- So what took them so long? Mike Brown got the Coach of the Year award in the NBA, formally known as the Red Auerbach Trophy, today in the worst kept secret in post-season awards history. But what took them so long? He’s taken the Cavs to the playoffs in each season he’s been here and they went to The Finals two years ago. There’s paying dues and then there’s ridiculous.

LeBron James came up with a reasonable explanation for that - his presence has handicapped Brown in some respects.   As weird as it sounds, it’s very possible.

I think it was the main reason. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that we still have to go out there and play for him and abide by his system and go out there.  There’s a lot of teams with great talent, but that doesn’t automatically classify you as a good coach or give you wins as a team.

- The Cavs aren’t putting much stock in the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic losses to the Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic against the Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers respectively, a smart move given the pedigree of those teams.  Although, as I type this the Celtics are in a nip-and-tuck battle with the Bulls at TD Garden.

It’s just one game.  A series is never won in one game, LeBRon James said.

Center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said it could turn into a lesson for his team:

It just goes to show you every team and play and if you let your guard down, before you know it you won’t have a homecourt advantage. Or it happens very quickly and then you have a fight on your hands. If anything we should learn from it and keep our focus.

You have to appreciate their ability to keep their eyes on the here and now.  Read below for another example.

Other views:

On ABC Sunday Magic Johnson, the former Los Angeles Lakers legend, said that his former team watched the Cavs 102-84 win over the Detroit Pistons and wanted to one-up them by blowing out the Utah Jazz.  The Lakers ultimately beat the Jazz by 13.  LeBron James wasn’t buying into that notion:

We buy into the fact that we’re keeping an eye on Detroit.  Detroit is our only main focus right now.  It’s a long playoffs and we got to approach Game 2 like it’s our last.

And, yes, Tracy McGrady is around for the playoffs, he’s just not playing for the Houston Rockets- and whether he plays hoops again is up in the air.  But he has no limit to when it comes to opinions about who will win the NBA Championship.  It’s not who he picks, but how he dismisses the Cavaliers in an interview:

It’s no knock on Cleveland, I think Cleveland’s gonna get there… Cleveland to me is really not that good.  If you take what the Celtics did last year… You knew, they were either gonna get to the finals, or they were gonna win it.  You can’t really say the same thing about the Cavaliers.  Although, they had the best record in the league this year, a lot of people like, ‘Okay, they havin’ a great year, but we don’t know if they can win the championship.’  They really didn’t do anything on the road with the elite teams in the league, they lost, they had a bad record when they went to face the elite teams in the league.  I think they’re a good team, but I don’t they’re ready to take the next step.

Ultimately he may be proven right, but the lack of respect for what the Cavs have accomplished this season is interesting for someone who’s never sniffed a second-round playoff game.

Game: Cavs (64-15) vs. Boston Celtics (60-19)

Broadcast:  TV: ABC (WEWS Channel 5).  Radio: WAKR (1590 AM); WTAM (1100 AM), WHBC (1480 AM)

Starters: Cavs:  LeBron James (F); Ben Wallace (F); Zydrunas Ilguaskas (C); Delonte West (G); Mo Williams (G).  Celtics:  Paul Pierce (F); Glen Davis (F); Kendrick Perkins (C); Ray Allen (G); Rajon Rondo (G).

Injured and inactive: Cavs:  J.J. Hickson (back). Boston:  Kevin Garnett (knee); Leon Powe (strained right knee).

Officials:   Scott Foster, Bill Kennedy and Ed Malloy.

