These plays are something … even when they happen to the local guy.

Not a great opening night for the Cavs, who looked like a team still trying to find itself.

LeBron James called it a "transition period."

Coach Mike Brown said: "We will get better."

The cynic in me started to ask why Boson's transition seemed so much easier, but there is an easy reason. Boston's new guys — Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels — are off-the-bench role players.

The Cavs' new guys, right now at least, are core starters. And one of them will be a secondary focal point of the offense. That would be Shaquille O'Neal, who looked a little uncertain at times.

It just wasn't all there. Not yet at least.

And the Cavs don't sound in the least concerned or worried about it.

As James said: "I don't want to look too much out of one game."

Random thoughts …

—There was a lot of hoopla about the game. Early pregame crowd. Lot of excitement. All that stuff. It carried over into the first quarter. But after that it was pretty much all Celtics. They are a bunch of pros, after all, and they understand how to play the game. The Cavs have shown an unnerving habit of racing to a fast start and then losing the lead and the game.

–Of course that happened against Orlando and Boston, two pretty good teams.

–There were still too many times when the offense devolved into the James-on-five game. He scored 38, but it's just not going to work every game. His late three off no movement or passes with the Cavs down 87-83 was simply not a good shot.

–Mo Williams looked uncomfortable being the third guy in the offense. Last season, he was No. 2. Now he has to pound the ball inside to O'Neal, or give it to James and let him do what he does. The Cavs need more from Williams, who looked more like the guy who struggled against Orlando than the guy who was so good in the 2008-09 regular season.

–Delonte West's absence is huge, because it screws up the guard system. Without West, Anthony Parker has to play 40 minutes, and he wasn't signed to play 40 minutes. Without West, Daniel Gibson becomes a backup point guard, and it's not his forte. Without West, the entire guard system is thrown off.

–This could be a concern all season.

–For a good part of the fourth quarter, Brown had Zyrdunas Ilgauskas and O'Neal on the floor together. Late in the game, he brought Anderson Varejao off the bench. I expected him to replace O'Neal and take Shaq's free throw shooting out of play, but he went in for Ilgauskas.

–Brown admits he's searching for the right substitutions and patterns. He admitted he didn't do a good job of working his lineups during the game.

–James had two more of those chase-down blocks that are becoming his signature.

–At one point, Ray Allen was guarding James. Could he not have done what Allen did when Allen saw Gibson guarding him and go to the low block?

–Said Shaq: "I've been around 17 years, won the first game, lose the first game … we've just got to get better. We're still a fairly new team. We're still learning each other."

ESPN's John Hollinger did a chat and was asked about Anderson Varejao's contract. Here's what he had to say (with a comment on soon-to-be-a-Cav Anthony Parker as well):

Q. Isn't the Varejao deal a little ridiculous? He really can't be worth 50 mil, can he?

A. A lot of people are killing the Cavs for the Varejao deal. I didn't think it was that bad. The last year is a partial guarantee, the per-year numbers aren't ridiculous (he starts under $7 mil this year), and if they pushed it much lower OKC or Portland could have made a push for him — remember, he was unrestricted. He's not a scorer, but he's an elite defending big who can rebound. Historically, teams have paid for that.

Q. How can Varejao be called an elite defending big after the Orlando series?

A. Because most people are smaller than Dwight Howard. Varejao is great defending pick and rolls and can handle all but the biggest center on post ups, and he's a great help defender. Cleveland got Shaq to deal with the one big guy he couldn't handle.

Q. Two years ago Anthony Parker was one of the league's best outside shooters. Can he return to that level by playing with LeBron and Shaq?

A. He's going to help them more at the defensive end, because now they have a '2' with size instead of asking Delonte West to chase bigger players all the time. But he's a good shooter too, yes.

I wonder if the fact that the contract is six years indicates something about the future of LeBron James. Let's be honest, James makes Varejao a better player, and Varejao is valuable because he plays so well off of and with James. That's a strength. Without James, Varejao would be the guy few other teams in the league were chasing. James' presence increases his value to the Cavs. So … perhaps the Cavs know something we don't, that James intends to stay long-term, and to maximize the team around him they will keep a guy who plays so well with him for a least five of those years. If they don't know it, I wonder if the length of this contract indicates they feel very confident about it. I understand I'm falling into the trap of looking at everything through the prism of LeBron … but I really wonder if this was a factor.

The Cavs signed Anderson Varejao to a six-year contract. It’s being touted as $50 million.

Six years, $50 million for Anderson Varejao is too much.

Except it’s not really $50 million. It could be $50 million, but it almost certainly won’t be $50 million.

It’s only $50 million if Varejao hits every incentive in his deal, one of which includes being named America’s Top Chef. The deal is basically six years for $42 million, and the last year is not fully guaranteed, which takes it to the high $30-million range.

