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."

AOL's take on John Kuester, a very good coach who is leaving the Cavs to be head coach of the Pistons: "Despite the presence of LeBron James, the Cavs were utterly stagnant on offense before this past season; with Kuester calling the offensive shots, the Cavs featured the most efficient offense in the East. Finally a complete team, the Cavs finished with the best record in the league, while Brown coasted to Coach of the Year, an ironic honor given he earned it by delegating more than he ever has in the past."

I don't agree totally. Brown's delegation took confidence and it wasn't like Brown was playing tiddly-winks. But Kuester ran with the job he was given. I liked him a lot. He is a very good coach.

Mike Brown, Danny Ferry and Mo Williams finished one-two-three in ESPN.com's list of the biggest playoff losers. Remember when life was rosy after consecutive sweeps?

What does tonight's game boil down to? In its essence, its purest form, its DNA, its molecular structure?

Shooting.

Mo Williams took a huge stride toward regaining his form in Game 5 (after he had taken small strides in Game 4). His shooting, along with that of Daniel Gibson, opened things up for LeBron James at "the nail" — the position he took with the ball at the foul line.

The general thinking is that it's near impossible to double-team James at that spot, so the Cavs will use that play again if they need it. If a team does double, James can find a shooter on both sides of the floor, or a big guy cutting to the basket. But "the nail" does not hold if shooters aren't shooting. Williams must be back on his game again, and he must shoot well.

Conversely, the Cavs have to keep trying to defend Oralndo's shooters. I didn't think they did as great a job getting in the fact of the Magic's three-point shooters as the score indicated. But they did something right, because Orlando was 8-for-25. The Cavs have to do what they can to keep that figure low, but if they make their shots it will also help.

Mike Brown called his team's offense in the second half of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals "stagnant."

That's putting it politely. The Cavs lost Game 1 to Orlando because they quit doing the things they had done all season, things that won them 66 games. That meant ball movement and player movement. But in Game 1, too often the Cavs stood around and went one-on-five and relied solely on their MVP.

LeBron James did all he could, scoring 49 points and playing through what appeared to be some serious cramps in his right leg in the fourth quarter to time and again provide his team points.

But the problem was James didn't start taking the ball to the basket until less than four minutes were left, and by that time the Cavs were down 93-90. He was successful in those drives, either scoring, getting to the line or setting up a teammate — including setting up Delonte West for a three with 40.8 seconds left that gave the Cavs a 103-102 lead. After Rashard Lewis gave the Magic a one-point lead, James made a more conventional three-point play to put the Cavs up two, which set up Lewis' game-winning three.

The Cavs could not answer in the final seconds, and Orlando won. But the game was not lost in the final seconds, it was lost in the third quarter and early fourth when the Cavs allowed a 15-point halftime lead to fritter away.

"I don't think it's what they did," West said. "I think it's what we didn't do. I'm not taking any credit away from them, but we didn't come out with the same intensity that we have normally done in the third quarter thus far in the postseason."

The Cavs started the game with enough effort and energy for three games. And it showed. James had four assists before he scored a point, and by halftime he had 26 points.

Dwight Howard said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy told the team at halftime that the Magic "were all witnesses, and we couldn't have that." Meaning they were all standing around, admiring James.

In the second half, the Cavs offense was stagnant and Orlando's was fluid. Orlando relied on its superstar –Howard scored 30 points and was near unstoppable in the paint when he did not commit an offensive foul — but still had ball movement and plays, as shown by Hedo Turkoglu's 14 assists.

James had an amazing night, with 49 points, eight assists and six rebounds. But until those final four minutes, he was taking a lot of jumpshots. Eventually it caught up with the Cavs.

This loss does not end the series. The Cavs almost certainly will win Game 2 (they better). They'll need to win one on the Magic's home court. It's not time to panic.

But anyone who doubted the Magic should be taken seriously can now re-think. The Cavs are in a series.

Random thoughts …

 —James set Cavs team records for points in a half (26 in the first), points in a game (49) and field goals made (20, in 30 shots). He had six rebounds, eight assists, two steals and three blocks.

—The only criticism is that it would be better if those points came off more set plays, as opposed to the one-on-five approach the Cavs used so much. Too much.

—In the playoffs James is averaging 34.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 2 steals per game.