Streaking:  The Cavs have won three consecutive; Boston has won six in a row.
Things to look for:

• The Cavaliers need to play attention to Glen ‘’Big Baby’’ Davis.  Although Garnett has been out, Davis has averaged almost 15 points in his last five games. That’s something that bears watching throughout the playoffs as well because the Celtics and Cavs have a realistic shot at facing one another.
• Mike Brown said before game time that his playoff rotation is pretty much set.  It’s going to be important to see how it plays out against a team the caliber of the Celtics.  He usually goes to Gibson and Ben first off the bench then Wally and Joe Smith will find their way there.  The Celtics have owned the Cavs in the paint this year, averaging a shade over 47 points in that area in three prior games.  That will have to be slashed and it will be interesting to see whether Brown’s lineup of big men, which didn’t include all four players will do.

Some might wonder where the minutes that Joe Smith will play will come.

You won’t hear Zydrunas Ilgauskas complain about losing a few.  Ditto for Anderson Varejao.  Coach Mike Brown said as much today when asked if Smith would see action tonight against the Celtics:

I’m going to try.  I’m probably going to throw him out there.  Being gone as long as he was, he’s going to be a little bit behind offensively, but we really won’t know defensively until he gets out there into the flow of the game. He’s got to react.  We’ll see if it’s instinctive or if he’s got to think about it and he gets there a little late.

Smith gives Brown some much needed flexibility and depth with his big men, even more so once Ben Wallace returns from injury.  He’ll also be able to dial back Ilgauskas and Varejao’s minutes, but guess who’s going to take the big hit?  The rookie.  J.J. Hickson.  Since Wallace went down his minutes are up significantly and they are about to vanish.

When the Cavs lacked that depth at those positions, they almost had to have Hickson ready to contribute during the playoffs.  Once Wallace – who is expected to return for the playoffs – is back and providing they stay healthy, that’s less the case.

Hickson has grown throughout the year, but if you listen closely to Brown and pay attention to the way he chooses his words regarding his rookie big man, it’s easy to discern that he’s not exactly ready to trust him right now, primarily because of his defense.

If Smith can show that he still knows the defense, you can expect him to gobble up Hickson’s minutes – quickly.

Post mortem:  Cavs  94, Grizzlies 74.

Was anyone able to stay awake during that?  Let’s face it; it was over after the first quarter when the Grizzlies looked as if they wanted to hibernate.

LeBron James scores only 15 and the Cavs win?  Take it.  Cherish it.  Yours truly was skeptical as to how the Cavs would look after the masterful performance against the Pistons because Delonte West sat this game out – reportedly as a precaution.

Yet when the starters were in, we saw the same ball movement as the other night and the same number of assists in the stat line.

For the record, West sat out because of soreness in the right wrist that he’d fractured, it had to be a decision made just before game time.

What do you read into it?  It’s Tuesday.  They played the Grizzlies and it’s February.  Besides who knows if or when in the playoffs the experience some of those bench players get now will come in handy.

The Cavs go into a four-game road trip and a span of a couple weeks where 8-of-10 games are on the road.  Heading into that storm with a five-game winning streak gives them some momentum.

Game: Cavs (43-11) vs. Memphis Grizzlies (15-40)

Broadcast:  TV: FSOhio Radio: WAKR (1590 AM); WTAM (1100 AM), WHBC (1480 AM)

Starters: LeBron James (F), Ben Wallace (F), Zydrunas Ilgauskas (C); Tarence Kinsey(G); Mo Williams (G).  Rudy Gay (F); Hakim Warrick (F); Marc Gasol (C); O.J. Mayo (G); Mike Conley G).

Streaking: The Cavaliers have won four consecutive; the Grizzlies have lost four in a row.

This year:  The Cavs ran into the Grizzlies while as they endured a 12-game losing streak the last itme and won 107-87, but it wasn’t a piece of cake.

Injuries-inactives:  Sasha Pavlovic (high right ankle sprain), Eric Snow (knee).  Grizzlies: Mike Wilks (ACL)

Officials:  Joey Crawford, Tommy Nunez Jr. and Michael Smith.
Two things to watch:

• The Cavaliers offense and defense looked like they didn’t miss a beat after getting Delonte West back the other night against the Pistons.  In fact, they looked a lot like that team that steamrolled everyone in its path back in December. Will it continue? This is the time of year that the Cavs should be driving to the playoffs.  In each second half of the past several the team got better after the All-Star break.  With this team, there’s no reason to believe that won’t happen again.
• The Grizzlies offense against the Cavs defense:  The Grizzlies score fewer points than anyone in the Western Conference. Given their recent struggles, it shouldn’t get much better against the Cavaliers.

