Cavs guard Delonte West is happy the season has started because he’s back playing basketball, instead of talking about his recent off-the-court troubles.

Earlier this month, West was arrested after being pulled over by police in Maryland for carrying two concealed weapons, and he had a shotgun in a guitar case.

Delonte, who has talked openly about his bipolar disorder, didn’t want to talk about the incident because it’s an on-going investigation. But he did say “I’m back taking my meds.”

That’s great to hear.

Post mortem:  Cavs 97, Trail Blazers 92

Observations:

• The Cavaliers showed some semblance of an inside offensive game in the second half, actually getting Zydrunas Ilgauskas established in the paint.  Ilgauskas took advantage of the opportunity scoring 12 points in the third quarter and adding another five between the fourth quarter and the first overtime.
• The team played brilliantlly with the ball only turning it over two times during the entire game. It’s unrealistic to expect this type of stinginess with the ball regularly, but on this night it definitely contributed to an impressive win by a team that wasn’t playing its best offensively as they struggled to find their shots.
• The starters needed the bench to step up tonight and give them some support.  Considering as a group they opened the game shooting 5-of-20 from the floor, the 21 points the bench gave the team proved huge.  Mike Brown singled out Joe Smith (12 points, three rebounds and two blocks) and Daniel Gibson (eight points, 2-of-4 from behind the arc) for their efforts and rightly so.

Quotable:

Coach Mike Brown turning an ugly start into a victory:

It was ugly from the stgart, but our guys hung in there and they gave us an opportunity to win because they tried to defend. I’m amazed when I keep looking at this (box score) and I’m waiting for the turnover number to change.  Two turnovers – in an overtime game – was obviously the difference in the ballgame.

LeBron James on the team’s defense:

Defensively, we were great.  We didn’t allow them to get any easy buckets because we didn’t turn the ball over. That allowed us to set our defense and that was great.  Sometimes when we haven’t shot the ball well, we’ve let it affect our defense.  Tonight was different….Our defense actually went up a notch even though we didn’t shoo the ball well early.

At the half: Trail Blazers 36, Cavs 34

Observations:

• Sitting on pressrow I thought that this just might have been the ugliest half of hoops I’ve seen all season.  The Cavs shot 31 percent from the floor and lest we think the Blazers are that much better, they shot a whopping 34 percent.  Gee, how do I contain my enthusiasm?  Perhaps it’s just a defensive struggle between two good teams, but given the number of shots that have been off, I doubt it.  Cavs starters are a combined 7-of-31 from the field. 
• The Cavs are being slammed on the boards – 29 to 22  in favor of the Trail Blazers.  This with the Blazers missing LaMarcus Aldridge, one of their top three rebounders.

Game:  Cavs vs. Portland Trail Blazers

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

Starters:  Cavs:  LeBron James (F); Anderson Varejao (F); Zydrunas Ilgauskas (C); Delonte West (G); Mo Williams (G). Trail Blazers:  Travis Outlaw  (F); Channing Frye (F); Joe Przybilla (C); Brandon Roy (G); Steve Blake (G). 

Injured-inactive:  Cavs:  Ben Wallace (knee); Wally Szczerbiak (knee), Eric Snow (knee).  Trail Blazers:  Raef LaFrentz (shoulder); Martell Webster (foot) are out.  Aldridge (concussion) is doubtful and Batum (ankle) is questionable.

Streaking:  The Cavs are winner of six consecutive. The Trail Blazers have won two in a row.

This year:  The Cavaliers took the first game in Portland 104-98 and what turned out to be a thriller.  LeBron James and Mo Williams combined to score 67 points for the Cavaliers.  Brandon Roy hit 23 and LaMarcus Aldridge added 21.

Officials:  Bennett Salvatore, Tommy Nunez Jr. and Sean Corbin.