—Van Gundy continually told his team that it had been in tough games in the playoffs and Cleveland had not. The looks on the Cavs faces late in the game seemed to indicate they were shocked to be losing at that point of the game.

—The way they started they should have been shocked. The Magic players all candidly admitted they played just one half.

—Howard's first dunk was a monster that brought down the shot clock attached to the top of the backboard. "I thought it was a regular dunk," Howard said.

Stating it clearly:

Mike Brown: "That's why this is a series. A series is not won nor lost after one game. I have confidence in our guys. I trust our guys. We'll be ready for Game 2 when it comes around."

 West on his last shot that didn't go in: "I got a good look at it and that's all you can ask for. You practice that shot and you step up and take it confidently and it's either going to go in or it's not. It just didn't go in for me."

Van Gundy on guarding James: "The one thing I don't leave this game with is any idea whatsoever to do with him. As a coach, you are supposed to have some idea. I don't have a clue, OK? I don't."

James: "My statistics don't mean anything when it ends in a loss. Tonight my individual performance means nothing."

James: "If we think the world is coming down on our head, we'll get beat pretty bad in Game 2."

Van Gundy on the teams' last possessions: "There was no big genius thing there. Rashard just made a hell of a shot and we came up with a stop on the last possession."

There was some angst after the Cavs 12-point win Tuesday night. That's what happens when a team sees a 29-point lead fade to seven in the fourth quarter. The Cavs had every right to expect another celebration at the Q Tuesday night, especially with LeBron James dominating every second he was on the court. But it didn't end that way.

There's a phrase in pro sports leagues anymore. Guys will say something, then conclude with "at the end of the day blah blah blah."

As in, "at the end of the day it's dark outside."

Well for the Cavs, at the end of the day they're up 2-0 in a playoff series, and Detroit's starters have given no indication that this series will not be a sweep. When James has been on the floor and Detroit has used its starters — guys who have been there for years like Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Tayshuan Prince and Antonio McDyess — it's been all Cavs.

But the fourth quarter was problematic enough that there is an inkling of concern. The Pistons were not supposed to play pathetically, nor were they supposed to be embarrassed. All were happening — until that eight-minute run in the fourth quarter when Detroit outscored Cleveland 27-5.

The Cavs have every reason to believe they can close out the series in Detroit. But instead of heading to Detroit on a high, they are upset with themselves for giving Detroit an inkling of hope. It may have come from the reserves when the deficit was too large, and it may be just a tiny sliver of hope.

But it's more than the Cavs should have allowed.

Some random notes and thoughts …

–James must have been pretty irritated. He did not show up for postgame interviews until quite a while after the game had ended. That's good. The team's leader should be irritated by what happened in the fourth quarter. The Cavs are a good team, but they're not a team that can sleepwalk through parts of games and beat a lot of teams.

–Game 3 might be very physical. Detroit showed signs of giving some hard fouls to keep James from easy layups. It didn't do it all night, but enough to indicate Game 3 might be a fight.

–James' third-quarter dunk was definitely one for YouTube and GoogleVideo and all those other internet sites. This guy might obliterate the competition when he competes in the Slam Dunk contest at the All-Star Game next season.

–If I'm Michael Curry I might start some different players. The guys on the floor at the beginning of games play like they know they can't win.

–Curry's comment on that notion: "It's tough to change lineups at this time. Maybe you can sub a little quicker depending on guys."

–Said Williams: "I think that we will see a little bit more of their bench in Game 3. I guarantee that."

–Amir Johnson smacked James in the face on a hard foul in the first half, then shoved Anderson Varejao after Varejao got in his face. Johnson called Varejao an "optical illusion," meaning he's not as good as people think. James shrugged it off.

–Detroit missed six layups in the first half, and the Pistons shot 16 free throws compared to the Cavs 43. Neither should happen in The Palace of Auburn Hills.

–James did not like a no-call at the end of the first quarter when he tried to draw a foul on a pump-fake from three-point range. When the quarter ended he went to talk to the official; Dick Bavetta pointed twice to the bench. James turned and walked to the bench and sat down.

–It wasn't a real pretty game. Had Detroit done anything early, the Cavs might have had to struggle to win. They did a little bit late in the game and got back into it, but by that point the deficit was too large.

–Tayshaun Prince is playing like he's injured. Either that or he's just not big enough to compete with James' strength.

