Well, for one night the Cavs changes all paid off handsomely. They looked like a championship-caliber team with depth in Wednesday's impressive win in Orlando. LeBron James was his usual self, Shaquille O'Neal got Dwight Howard in early foul trouble and played Howard well, and the entire team seemed into the game. The play of Mo Williams was vital. He was the polar opposite of the guy who struggled in the playoffs against the Magic. Orlando was without Rashard Lewis, but the Cavs treated this game with the importance it deserved.

Some other takes:

ESPN's John Hollinger: "While the Cavs used this game to show they may have overcome some of the early hurdles that plagued their offense, the Magic demonstrated that their early 5-1 start may be something of a mirage."

Interesting how James acted when the game ended.

Tim Povtak, a friend who wrote Shaq would be embarrassed against Howard before the game, had to change his tune after: "If Dwight Howard wants to keep that Superman moniker — if he wants to deliver on his promise to bring an NBA title to Orlando — he better turn his game up another notch real soon. Playing Shaquille O'Neal — who is well past his prime and 14 years older — to an uninspired standstill like he did Wednesday night won't get his team anywhere close to the Finals again."

Chris Tomasson of AOL hyped Mo Williams' big game.
 
Finally, prior to the game, SI.com's Chris Mannix wrote this of Shaq: "I spoke to an executive from one of O'Neal's former teams last week and he warned that if things stay status quo in Cleveland, Shaq will start to divide the locker room. 'It happened to us,' the executive said. 'It will happen to them.'"

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."

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.

—It is imperative that Mo Williams find his shot tonight. At times in Game 2, Williams looked like a mess. He hesitated on shots and looked very uncertain. The Cavs made a concerted effort to get him shots early, and when he didn't make them his shooting struggles (13-for-40 in the series, 57-for-139 in the playoffs) got in his head. From that point, Williams was reluctant to shoot, and when he did his shot looked flat as a surfboard. He did make some big shots in the fourth quarter, which is encouraging. Orlando will not start slow tonight — that's about the only guarantee I can make on this game. James will need help scoring. Williams absolutely has to find his shot.

Of course, with James there probably should be no "absolutely" statements. Except for this one: No matter what happens, no matter what anyone else does, he almost always will absolutely find a way to keep the Cavs in the game, and maybe even win it.

–I was starting to get very angry, but thank goodness the outrage can subside. Dayana Mendoza, Miss Universe, is back blogging.

She took a break following her uplifting trip to Guantanomo, and the absence of her updates was making it tough to get through a day.

But she's back. Like the kid from Poltergeist. Shes back.

Here's some highlights:

She recently went to the People en Espanol's party for the "50 most beautiful" people. She was one; I was not. Go figure. "I saw all the guys from the magazine, the actors and actresses, everybody was salsa dancing and Meringue, it was great!" She also went to Dubai, a trip she called "educational" as well as "fun." She did some visits with HIV patients in El Salvador, and she's been Twittering a lot recently.

We can all rest a little easier.

—The bus driver from the Airport FastPark had an interesting point about the way the Cavs played Game 2. He pointed out that Orlando loves the three, and he wondered why the Cavs would continue to double-team Dwight Howard after they had a big lead. His point: Threes get the Magic back into the game, so let Howard score all the twos he can. He said if he were the coach, he'd defend the three-point line aggressively to limit the threes, which would limit the Magic's ability to come back.

Bus drivers as a group can be very insightful people.

It was frustrating to watch the Cavs offense bog down in Game 1 into the old style offense.

See LeBron.

See LeBron dribble.

See LeBron dribble some more.

See LeBron shoot.

Yes, James, as he said, "had it going." He was hitting a lot of jumpers, and he was carrying his team, but it always seems like the Cavs are better off when James scores 48 points off set plays and picks and screens and ball movement rather than the stationary version it used for good parts of the Game 1 loss. That's the angle I went to on game night.

As Thursday wore on, the thought hit me, though, that Mo Williams and Delonte West shot a combined 10-for-32. And Zydrunas Ilgauskas can shoot better. And the offense in general can be better — if James allows it to function. So even if James doesn't score 49 again, the Cavs still should be OK offensively because the rest of the team can score more.

So I started to think about the Cavs defense, and the more I thought (always dangerous, I know), the more it seemed like the Cavs key to winning this series is in their bread-and-butter, their bellcow, their GDOTA (granddaddy of them all .. those who had Mr. Benander for Algebra understand).

And that is their defense, a topic I tried to address in Friday's Beacon Journal. Because if the Cavs really are as proud and as good a defensive team as we've thought all season — and they played some pretty good defense — they cannot let a team shoot 55 percent again, and they cannot let the team shoot 63 percent in the final three quarters.

The conundrum (like that word?) is that the Magic make good defensive teams look bad with their style. They murder teams that are not strong on the inside (ahem … Cleveland) with Dwight Howard, then when the defense starts to collapse they turn to their shooters on the perimeter. They have good ball movement, and they put their shooters in spots where they can make shots.

Sounds simple, but it's pretty tough to stop. And it's all pretty much the reason the Magic are in the East Finals.

Mike Brown did not seem overly concerned when he spoke to the media on Thursday. He said his team did not need to make "a ton" of defensive adjustments. Perhaps they need a half-ton? Brown has always believed in his system, and come playoff time he believes his team can shut down anyone. His players believe in his system, too.

But the system has had trouble with Orlando — unless you think the Magic winning nine-of-12 is an aberration. The Cavs have every right to believe they can win the series, but the Magic play a style that causes the Cavs problems.

