–The Jazz are good.  They’ve won six in a row and they’re 21-6 at home.  This isn’t a bad loss.  The problem is when you look at the loss in Miami and other losses like at Seattle, at New Jersey, at New Orleans, at Toronto, at Indiana.  The Cavs have to at least split those types of games to be a legit contender.  Which is why they’re not yet.
–LeBron on the loss: "We have nothing to be disappointed about tonight, we had our chances to win and we didn’t."  So if you had chances and you didn’t win, why exactly isn’t that disappointing?
–Daniel Gibson hurt his toe pretty bad in the second quarter.  I’d be surprised if he played against the Lakers and he might be out a bit.  Eric Snow wasn’t great when asked to play nearly 30 minutes.
–What has happened to Damon Jones?  Mike Brown went to David Wesley instead of him in the second half.  I’m sure he’s not at all pleased.
–Sasha was complaining in the locker room after the game about the traveling call he got late.  Seemed blatant to me.
–On another note, Gilbert Arenas took a little slap at LeBron the other day.  He basically said LeBron  doesn’t want to take final shots.  Before the game, LeBron denied hearing about it, even though it was on all the major jump sites.  Yet he seemed awfully glad I asked because he had a ready-made answer: "I made two game-winners in the playoffs against him and knocked him out of the playoffs," James said.  "I don’t understand where he gets that from, that doesn’t make sense to me."  Well, Gilbert may have a point, but if I were him I’d keep my mouth closed on the matter for at least the next few years after what happened last year.

On a personal note…
It was a miracle I was able to make it here to Salt Lake.  I took off from Cleveland yesterday at about 6 p.m. in weather I sure as heck wouldn’t drive in, much less try to get a 737 airborne in.  They had to put so much de-icing junk on the wings that they were green.  It was a long, tough day because I changed planes in Denver and there was a snowstorm there as well.

After getting in to SLC around midnight, hours late, I had 15 minutes to kill waiting for my ride.  So I did one of my favorite things.  I sat right where people emerge from the concourse to the baggage claim and waiting family and friends.  This is people watching at its finest, it’s better than American Idol.

In the short time I was there, I observed grandparents meeting their newborn grandson for the first time.  I saw a bleary-eyed and very nervous boyfriend meet his girlfriend’s parents for the first time.  He was too nervous to kiss her on the lips even though it was obvious he hadn’t seen her in awhile.  There was a solider returning from Iraq with just his mother waiting for him, their silent and tearful embrace was riveting.  As a side note, I find soldiers leaving and coming home one of the most compassionate sights I see and I see it all the time at airports.  Usually very moving stuff.

At center stage, though, was a guy about 20 years old with flowers.  He was standing way at the front and everybody was watching him from behind.  He had such a look of anticipation on his facing and he repeatedly stretched his neck to see those coming out of the tunnel.  Nervously looking back-and-forth to the flight monitor, he must’ve been there quite some time waiting.  Most of the women who saw him as they emerged smiled and whispered to friends with the word "cute" always included.

All the people behind him were half looking for their loved ones, half watching this young guy.  After quite some time, his girlfriend finally emerged and was instantly embarrassed.  When he hugged her there was an audible sight from the crowd and even a clap or two.

Call me sappy, but it is moments like these that make all the time on the road more tolerable.

3:34 p.m. — Welcome to the live blog.  All the hugging and kissing and hand slapping is going on.  When ABC deems fit, we’ll start.

3:41 p.m. — Lakers 14, Cavs 7.  Last two games Vladimir Radmanovic had two points total.  Plus his coach called him out and said he basically sucks right now.  But already seven points and four boards.  After the 3-pointer bounced in one of the Lakers beat writers suggested they stop the game and give him the ball.  I say wait until he gets to the double-double at the quarter break

Also…Z gets a lob from Larry Hughes and gets free in the lane.  Why not dunk it?  Joey Crawford is reffing.  Keep in mind that he dislikes Mike Brown. Speaking of the coach, think he’s happy with the defensive effort so far?  Lakers are on the 14th day of road trip and it’s 20 degrees.  But they look like they intend to play.

3:50 p.m. — Lakers 18, Cavs 13.  Drew Gooden is skipping, which means he’s got energy.  He has five rebounds already.  Also LeBron is trying to attack the basket, but the Lakers are basically employing a zone against him by packing the lane.  He can complain about not getting calls all he wants, but you don’t get calls going 1-on-3.

Also…I don’t believe Donyell Marshall can defend Andrew Bynum, sorry…On the scoreboard Damon Jones just said his home town of Galveston is known for dirty water.