What to watch:

• The Cavs are the league’s best home team.  Portland is one of the league’s worst road teams.  That, however, hasn’t stopped them from winning their last two away from Portland’s Rose Garden. Yes, I know it was against the Indianapolis Pacers and Memphis Grizzlies, but wins are wins.  The Cavs control their destiny with respect to the No. 1 seed; there’s no reason to take the foot off the accelerator now.
• Delonte West on Brandon Roy.  Roy, who is averaging 23 points per game presents a stern test for Delonte West.  While he’s likely to see help from LeBron James, West will have to have one of his better defensive games.

Quotable:

From the locker room office:

Mo Williams on whether recent comments by Stan Van Gundy, coach of the Orlando Magic and the Boston Celtics’ Doc Rivers regarding whether either team can catch the Cavs for hte top spot in the Eastern Conference:

They’re just saying that.  I’m pretty sure they’re still shooting for it.  We just have to be consistent.  The ball is in our court, we just have to be consistent and win the games that we’re supposed to win and win the games they say we won’t.

LeBron James on the same:

Of course it is (a tactic).  There’s way too many games to be trying to concede who’s first seed, second seed and third seed.  I think the first three seeds are pretty much locked up if guys continue to play well like they’ve been doing.

Post mortem:  Cavs 97, Magic 93

A few things of note:

• Assuming the Cavs take nothing lower than the No. 2 seed (sorry, I grew up in Northeast Ohio and guard against sports optimism), the Magic and the Cavs could very well be on a collision course before the Eastern Conference Finals.  That should scare any Cavs fan because despite the fact that they lost an All-Star point guard in Jameer Nelson, Orlando isn’t exactly rolling over and playing dead and they won’t.  Both teams held serve at home (the Magic won on their court in January). What will be most interesting is what happens during the rubber match on April 3 in Orlando.  It continues to look as if the team with home court advantage will take the conference.
• LeBron James clocked in with almost 43 minutes in this game.  Prior to the game he said that he was in the best shape at this time of the year than at any point in his career.  Considering the mileage he’s gotten in the last week, that’s a good thing.  Some will argue that he’s a young stallion who can handle it.  I will respectfully remind them how many young stallions in the past 30-odd years won the first two jewels in the Triple Crown only to come up short in the Belmont Stakes.
• Bench players didn’t show up tonight, scoring a total of five points.  With the playoffs looming they can’t continue that.  Part of it was the nature of the game win no starter playing fewer than 31 minutes, but they went a combined 2-of-7.

Quotable:

LeBron James on taking a 3-point shot with 47.9 seconds left in the game and the Cavs down by one point:

Being down one and taking a three, a lot of people wouldn’t have done that; I’m one of the guys who would do that.

At the half:  Cavs 53, Magic 50

The Magic is shooting close to 49 percent at the half.  Part of that problem is the Cavaliers continue to have problems on his weak side, perimeter defense.  At one point, the Magic was shooting 5-of-10 from three pointers.

Cleveland had done a fairly decent job of keeping Dwight Howard in check holding him in check with three points until the last six minutes of the second quarter when he scored six, a couple on ferocious dunks.

The Cavs, at one point, held an 11-point advantage that quickly evaporated.  There’s little chance that it would hold.  The Magic, despite missing losing Jameer Nelson for the rest of the season, is too good to allow a blowout.

Still while the Cavaliers have tried, no statement has been really made in this game by either team.  In their first meeting back in January, the third quarter decided the game’s outcome.

Here’s betting that the same happens here.

LeBron James, Anderson Varejao, Mo Williams and Delonte WEst are all having strong games.  The problem: only three points have come from the bench thus far.

Game:  Cavs (53-13) vs. Orlando Magic (49-17)

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

Starters:  Cavs:  LeBron James (F); Anderson Varejao (F); Zydrunas Ilgauskas (C); Delonte West (G); Mo Williams (G).  Magic:  Mickael Pietrus (F); Rashard Lewis (F); Dwight Howard (C); Courtney Lee (G); Rafer Alston (G).

Injured-inactive: Cavs:  Eric Snow (knee); Ben Wallace (right leg). Magic:  Jameer Nelson (torn right labrum); Hedo Turkoglu (left foot tendinitis).