Brown is the Coach of the Year. Defense is his specialty. He has made some very adept moves during past playoff series. The Cavs were built with a defense-first mentality. James was second in the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year voting. The Cavs will score, but to win this series they have to stop Orlando.

Figuring out the best way to do that will be key as the series continues.

Mo Williams made one impossible shot at the end of the half and darn near made another at the end of the game in the Cavs Game 1 loss to Orlando Wednesday night.

Williams was on the receiving of LeBron James' jump-ball tip, which started when James touched the ball with one second left. Williams basically shot an 18-foot, tip-in, as he jumped, caught the ball and shot in one motion. Pretty amazing when you think about it.

The shot hit the back of the rim and bounced out.

But it was much more difficult than it looked.

"I couldn't see the rim," Williams said.

Because he was blocked by an Orlando defender. Williams said it was like closing your eyes to take a free throw.

"I couldn't see the rim," he said. "I was just guessing the distance it was. … But it was close."

Was Williams fouled on the play?

"Probably," he said. "But you can't expect a foul in that situation."

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."

I think I'll let Mo Williams sum up the Cavs win in Game 3: "I was 1-for-11 and Delonte (West) was 0-for-7 and we had eight turnovers between us And we win the game by 11 on the road. What more do you want me to say?"

Not much to add to that. If either or both plays a normal game Sunday, Game 4 won't be close.

The Cavs won Friday despite their worst offensive game in a long time. Their two guards were not very good. Their offense, to quote LeBron James, was "terrible" in the third quarter. And their coach spent much of the night being angry and/or exhorting his team from the sidelines.

Yet they won by 11.

They won because their defense again was excellent, and they won because LeBron James again was beyond excellent. His fourth quarter was as sterling an example of bring-your-team-up basketball as we've seen since James' last sterling example of bring-your-team-up basketball, which probably was the last time the Cavs played.

The Cavs won by 11, on the road, in a game when they didn't play well.

Charles Barkley was right.

This series is over.

Random thoughts …

—A win Sunday and the Cavs will have given themselves a nice long rest before the East semifinals. Miami and Atlanta could go six or seven games.

—I wonder what it feels like for James to almost single-handedly take down a franchise. Detroit's run in the East will be over when it loses this series, and what the Pistons look like next season is anyone's guess.

—Said Detroit coach Michael Curry of James: "Big-time players make plays, and that's what he did."

—My view in Detroit is from behind the basket. Three rows of fans sit in front of us, with an aisle separating us and the fans. When James took off in the fourth quarter, the fans stood and all I could see was Mo Williams on the right. Next thing I knew he lobbed the ball and appearing out of nowhere, above the standing fans, came James' hands to catch the lob and flush the dunk. It was kind of an interesting view, when you think about it.

—When the game started, a fan behind me said to his buddy: "Look how empty this place is … and I'd say half are Cleveland fans." Not sure if it was half, but an MVP chant did break out for James. Wonder how many Cavs fans will be present on Sunday.

—James was asked if he ever thought he'd hear an MVP chant in Detroit. He said : "No. Did I ever think I would play the Pistons without Chauncey Billups? I didn't think that would happen either." Somewhere, Joe Dumars looked around to wonder what in the heck had just buzzed by his head.

—I'll say this until the cows come home: James does not get near enough credit for his rebounding. He pursues missed shots, and when he goes after the ball nobody, but nobody, is going to take it from him. In the first quarter, Ben Wallace — a pretty strong guy — went up for a missed shot and could not control the rebound. Had that been James, he'd have swept the board clean.

—At one point during a timeout the Pistons trotted out a group of dancers called "The Spare Tires." They were a bunch of obsese men, who made a joke of their obesity by rolling their bellies and removing their shirts. The crowd howled. This seemed a bit disturbing, for some reason.

—Nice play by Z in the second quarter leading the break. He clearly didn't want the ball, but dribbled up the court and found LeBron for a layup. The bench loved it.

—Are times tough in Detroit or has this fan base lost interest? An ad during the game said tickets are available for Sunday's Game 4, some as low as $12.

—How the Cavs were tied after three quarters must be one of the great mysteries. They had 13 turnovers, were shooting terrible, were 1-for-15 from three-point range and scored nine points in the quarter. At that point, James was 5-for-13, and Williams, West and Daniel Gibons had combined to go 2-for-16.

—The Cavs scored 10 points the firs t 2:49 of the fourth quarter. That topped their entire third-quarter scoring.

—Free-throw disparity continues to favor Cleveland. The Cavs shot 30 free throws, Detroit 12.

—Where would the Cavs be without Joe Smith?

—Detroit thought it played pretty well against James, and he missed a triple-double by one assist.

Stating it clearly:

Curry: "It was tied going into the fourth and they just made a few more plays and we missed a couple of shots and then had a couple of turnovers. I thought we had played well enough to have a lead and not be tied." 

Brown: "It was a playoff game that was an ugly game. It was a soft game. I don't think either team though they played its best basketball. But somehow, some way, especially in the fourth quarter defensively, and it started with getting stops. Lebron — I thought in the fourth quarter his aggressiveness was terrific." 

Hamilton: "This is killing me. I can't even lie. It's killing me – just the simple fact that how great we were, being down 0-3, being the 8th seed and watching them celebrate shot after shot." 

Joe Smith: "To be on a team that's close to doing something special with what we have here, it's going to pay off. We have to continue to be hungry as a group and I've been around a while so I understand what it takes to win at this level right now."

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.