4:01 p.m. — End of the first quarter Cavs 24, Lakers 23.  The Cavs are aggressively attacking the rim and it is a good sign.  The Lakers have been switching on pick-and-rolls and blitzing against James, which is something I think the Cavs can take advantage of.  Especially if they use LeBron and Andy Varejao in high screen rolls.  Sasha has gone to the basket a couple of times already, that puts enormous pressure on the defense because the opponents want to set up their defense to get ready for James drives from the other side of the floor.

Also…Notice the Lakers went right to Kobe Bryant when Eric Snow was subbed in for Larry Hughes.  I believe the Lakers consider that a weakness.

4:11 p.m. — Cavs 33, Lakers 27.  Sasha is playing well again today and right now he’s really battling with Maurice Evans.  Evans is a pesky defender that tends to get under other players’ skin.  The reason Phil Jackson has him on Sasha is to try and slow him down.  But his penetration has been very good thus far as he had a very nice assist to Z a few minutes ago.  But he has two fouls now, so he may sit.

Also…Donyell Marshall’s 4-point play was the Cavs first of the season…The Cavs have eight fastbreak points already.

4:20 p.m. — Cavs 39, Lakers 32.  Eric Snow is doing a pretty solid job on Kobe Bryant, not that the game is even close to being over of course.  Cavs have continue to attack the basket and they are finding lanes and it is the reason they are winning.  They have 20 points in the paint already and are shooting 50 percent.  That is good basketball.  Right now Jackson had Kobe on LeBron and it is a good matchup.  LeBron burned him on that backdoor play a few moment ago for the dunk.  But watch out, VladRad is back in the game.

4:27 p.m. — Cavs 46, Lakers 40.  It is as times like these when I wonder what Larry Hughes is thinking.  He makes a terrible pass the leads to a dunk at the other end and then take two bad, contested 3-point shots.  I know that he made the second one, but why?  Hughes has been driving as have the Cavs in this game, why chuck 3’s when the Lakers are on a run.  And speaking of bad jumpers, why is Z taking 20-footers from the corner.  That’s outside his range.  He’s been able to score on Bynum on the block and receiving entry passes off drives, so stick with it.  But he does have nine shots already, so that is good.  Marshall had nine points in seven minutes but hasn’t been back on the floor.  My guess is because Brown is concerned about him on defense against Lamar Odom or Bynum.

4:40 p.m. — Halftime.  Cavs 52, Lakers 41.  Well, the Cavs were on a nice little 9-0 run before screwing up the last 10 seconds of the half.   By the way, Kobe’s defense on LeBron was great there.  All in all, though, it was an excellent half because the Cavs played smart offense and solid defense.  They shot 51 percent and got 26 points in the paint.  They held the Lakers to just 42 percent shooting and got them to put up 11 3-pointers, of which they just made two.

The willingness to not take contested jumpers and instead drive — you can really see it in LeBron, Gibson and Sasha — is leading to a Renaissance of the Cavs’ offense, not any sort of running at this point.  When more guys than LeBron drive, as I mentioned before, it really requires the opposition to be very sound.  And since Gibson, Sasha, and LeBron are good at finishing and Ilgauskas, Varejao and Gooden are good offensive rebounds, it is very effective.  The Cavs also have 12 second-chance points to the Lakers’ 3.

Snow played the last 15 minutes of the half and held Kobe to 3-of-8 shooting in that stretch.  It may not last, but he won’t let Kobe by him and will make him make those fallaway jumpers.  Which he’s great at, but they aren’t easy.  If it wasn’t for Radmanovic, the Lakers would be down by about 20 by now.  Odom hasn’t been a factor and Smush Parker and Bryan Cook haven’t been able to hit an open jumper.  My guess is in the second half Kobe will get it going and the Lakers will make some of those open jumpers so the Cavs will really have to be tight on defense.  But right now they are winning because they are shooting layups and the Lakers are taking jumpers.

LeBron’s 3/4 court shot was about .2 seconds too late.  That’s the third game in a row the Cavs have made a 3-pointer at the end of quarter get called off and it’s been close enough to look at the video.

5:04 p.m. — Cavs 56, Lakers 50.  From the first few seconds on of the third quarter, you could see Kobe had borught out a new gear in the second half.  He was all over Hughes defensively and then went right to the rack on the first possession.  This is the Lakers’ attempt at making this a game because if they can’t draw close in the fourth it is time to think about home.  But so far they have succedded.  They have been the aggressive everywhere and it has earned them foul calls.  The Cavs have five and the Lakers none.  The Cavs need to pick up the pace and quell the uprising now or it is going to be a barnburner.

Kobe already has six points in the quarter, we’ll see if Mike Brown is tempted to put Eric Snow back in.  Also, to increase the energy I expect Sasha to be out on the floor after the timeout.