–The Cavs have led four other playoff series 2-0. They won all four.

–James scored 29 points on 14 shots (he made 13-of-17 free throws). Williams took 13 shots, and Delonte West and Zydrunas Ilgauskas 12 each.

 Stating it clearly: 

Mike Brown: "I thought our guys played a great three quarters of basketball."

Curry on what his team needs to do: "You got to keep (LeBron) out of the paint. If you continue to do that, you got to rebound the ball and not turn it over. Offensively, you have to just settle down."

Williams on the fourth quarter: "It doesn't matter who is on the floor. We just have to execute the way we know how and defend the way we know how and we did neither. We made a game out of it."

Detroit's Will Bynum: "Everybody on this team has to look in the mirror and give the kind of effort that we gave in that fourth quarter. We're too talented, especially on paper. We know we're too talented to lose like this."

Lebron James: "Defensively we held a very good team to 39 percent shooting for the game. We can be satisfied with that."

Lebron James II: "We know The Palace is one of the most hostile buildings to play in during the playoffs. One thing that we haven't faced in the first two games is adversity. We know it's going to happen on the road."

Awards time in the NBA approaches, and major news sites are taking their polls. They don't mean anything, but they're interesting — and a good insight into what will happen.

To the surprise of nobody, ESPN's panel of experts picked LeBron James as the league's MVP.

SI.com polled scouts and executives and James was the unanimous choice.

"When I look at everything he's done, offensively and defensively, there's no doubt he's the MVP," explained one voter who for years has rated (Kobe) Bryant as the best player in basketball. "He is the dominant player in the league right now."

I think Mike Brown also deserves Coach of the Year, and he was the winner in the SI poll.

"Brown finished first or second on every ballot. The voters named all of the obvious reasons, namely notching the best record in the league and improving over last season, adhering to defense and developing a system that brings out the best in LeBron and his teammates."                                                    

And in the Trifecta, GM Danny Ferry won the Executive of the Year honor in the poll. Deservedly so – and not just for the heist that brought Mo Williams.

"The Mo Williams deal was huge," a voter said. "He traded away Joe Smith [in the Williams deal] and then gets him back [in a midseason buyout]. Under a lot of pressure, he's done what he can to make LeBron question whether he's going to leave or not. It's no longer a foregone conclusion like everybody thought at the beginning of the year."

Re-acquiring Joe Smith has been huge. The Cavs hated to trade him, but managing to re-sign him midway through the season gave the Cavs exactly what they needed — another big guy for depth. Smith, incidentally, played excellent on Sunday against the Celtics. So did Daniel Gibson, who seems to have re-discovered his shot.

The very real possibility that the Cavs might sweep these three awards speaks, again, to how special this season has been. 

Someone asked Mike Brown after the game if he worries that the Cavs' in-game, on-the-bench celebrations are becoming too much, whether other teams might resent them. The same person asked LeBron James if he worried that dancing and celebrating on the bench "disrespected" another team. No problem with the question. The guy who asked — Tom Withers of the Associated Press — is one of the best and most professional journalists in the area, and he was seated courtside near the Celtics bench so he had an idea how the Celtics were reacting.

A little background: The Cavs blew out the Celtics Sunday, though it was predictable. The Cavs were continuing their home-court celebration that has been going on all season. The Celtics knew their playoff seeding before the game started, and Kevin Garnett didn't play. It was understandable that they weren't mentally there.

So the Cavs blew them out, and LeBron James again sat out the fourth quarter and he did Sunday what he did last Wednesday and that was to enjoy himself. He celebrated good plays from his teammates, and he danced, and he really celebrated a Wally Szcerbiak blocked shot.

And when the folks at the Q played "Never Gonna Give You Up" — Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down … — James, Mo Williams and Delonte West danced on the bench, as this AP photo shows. (James, incidentally, has the song on his iPod).

Some Celtics took umbrage. Ray Allen addressed it, telling The AP: "I'm always going to remember that. If I beat a team, as happy as I may be in victory, I'm always going to stay humble and always remember that there's another day."

This is pretty silly, really. I mean, the Cavs were not showing lack of humility. And the Celtics are the same team that patented "Gino" last season; he's the bearded guy who danced when Boston folks knew a win was in hand and blared his song and image on their big screen. Fans danced with him to the BeeGees, and so did some of the Celtics. They're also the team that let Paul Pierce give a rambling monologue about himself and his championship prior to the season opener, a rambling monologue that went on far too long.

