Auburn Hills, Mich. — The Cavs have won nine of their last 13 games including what is probably their biggest win of the season over the Pistons.  The victory in San Antonio was just as impressive, but obviously any game against the Pistons carries more weight.  Of those four losses, one was in Utah by a point, one was in Dallas by three points and one was in Miami by five.  Five of the wins are over teams with winning records.  What I’m saying is, that is a pretty good run of basketball.

Here’s some observations:

–LeBron’s aggression against the Pistons was, of course, instrumental.  When he goes to the basket with space, he is unstoppable.  What was more impressive to me was his patience.  When the Pistons set up their defense he didn’t just dribble and then hoist up a long shot as he did so much earlier in the year.  He waited for plays to develop, read the defense, and picked his spots.  The last two baskets of regulation illustrate this.  On the first he took advantage of Tayshaun Prince favoring his right side by using a spin move to the left.  On the second with five seconds to play, he baited Prince and Rasheed Wallace as Anderson Varejao came to set a pick to the left.  Prince took one step to his right to prepare to defend the pick and LeBron exploited it by dashing the opposite direction for the easy dunk.  He used the Pistons system against them and that is massive growth.
–LeBron easily finished around the rim whenever he got space to drive all night.  This is a major difference from last season.  To me, Ben Wallace’s absence is glaring in these situations, there is no safety net if LeBron beats the perimeter defender.
–The Cavs had 56 points in the paint tonight and 14 in the fourth quarter.  This is the type of offense needed to win these games.  It seems that is finally getting through to the gents.
–For all his "just the next team on our schedule" nonsense, seeing Mike Brown’s emotional reactions to close calls showed just how much he cared about the game.  After Brown was hit with a technical for arguing with the officials, Damon Jones came over to calm him down.  He pretty much told Damon to get out of his face.  He was wound pretty tight tonight.
–It was like a playoff game, both teams badly wanted to win and each team had about a dozen high pressure possessions at the end.  Also, Brown played just eight players.  In the playoffs, so the saying goes, you play eight and trust seven.
–The Pistons, who I have often said are too much of a jump shot team for my taste, really punished the Cavs for putting Larry Hughes and Sasha Pavlovic out there to defending Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton.  Sasha played as hard as he could, he just can’t stay with Rip.  Eric Snow was serviceable, but Hughes couldn’t keep Billups in front of him.  This makes the Pistons a much more dynamic offensive team.  Billups will kill them because he’ll make the right pass when the Cavs bring help in the middle.  This could be an issue in the playoffs.  In the end, the Pistons started shooting jumpers instead of working inside to Chris Webber and Rasheed Wallace.  This is why they couldn’t score down the stretch, when they shoot jumpers they are vulnerable…just like the Cavs.
–Lots of fans have complained that the Cavs are too friendly with the Pistons, warmly embracing each other and the like.  Tonight, there wasn’t much of that at all until it was over.  Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Rasheed Wallace didn’t exchange as much as a glance before the game at the jump ball.  Drew Gooden was talking smack with ‘Sheed during the game, tell him to "shut the (blank) up" at one point.  Still hugs after the game, but there was serious intensity out there.
–Could someone, anyone, please explain to me that double foul call?  I’ve seen two players called for loose ball fouls at the same time, that is very possible.  And, of course, double technicals.  But how can anyone call a block and a charge on the same play.  It is impossible, it must be one or the other.  That’s why those are call block/charge calls not block & charge calls.  If the officials disagreed, then get together and decide on a call.   Am I wrong?
–If you have a moment or two, check out my weekly column from last week on why I believe LeBron is back.

Every season there are going to be a certain number of nights when an NBA team isn’t going to lose and those it isn’t going to win.   Tonight was one of the positive nights for the Cavs.  They had a tired Toronto team missing two key players and they handled them.  I would not take anything that happened too seriously.  Before it’s over, the Cavs will have a night when they are on the other end.

Anyway, here’s some stuff:

–I’d say 10-14 days on Boobie Gibson’s toe is conservative.  It sounds to me like the MRI scared the Cavs a little bit because the swelling was worse than last time.  They don’t want to mess around.  Over the years, I’d learned a few things on basketball injuries.  When it comes to feet and ankles, timeframes to return are always approximate.
–The Cavs did a pretty good job handling T.J. Ford tonight.  I thought he might kill them with Larry Hughes, LeBron and Sasha on the floor.  But the bigs did good job of showing on the pick-and-rolls and all the Raptors were more interested in taking jumpers.
–Got news for everyone, Hughes has been playing point guard for weeks now.  Though he may not call it that.  So this move without Gibson isn’t drastic.  The bigger adjustment is using a very big and slower lineup at the other end.  The Cavs might be starting the biggest lineup in the NBA now with 6-5 and 6-7 guards, 6-8 and 6-10 forwards, and a 7-3 center.  I expect teams to maybe press the Cavs a little more and perhaps try to take advantage of quickness.
–The Cavs’ focus again was pretty strong tonight and so was their willingness to take the ball to the basket, which is why they got 34 free throws.  They scored 120 points because they made 12 3’s, but they did it without shooting a high percentage overall.  This is because of the free throws, which come from driving.  If this keeps up, they should continue to win.
–LeBron is averaging 33 points over his last seven games.  He’s returning to the level of last year.  Not only that, he’s diving on the floor and continuing to attack.  You can see the rest of the team follow his lead in that regard.
–Shannon Brown was packed for five games in the D-League when he left for Dallas last week.  Then with Damon Jones and Hughes out and Sasha Pavlovic in foul trouble, Mike Brown had no choice but to play Shannon against the Mavs.  He hadn’t played meaningful minutes in like two months, but he played maybe his best minutes this season in that tight spot.  It impressed the coaches so much that he’s now going to be in the rotation, as far as I can tell.  This is his chance, we’ll see if he takes advantage.  He played well tonight, but as I said, I’m not paying that much attention to what happened in this game.
–Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Drew Gooden are out of it right now, the Cavs have been saved by Donyell Marshall and Anderson Varejao over the last two.
–Interesting how this orange fad as caught on.  Joe Tait was telling us tonight that when they team first wore those unis in the 1980s, the players hated them.  As Tait said:  "The players thought we looked like second-rate movers."

Dallas — That is the LeBron James that I know and have watched grow into a man for the last eight years.  It is that LeBron that I thought would win the MVP Award this season.  It is that LeBron that is virtually unstoppable, more unstoppable that Dirk Nowitzki’s fallaway jumpers.   This was much like the Lakers game, where he totally kicked into a gear few can match.  Considering he’s maintained that high level pretty much since that game in L.A., I believe he may actually be catching a stride that could duplicate last year’s run.

As critical as I’ve been of the Cavs over the last month, I couldn’t have been more impressed by their focus and their drive in this loss.  The missed free throws were huge, in fact they might’ve directly cost the Cavs the game.  But it has become pretty obvious that isn’t going to improve.  What can improve is the Cavs’ focus and their willingness to play smart, efficient and aggressive offense.  Playing at even 75 percent of this level on offense, I’d bet they’d play .700 basketball the rest of the way in.  Of course I have no idea whether or not they’ll keep it up.  I wouldn’t bet either way,. However, I was extremely impressed.

Here’s some short bites:
–The Cavs had 46 points in the paint, 18 in the fourth quarter.  Eighteen!  I don’t have the stats in front of me right now, but I’d bet that is a season high for the fourth.  This is the sort of style they’ve needed to play all year, or at least the style I’ve been ripping them for not playing.
–As I look back, I think they maybe only took five bad shots all night.  You can make a joke about whether it was because Larry Hughes was out sick, but the way the focus was tonight I think Hughes would’ve fallen right in line and there’s no reason he can’t for most of the rest of the way.
–As a side note, I saw Larry after the game and he looked terrible.  He could barely walk.  Don’t bet on seeing him Saturday.  He’s probably in for a very unpleasant 48 hours or so.
–Having to play David Wesley and Eric Snow together hurt the Cavs in the fourth.  That group was great on defense, working their tails off.  But both Snow and Wesley, who had an uncontested layup blocked by the gray foam on the bottom of the backboard, fouled up fastbreaks.  Shannon Brown was well in emergency minutes, but you really don’t want him out there either.
–LeBron did a solid job on Dirk on defense in the last five minutes.  He was getting help, but he used his strength to battle him out of his post comfort zone.
-Avery Johnson said the Mavs tried three or four different defensive looks at LeBron and he smashed all of them.  Like I said, unguardable.  Then again, so is Dirk, especially with talent around him he can pass to.
–Zydrunas Ilgauskas played skittish.  Drew Gooden rebounded OK but overall wasn’t good either.  In the first half letting themselves be dominated on the defensive glass and by DeSagana Diop was a major blow to the chances.  It is one thing for Z to have an off night, it is another when he looked afraid to even shoot.
–Daniel Gibson got called for three travels in the first half.  That might tie an NBA record.
–Official Bob Delaney knew he was on television and wearing a mic.  He was chatting up everybody.  Once he came over to Joe Tait and told him about how he slicks down his hair: "Gel, hair spray, then more gel."  He joked about how he has to keep his shoes tied tight because "I’m moving so fast out there."  Then he told Damon Jones, and his pink jacket and purple shirt:  "After you retire, we’ve got to hang out together."  Appropriate, those are the color clothes retirees wear.