If the Atlanta win was exciting and entertaining and amazingly enjoyable to watch … well … what was the Miami win? I'm not big on writing things off TV, but that win showed a lot of guts, heart and moxie on the part of the Cavs. Mo Williams came up with big plays, LeBron James (surprise) came up with big plays, and Anderson Varejao played as good a game as I've seen (though he did get a gift on one of the fourth quarter ‘charges' he drew). This Cavs team is something else. When they lost Ben Wallace, I thought they'd miss him. Varejao has stepped in, J.J. Hickson has contributed and this Cavs have won three in a row without Ben. They'll welcome Joe Smith (or even Drew Gooden) and the help he'll bring, but the Cavs showed the heart and attitude of a champion on this most recent four-game road trip - especially in overcoming an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter in Miami. Room on this bandwagon is fading fast … might be time to reserve a seat.

– Loved the way the Cavs ran at Dwayne Wade when he had the ball. Every time he got it, either LeBron James or Varejao went to double him, and they did it high - at the top of the key. Not sure I've seen that much, because it requires great help behind the double-team given all that floor space. But it worked. Give Mike Brown credit for that, though like any good coach he credited Melvin Hunt for the idea. That was a case where a defensive coach's wrinkle made a huge difference.

– Akron coach Keith Dambrot was at a Cavs game last week, and I sat with him for a while and watched. He marveled when he saw that Brown did not feel the need to go into every huddle, that he let assistants John Kuester, Mike Malone and Chris Jent talk during a lot of timeouts. "You've got to have unbelievable security in yourself and your job to do something like that," Dambrot said. "That's impressive." Most coaches - not Dambrot - are control freak … err … types. So they won't let an assistant do that kind of thing. That Brown does says a great deal for his security, his belief in himself, in the people who work for him and in his team. And it's another great example of the "trust" he talked about from day one of training camp.

– The Cavs had every excuse in the world to play tired Monday night. Their plane did not leave Atlanta until 4 or 5 in the morning and they saw the sun rise as they drove to their hotel in Miami. That leaves time for very little sleep. But they played with great energy and enthusiasm, and that's impressive. I've said it before and I'll say it again, when this team just goes out and plays and doesn't worry about external stuff, it plays much better. When it lives the "no excuses" mantra, it's a much better team.

– Just wondering … why does J.J. Hickson get so many shots blocked?

– It's not terribly bothersome that the Browns have been so quiet in free agency. Their time will come, and perhaps they won't spend zillions of dollars on guys the way the previous regime did. The Orange and Brown Report (browns.scout.com) reports that the Brown are interested in Bills cornerback Jabari Greer. Signing him would be a nice get. The site states that Greer will be in Cleveland tomorrow.

– A very sad sign of the times: The Dodgers advertised for 500 part-time jobs, and 7,000 people showed up.

The NBA summer league concluded this week and Cavs first-round draft pick J.J. Hickson averaged 19.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game and shot 53 percent from the floor (he shot much lower from the stands). What does it mean? Well, the Cavs didn’t want to overdo things with Hickson in his first “professional” experience, so they just let him play. Which means let him do what he does well, which is score with his back to the basket, work hard and rebound. He did that. And the Cavs were pleased.

But they also know that it’s five games of summer league, and while Hickson did well the team is not ready to pencil him into the rotation just yet. They know he needs to work on some things, and he will sit down with the Cavs coaches soon and have that detailed to him. The one thing that jumps out to me is that Hickson had 18 turnovers. Summer league entails a bunch of guys being thrown together, but 3.6 turnovers per game for a big guy is too many. Put it this way: Only two players in the league averaged more than 3.6 turnovers per game last season. Too, Hickson had zero assists. Could be the Cavs told him to shoot every time he got the ball on the block, but zero assists in five games? Safe to guess turnovers and handling the ball will be subjects of discussion.

As for Romeo Travis and Dru Joyce, the two Akron guys who joined the Cavs summer league team, both had minimal playing time. Joyce averaged eight minutes per game, Travis 10.5. The Cavs feel the exposure will help their professional chances in Europe.

The turnover thing is interesting. LeBron James had 3.4 turnovers per game last season, the fifth highest total in the league. That’s a lot, until one considers what else James did. He had one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the league (2.11) and one of the best steals-to-turnover ratios as well (.54). Clearly, a guy who handles the ball as much as James will have some turnovers.

Speaking of James (like the transition?), one thing one never wants to hear are the words LeBron James and sprained ankle in the same sentence. But that’s what happened Tuesday when James tweaked his ankle practicing with the Olympic team. It’s supposed to be minor, but it illustrates the risk inherent in playing in China. It’s the reason Mark Cuban railed about his players being on the team. Cuban said he takes all the risk while USA Basketball gets the rewards. Trying to argue James should miss the Olympics would be like trying to stop the snow from falling in the Antarctic. It’s just not going to happen. For one, there’s too much money in China for a marketer and player like James to pass up. For two, he’s a basketball player. If he weren’t practicing for the Olympics, he’d be playing somewhere, perhaps at a two-on-two game at the team’s facility. As Danny Ferry said, it’d be nice to put James in a bubble, but the competitiveness that drives him in the NBA is the same thing that drives him in the offseason to improve. A tweaked ankle is the risk of the reward we all get to see him play for the Cavs.