Boston's players liked that. The Cavs didn't begrudge them any of it. Now that the Cavs are 39-1 and celebrating with their fans at home it's a problem?

Please.

It's all in fun. The Cavs don't disrespect anyone. James is mature beyond his years. And when playoff time comes, a lot of these shenanigans will go away and it will be about basketball.

Mike Brown is aware what happens can rankle folks, and he added if players do that stuff they best back it up. He also is well aware that if the team loses, that kind of stuff will be brought up and used against it (in a court of law).

I'm not a guy big on celebrating when a team is getting its patootie kicked, or in taunting when it's ahead. But when a team is ahead and is just having fun without mocking or taunting the other team, what's the problem? When the game ended, all the Cavs players waved to Boston's — which (again) is the NBA style of sportsmanship. There isn't a problem, and making any issue of it now is just frustration. It will all mean nothing come playoff time.

The Cavs have done things at home only one team in NBA history has done. They are within one game of matching Boston's all-time home record. They could win 40 of 41 home games, for crying out loud, and they have a chance to win 67 games this season. In a game that meant so little to Boston it got blown out by the end of the first quarter, there's nothing wrong with a little celebrating on the bench. It involves the crowd, lets the fans share the joy, and shows the exuberance and togetherness of this team and its leader.

Besides, as James said, if the other team feels disrespected by things, it can do something about it. If it does, James won't be sitting on the bench in the fourth quarter.

Sunday was a celebration, from start to finish, for the Cavs and their fans. It has zero effect on the playoffs, or any playoff series between Cleveland and Boston, two of the NBA's best teams. That series will be hard fought, fiercely contested and well-played. It might get tense, and it will be intense.

But Sunday was a celebration earned and deserved for a team that has lost once in 40 games at home. Taking it any other way is just flat wrong.

Random items from the game:

—The Cavs shot 10-for-16 from three-point range, the second-best percentage of the season.

—Cleveland is 37-1 when it scores 100 points.

—The Cavs had 24 assists on 38 baskets.

—Boston scored nine points in the first quarter.

—The last five games, James is shooting 93.2 percent (41-for-44) from the free-throw line.

—What can anyone take from this game as it affects the playoffs? Nothing.

—Though Ray Allen wasn't thrilled with Anderson Varejao for flinging him to the ground after a free throw. Both were assessed technical fouls after Allen elbowed Varejao in the … thigh.

Mike Brown has one Coach of the Year vote. He probably deserves more. Looking to the future, Ian Thomsen also points out that Ben Wallace can be a valuable player for the Cavs next season – because he will have an expiring contract worth $14 million.

I didn't think much of the way the Cavs played Tuesday night. They struggled in an ugly game, but made enough plays to beat Detroit.

Mike Brown, though, loved the game.

"It was a good, ugly, physical grind-it-out type of game," Brown said.

Which clearly is not the kind of game that Dayana Mendoza would play at Guantanomo. (Did you know she also wrote this of Gitmo? "I didn't want to leave, it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful." The Miss Universe organization, such as it is, felt compelled to release a statement about the blog entry, and they also took the blog down. Wonder what Dayana will think of next week when she visits Abu Ghraib and San Quentin. Alas , we digress.)

Brown also said: "For us to come out with the win is a good win, especially playing that way."

And he said: "Just a fun, grind-it-out defensive game. That was fun."

OK, then.

Clearly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But when the Cavs win a game with defense, this coach is happy. And defense won this game for the Cavs — mainly thanks to LeBron James, who came up with key turnovers in the fourth quarter that led to key baskets, by James of course.

Detroit was left wondering. Allen Iverson moaned about his minutes. Rasheed Wallace earned a one-game suspension with his 16th technical. And the Pistons saw the Cavs pull away in the fourth quarter.

Detroit right now has the seventh playoff spot. If they finish eighth, they'll play the Cavs. And the way the game ended cannot have the Pistons feeling confident they can beat the Cavs. Because if the Cavs play like they can, they're simply a better team.

Three fun facts:

— The Cavs now are 16-1 in March.

— The Cavs won the season series with Detroit for the first time since the 1997-98 season.

— Since the All-Star break, the Cavs are 21-2.