During the playoffs, I wrote that Varejao had proven himself as an NBA starter and earned a four-year deal worth about $32 million. Once free agency started, I thought the Cavs might get him for $6 million given the deals given to others. The Cavs gave him $7 million, which is in the middle.

 Six years is a lot of years, but it’s really five guaranteed. Varejao is 26, so five years puts him at 31 when the bulk of the contract is complete. I’d have preferred four.

 The combination seems a lot for a guy whose combined scoring and rebounds last season don’t add up to 16. But if Varejao leaves, who replaces him from the free agent market? The Cavs needed Varejao, and he knew it. So even though there weren’t any other serious suitors for Varejao, he came out of it with a good contract for a good amount of years.

It’s eyebrow-raising to see that money figure thrown out with his name, but had Varejao signed somewhere else, the Cavs would have a gaping hole . To me, this keeps them level. It doesn’t advance the cause. But if they had not signed him they’d have taken a step back.

At some point, though, this $7 million per-year figure will be thrown at Varejao and the Cavs. Because it’s a lot of money for a guy whose offensive role is limited, and whose strengths are intangibles.

At last … a naysayer. Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com is not overly impressed with the Cavs front-court (or, in the present-day vernacular, the "bigs"). He loves LeBron James, but says the idea of the Cavs winning a championship is not realistic. In fact, he's downright insulting. He writes that the Cavs winning is "an insult to the champions who came before, none of which had a frontcourt as pathetic as Cleveland's. .. Try to find a team that was good enough to win an NBA title yet was bad enough to start players like Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao at center and power forward. You can't. Don't bother."

Respectfully, and obviously, I disagree. Z is routinely ripped by people — until they see him play regularly. Then his value is apparent. And Varejao has had an excellent season. Whether they're good enough to beat the Lakers (assuming it's the Lakers) if they make the Finals remains to be seen. Heck, they have to beat the Celtics or Magic first too. But the way the Cavs are playing, and the way James is playing, they have every chance to win the title.

Ray Allen's one-game suspension for elbowing Anderson Varejao in the you-know-what will cost him $193,000 (not $158,000 as I first reported). Allen called the elbow an "unfortunate incident."

Umm. Yeah.

Then he and Celtics coach Doc Rivers blamed everything on Varejao.

"If I get thrown down on the ground, whether you call it retaliation or protection – you react out of protection when you are trying to protect yourself," Allen said, in the Boston Globe.

Protection seems to be a key word here. Evidently Allen was trying to protect himself.

Rivers said he was "very surprised" at the league's decision, and attributed the suspension to "the location of the elbow on Easter."

It wouldn't have mattered on Christmas?

"The only thing I'd say to that is Varejao flops all game and does that crap every game … the bottom line is the foul before the incident, and if they called the foul, it may never have happened," Rivers said. ""I didn't know you could swing a guy around and sling him to the floor and that wasn't a foul. I just think we're getting guys for retaliating and we keep missing the instigators."

Rivers is as good a guy as there is in coaching. And he should defend his players. But to say that Allen was some innocent victim here is a bit much.

A year ago, Celtics fans were on LeBron James for reacting every time he got smacked in the face, as if getting smacked in the face during a game is not disconcerting. Now their guy did no wrong. Please.

Varejao clearly flung Allen to the floor, then did the act where he raises his hands and acts like he did nothing. Allen reacted and hit an "unfortunate" spot. But to say a guy is a victim because he hit another guy in the you-know-what is a bit much. Allen is not a dirty player. But intentional or not, what he did was wrong.

As for all Varejao's "crap" … he has had an outstanding season. He has proven himself to be an NBA starter. A year ago, I was very down on the guy and ready to trade him. Danny Ferry didn't, and it was wise not to. Yes, he flops at times. And he can be irritating to the other team (see: Celtics). But that's the way he plays, and the Celtics surely have had a player or two like that in their history. Varejao is a strong defensive player who meshes with LeBrown James, and whose hustle and effort are key parts of a successful team.

Bottom line: Varejao deserved his technical foul, Allen deserved the technical and suspension. Now we move on.

Ray Allen was suspended one game by the NBA for his elbow to the groin of Cavs forward Anderson Varejao. It means nothing to tonight's meaningless game against Philadelphia, but it will cost Allen $158,000. Allen responded with the elbow after Varejao flung him to the floor during the Cavs' win over Boston on Sunday. You can see the incident here.

No wonder Varejao was angry.

I'm at the Cavs game, where the crowd is pretty subdued for a nationally televised game against the Spurs. Is this the product of two losses in a row?

One item of notes: Anderson Varejao is not playing today. The Cavs said it's because of a right wrist contusion. There was no specific blow or play when he got hurt, he just felt sore the past few games and woke up Sunday morning very sore. The team couldn't say if he had X-rays, and would not give a timetable, not even to say day-to-day. Darnell Jackson started in his place.