5:14 p.m. — Cavs 61, Lakers 54.  The Cavs are hanging on because they’ve been able to get some defensive stops.  The Lakers have made some adjustments and are packing the paint to deter drives.  The Cavs need to take some measures to open some lanes like back doors or running high screen rolls with the floor spread.  The Lakers are in four trouble as Bynum has four.  They have no quality backup bigs, the Cavs should be driving and pounding the ball to Gooden or Z inside to put pressure on the Lakers and the officials, who have noticed the foul differential.

Mike Brown has three technical fouls on this homestand, I think.  Dude is getting testy.  It is funny to watch him try to get them, the officials know he’s not a hothead so he’s basically got to run out on the block to get a whistle.

5:26 p.m. — End of the third quarter.  Lakers 67, Cavs 64.  The Lakers closed the 3rd in a 13-3 run to take the lead.  The Cavs offense has let the Lakers right back into the game.  They did not keep up their attacking from the first half.  As far as I can tell, all LeBron (who didn’t score in the qtr.) did for the last half hour was dribble and take bad jumpers.  How about this stat…The cavs were 4-of-24 shooting in the quarter.  Like that?

When he did go to the basket he tried to lay it up.  Got to dunk that thing.  The Cavs scored just six points in the paint in the third and two of those baskets came on putbacks.  That is just not going to get it done.  Their defense has been pretty good, the Lakers are shooting just 39 percent and were just 6-of-18 in the third, but that old offense is letting them down again.

What they’ve done is give Kobe clearance to beat them by himself in the fourth, which he always does to teams.  Which he will try to do.  We’ll see if LeBron rises to the challenge here.  Recent history makes me wonder what will happen.

By the way, no complaining about the refs, the aggressive team is getting the calls.

5:35 p.m. — Cavs 72, Lakers 69, 8:58 to play.  Sasha is guard Kobe and doing a solid job.  He’s also driving the ball, which has already made a big difference just as much as his 3-pointer to start the quarter.  Snow is playing great defense, he’s proved valuable today.  The Cavs are going to Z to pressure Bynum and it is working right now.  The Lakers are now the ones settling for jumpers, if this trend continues the Cavs will win.  Especially if they continue to make Kobe work.  We’ll see, the biggest challenge will be to continue to execute on offense.  They have to work to get high percentage shots and fouls.  If they don’t they can’t sustain because Kobe will make his share no matter what.

5:43 p.m. — Lakers 77, Cavs 74, 5:42 to play.  This is what Kobe does, he makes great plays and tough shots in the fourth quarter.  But the Cavs are helping and recovering on defense very well.  It is their offense that is killing them, they have just 25 points in the second half.  Again their Achilles is biting them badly.  Kobe is getting the headlines and he should, he’s great and had scored the last 10 points.  But he’s not beating them, they’ve given up 77 points and 40 percent shooting.  Meanwhile LeBron is taking bad jumpers.  Some of it is the Lakers D, much of it is the Cavs bad offense.

5:55 p.m. — Cavs 83, Lakers 81, 2:59 to play.  Sasha Pavlovic is the Cavs MVP today.  I can’t even put into words what his contributions have meant to the team effort.  If Kobe is going to make twisting jumpers over hands then he’s going to, you can’t foul him on jumpers.  This has not been a good day for LeBron, he’s been outclassed again on national TV.  It will get worse if he misses these two free throws.  Cavs are battling, but they are in Kobe’s wheelhouse.

6 p.m. — Cavs 90, Lakers 85.  Anderson Varejao must’ve gone to chruch this morning, making that jumper.  At least LeBron has been able to make key passes to keep the Cavs ahead.

6:06 p.m. — Final, Cavs 99, Lakers 90.  This was an ugly victory, but it a still a good one.  Varejao and Pavlovic were massive in the game.  For the Cavs to win a game like this without getting a huge effort from anyone in the starting lineup is remarkable.  It is somewhat sad, but remarkable nonetheless.  LeBron was guilty of a lot of things in this one, especially plenty of bad offensive possessions in the second half.  But he did make some plays in the end and made 3-of-4 free throws when they were badly needed.  He also had 18 points and eight rebounds and five assists. But make no mistake, he’s still off his game and that is somewhat disturbing.

Sasha had 21 points and played his heart out on defense.  He’s turning me into a believer.  Andy had 12 points and six rebounds and was huge in the fourth quarter.

Overall, the Cavs defense probably gets the most credit for the victory.  It held the Lakers to less than 40 percent shooting and made it generally tough for Kobe.  He got his 36 points, but not a win.  Although, Mike Brown again was a little late in calling for a double team.  Not unlike that loss in Miami with DWade going crazy.  This is how the Cavs are going to win, they are going to do it with defense.  They played great defense on this homestand and went 4-1, which is what they really needed.

Thanks for joining the blog.  Much more to come, of course.