Quotable:

From the locker room:

Mo Williams on ESPNRadio’s Tirico & Van Pelt Show telling answering Stephen A. Smith’s question about the Cavs’ post-season prospects.

Oh that’s for sure. That’s a guarantee.  We plan on winning it so, to answering your question: yeah.

From the coach’s office:

Mike Brown on Williams’ comments:

Our goal is an NBA championship, that’s nothing something we’re trying to hide from, but you’ve got to respect the Celtics because they’re the NBA champions and if we want to make it there we have to go take it from them.

Post-game audio – Mike Brown and LeBron James on the victory over the Celtics:   boston-post-game

Pre-game audio:  brown-rivers

Post mortem:

Cavs 98, Celtics 83

All week the media heard and reported that this game had no more meaning than any other.  The Cavaliers, although the did so, cannot say that with a straight face after whipping on Celtics in a physical game.

They got this win with grit and hard-nosed defense in on of those games LeBron James refused to lose and he displayed that offensively and defensively in his best performance of the year with 38 points, seven rebounds, six assists and topping it off four steals and three blocked shots.

It was a night when his defense would prove as important as his offense as James, with some help, locked up Paul Pierce for most of the night.  Pierce only scored 11 points for the Celtics as James pretty much disarmed him in the game.

The numbers won’t tell the story, but James had plenty of help from teammates who scrapped for balls, fought for rebounds and contested shots.  Overall the Cavs had seven blocks and an eye-popping 14 steals. 

Defense won the game for them.  It’s that simple.   Was it a message game?  Maybe, but messages tend to matter when they’re tied to more tangible results than a win in a single game.

Quotable:

From the coach’s office:

Mike Brown on LeBron James’ performance:

I know offensively he did a whale of a job carrying us, especially when we were stagnant and stalled out. 

LeBron James on the effect of the fans:

Tonight when Ben was making free throws and we were making runs, it was great.  Much respect to the Cavaliers fans.  They were unbelievable.

At the half:  Cavs 49, Celtics 40

Watching this game, you can’t help but think that Cavs should be ahead by a wider margin.  In several intances, they created turnovers only to give the ball right back to the Celtics.

The Cletics are winning this game in almost every category, except one – shooting.  They’re beating the Cavs in second-chance points and rebounds.  What’s hurt them:  14 percent shooting from the three-point arc while the Cavs have hit on 57 percent of their overall shots.

Game:  Cavs (28-6) vs. Celtics (29-8)

Broadcast:  TV: FSOhio, ESPN. Radio:  WAKR (1590 AM); WTAM (1100 AM), WHBC (1480 AM)

Starters: Cavs:  LeBron James (F), Ben Wallace (F); Anderson Varejao (C); Delonte West (G); Mo Williams (G): Celtics:  Paul Pierce (F); Kevin Garnett (F); Kendrick Perkins (C); Ray Allen (G); Rajon Rondo (G).

Inactives-injured: Cavs:  Eric Snow (knee); Zydrunas Ilgauskas (ankle).  Celtics:  Tony Allen (right ankle sprain).