Streaking:  The Cavs have won five consecutive; the Magic three in a row.

This year:  The Magic took the first meeting 99-88 as Dwight Howard dominated the game for the Magic with 22 points and 19 rebounds with the Cavs not having an answer for Howard on the inside or the Magic’s outside shooting.  The Cavs are the league’s best home team and the Magic are the East’s best road team.  As they say, something’s gotta give.

Officials: Mark Wunderlich, Mark Ayotte and Jack Nies.

What to watch:

• The Cavaliers cannot allow Dwight Howard to camp out around the hoop on either side of the ball. The guy has the uncanny ability to clean up after missed shots turning them into easy dunks.  Last time out the Cavs didn’t have Ilgauskas, so his ability to shoot from the outside should help draw Howard out of the paint some.
• The Cavs rekindled their defense against the New York Knicks this past weekend; it will have to continue for them to beat the Magic.  They are balanced offensively able to score inside with Howard and they are one of the best outside shooting teams – including third best 3-point field goal percentage – in the league.  While it’s important to note that Ilgauskas was out that first game, so was one of the Cavs best defenders – Delonte West.

Quotable:

From the coach’s office:

Coach Mike Brown on what happens if he gets another technical on the season:

If I do I’ve already committed to a large lump sum of money that I will let my team have.  One thing that I want our guys to understand is we control our own destiny on the floor, off the floor however you want to put it.  We don’t want to get to the point where we are blaming officials for conditions or anything like that.  

From the locker room:

LeBron James on looking past the Orlando Magic:

It’s dangerous to look past any team in the playoffs. You need 16 games to win everything in the playoffs, so you can’t look past any teams…Once you get in the playoffs it’s not going to matter if you won 70 games in a season or 35 games, you got to go out and win. 

Post mortem:

Someone on press row had to wake me when this one was over because the Cavs 99-78 win over the Pistons tonight was a snoozefest from the first quarter on.

The most excitement came toward the end of the game when fans wondered whether the team’s deep bench players would score the magical 100 points to score them a free chalupa.

As you can see by the score they left disappointed.

If Friday night belonged to LeBron James, this one was Delonte West’s.  Injured since Jan. 15, he returned to score 25 points including hitting 5-of-5 from the three-point arc.

Game: Cavs (41-11) vs. Detroit Pistons (27-26)

Broadcast:  TV: ESPN. 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).  Pistons Tayshaun Prince (F); Antonio McDyess (F); Rasheed Wallace (C); Allen Iverson (G); Rodney Stuckey (G).

Injured-inactive: Cavs:  Sasha Pavlovic (ankle)

Officials: Joe Forte, Gary Zielinski, Eric Dalen

This year: The series is tied 1-1, the Cavs won the last meeting on Feb. 1 90-8- at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Streaking:  Cavs have won three in a row; the Pistons are losers of five consecutive.

Three things to watch:

• Pistons on the road:  Detroit has won four-of-five from the Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena and, most notably, are one of the league’s better teams on the road with a 13-11 record.  Having lost five consecutive at home, it may be a case of road sweet road for them.
• LeBron James: He’s coming off a 55-point performance against the Milwaukee Bucks, but he also has success against Detroit.  He said that the three-minute burst of scoring he had against the Bucks was second only to game five of the Eastern Conference Finals a couple of years back.  This season he is averaging 29 points againt the Pistons – both in Detroit.
• Delonte West:  What does his return do for the Cavaliers?

Quotable:

From the coach’s office:

Mike Brown on Delohte West’s return :

I have to applaud those guys in the locker room; we stepped up.  But Delonte’s a hard guy to replace.  He’s that good. We missed him, but we didn’t miss him to the point where it hurt us.

From the locker room:

Delonte West on:

We’re very confident in every guy that suits up.  We’re confident in our coaching staff and that’s where trust comes in.  That’s why we feel we can put any five on the floor at any time and we can compete with the best of them.  That’s what Cleveland basketball is.