Streaking:   The Cavs are defending an 18-game home winning streak. They’ve won one overall.   The Celtics have lost three-in-a-row.
Officials: 

Three things to watch: 

• LeBron James vs. Paul Pierce – They can try to sugarcoat it all they want, but these two feed off one another and it’s not exactly a lovefest. Go back to the classic duel in last year’s playoffs. James has nothing to prove, but he’s focused and realizes that this isn’t just another game. Pierce has averaged more than 28 points over the past three games.
• Ben Wallace vs. Kevin Garnett – Wallace has to do his best to keep Garnett on the perimeter, making him work for his shots, preferably keeping him on the perimeter and off the boards where he averages close to nine rebounds per game.
• Mo Williams vs. Rajon Rondo – You can put the Celtics recent struggles, losing 6-of-8 on the play of point guard Rajon Rondo.  He’s most dangerous when driving to the hoop and dishing off the ball.  On the season he averages 7.5 assists per game. However in the past three he’s averaged approximately 4.6 assists per game.  Williams has to keep him from driving the lane.

Quotable:

From the coach’s office:

Doc Rivers on who the Celtics respect other than LeBron James:  

(Anderson) Varejao to me is a very important player to their team and I don’t think people give him enough due.  It’s not just his defensive stuff, it’s his offense.  LeBron gets everybody shots, but I think Varejao’s energy gets them shots as well. We can’t lose sight of him.

From the locker room:

Mo Williams on Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo:

We do totally opposite things. He’s more in the lane, trying to get to the basket tonight on penetration.  I do that, but I can shoot the ball better than he can…He can finish around the basket better than I can. 

There was a surreal moment in the Cavaliers locker room post game last night.

With the game over at approximately 9;20 p.m. LeBron James did his media availability early and was set to get out of there.  Then he and everyone in the room started to pay attention to the Celtics-Rockets game that had been background noise.

Everyone remained focused on that screen – shot-to-shot, call-to-call.  But did so in a casual kind of way,  a way that bodes well for the team in this one.  Case in point:  Delonte West emerges from the tower room clad in nothing but a towel and quickly allows it to slip revealing as one Forrest Gump would say his BUT-TOCKS.  Sophomoric?  Yup.  Funny?  Absolutely.

They’re loose, having fun and have nothing to lose.

I don’t know that you could say the same about the Celtics and there are doubts coming from some quarters of Beantown in the wake of their loss to the Houston Rockets:

The Year of the Celtic seems like a fading memory as the team’s trademark strong finishes have turned into late-game collapses, a reversal of form as well as fortune. The Celtics also squandered late chances in a 114-106 overtime defeat in Charlotte Tuesday, continuing a trend that began with a Dec. 25 loss to the Lakers, the start of a road trip that broke not only the Celtics’ 19-game winning streak but also their spell on the opposition.

The Celtics are banged up – Kevin Garnett is injured and they’re seeking redemption.  Yes, you read that right.  R-E-D-E-M-P-T-I-O-N.  That’s a curious state for the defending NBA champions to be, but what else can you take from Paul Pierce’s words:

Cleveland is the team we put out of the playoffs (last season).  They are the best home team in all of basketball so they’ve been looking forward to this. We’re going to get their best punch. The way they’ve been playing at home has been unbelievable but the way we’re playing, this is a great way to get back on track.

Which team will show up?  The Celtics that won 19 in a row earlier in the season or the one playing now, that could be the equivalent of a caged, cornered animal seeking a way out?

Here’s what’s clear to me:  The Celtics high on adulation and bling for the first meeting of these two teams on opening night of the season, aren’t that team right now.  They likely may be again this season, but right now?  They’re the equivalent of a lost puppy looking for its home.

The Cavaliers certainly aren’t the same team.  Prior to the season they added a little Mo Williams, discovered the talent of Delonte West and the brute force of Ben Wallace and added a mountainous dose of team chemistry and voila – a championship caliber basketball team.

You could tell that LeBron James wasn’t happy to be playing Boston opening night after they were the team to send the Cavaliers packing from the Eastern Conference semi-finals last year.  He certainly wasn’t thrilled by that loss.

I suspect that indignation will be put on full display when the Cavs take the floor tomorrow night.

It’s like James said last night:  “I can’t sit here and tell you it’s just another game.”

It’s good that James knows that because I’m betting that all of Northeast Ohio feels the same way.