Shaquille O'Neal had his way with the Indiana Pacers inside and dominated defensively — including a block of Roy Hibbert in the second half that was near humiliating.

Those were the main plotlines in the Cavs 94-73 win over Indiana on Friday.

The Cavs scored 36 points in the first quarter behind James' nine assists and never looked back. There were times they were sloppy — as 20 turnovers attest — and times they got a little lazy. But anytime the Pacers even threatened to make things a game, James or O'Neal would make a block or a steal or a play to seal the win.

The Cavs two superstars carried the team on a night when the Cavs started fast and then cruised through the rest of the game.

After the game, James was asked about the hullabaloo over a new Nike Ad that features him and Kobe Bryant in scaly body armor.

In the ad, Bryant is quoted saying: "I'll do whatever it takes to win games. I don't leave anything in the chamber."

It caused a mini-star coming on the heels of the suspensions of two Washington Wizards for taking guns into the locker room.

The NBA called the ad inappropriate, and Nike issued this statement: "The Nike print ad featuring Kobe Bryant was intended to illustrate his all out play and commitment on the basketball court. It is a commonly used reference for shooting the basketball and no offense was intended."

At issue is the Gilbert Arenas situation. Arenas and Jarvis Crittenton were suspended for the rest of the season earlier this week after both brought guns into the locker room.

Gun and war references are not uncommon in sports. Pacers coach Jim O'Brien said after the loss that his team didn't have enough bullets in the gun to beat the Cavs. The ad's theme is "Prepare for Combat."

The ads and the reaction all can get a bit silly, but given the Arenas situation, there is a heightened sensitivity to guns, and gun play.

James was asked about the ad.

His comments:

"I think one thing we have to understand is that Kobe did not reference a gun, at all. Slang gets caught up into just regular English. We say a lot of things as basketball players that make a reference into, I don't know, guns or violence, but it's really not guns or violence.

"Kobe said every night I go out, I'm going to give it my all. I'm leaving nothing on the court, I'm going to do everything I've got to do to win basketball games. I'm leaving nothing in the chamber.

"That has nothing to do with guns. Nothing.

"Me being a big Kobe Bryant fan, me being a big supporter of Nike, of course … that has nothing, zero, to do with guns. At all. At all. Zero.

"For somebody even to say that … that's a basketball term. You go on the basketball court, I'm leaving everything on the court, I'm leaving nothing in the chamber.

"That has zero to do about guns.

"To try to highlight Kobe and say that he was representing guns is totally ridiculous."

James' frustration is understandable in many ways. He did nothing wrong, and clearly some of these sensitivities can go a bit far. Nowhere in the ad is there a gun, and nowhere is there a direct reference to a gun.

But … this might be a situation where what matters most isn't what was said, but what people hear. We've all been there (especially we males). We say something we think is innocuous, but it comes across totally different to those listening. So we get in trouble not because of what was said, but because of what was heard.

More than a long time ago, four Miami Dolphins players — including Troy Vincent and Marco Coleman — posed as cowboys, holding rifles and labeling themselves "The Young Guns."

Their plan was to sell the posters — which were quite nice — and donate the proceeds to charity.

But at that time there were drug and gang wars in Miami, and a mini-furor ensued about players posing with guns.

The players all backed out of the plan, and the posters were never sold. Charity wound up losing.

Nobody doubted their intentions, and nobody doubted they meant no harm with their cowboy pose with the guns. It was what people saw and heard more than what they did that mattered. As one of the players back then said: "It's really hard for me to believe that photo caused anyone to be offended." His point of view was not wrong; others just viewed the poster differently.

It will be interesting to see what Nike does with this latest ad (it may do nothing). Earlier, the city of Cleveland turned down making the photo of James into the new downtown poster of James.

Clearly a lot of other phrases could have been (and could be) used. How Nike deals with the fallout of the words it chose will be interesting.

The good thing about the roster is that in the regular season Shaq does not need to play big minutes. Mike Brown can keep him at 20-to-25 per game, because he has depth — and will gain more depth when Leon Powe returns. But if Shaq is needed more, the Cavs can play him more. Which will happen against teams like Orlando, San Antonio and the Lakers.

This is the beauty of the way the Cavs are built. They can put many different lineups on the floor, and feel good about them. Quite frankly Brown deserves credit for the way he's managed all the different lineups. Last I looked the Cavs have the best record in basketball — in a season when it took a fair amount of time for all the parts to come together.

I really feel good about this team, and its postseason chances. Barring injury of course.

Some thoughts:

–All season long I've been wrestling with the idea that either the Cavs were lacking one small element this season, or they were simply not expending as much energy in this regular season as they did last. The latter seemed most likely. It's a veteran team and it learned last season that regular-season celebrations don't overshadow postseason disappointments.

So they Cavs have been giving effort this season, but not overdoing it or getting too caught up in the regular season. But … when the big games come they hone in their focus and concentration.

This seemed to be what happened Christmas Day in Los Angeles. They upped their focus, played well and — combined with the Lakers having a bit of a blasé attitude about the game — played much better.

The Cavs now have won in Orlando and Los Angeles, and they had an outstanding four-game holiday swing.

At this point, I think I'm abandoning 96 percent of doubt. Because the Cavs certainly seem to have what it takes to be among the elite.

They can play several different lineups — notice what Z and Shaq were able to do against the Lakers big guys when they were on the court together, and notice the damage some small lineups have done? — and they have LeBron James. The only concern — and this is miniscule — is that a team best be very aware of itself to be able to turn the switch on and off and make it work.

So far there's every reason to believe this will not be an issue.

So far there's every reason to believe this will be another fun April, May and June.

–Have to like how LeBron said the game was not really a message to the Lakers, but it was a message "to ourselves" about how good the Cavs could be.

James has that superstar's quality of condensing the issues and the elements of game to their essence.

Listen to him after a game and he always gets the key facts right.

–It was kind of entertaining to see the Lakers disintegrate in one game becuase of officials' calls, no?

–Bill Simmons, the Sports Guy on ESPN, wrote a lengthy tome last week about possible trading deadline moves. Many of his rumors and proposals included the Cavs trading Shaquille O'Neal.

Some of the deals might make sense. Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood and another player for Shaq's expiring contract?

Not too bad.

Adding Antawn Jamison to the Cavs would improve the team.

But then you watch Shaq against some matchups and you see why the Cavs acquired him. He was effective against Dwight Howard, and against the Lakers he had a very strong game.

And when you think of the playoffs you realize that's when he'll be needed more than ever.

Trade Shaq?

It would have to be one unbelievable offer.

–Here's one national view of the Cavs from ESPN's J.A. Adande, who writes: "It's time for Cleveland's team to be considered elite again."

Shaq has promised he will handle Dwight Howard man-to-man, but said the Magic will have to double him. He has been dismissive of Howard in the past, and has bristled at Howard's stealing his "Superman" mantra.

Tim Povtak of AOL thinks Howard will dominate, saying "there will be some sadness in seeing (O'Neal) get destroyed on his former home court Wednesday night by Dwight Howard." Yet 62 percent of those taking part in an online poll with the story think the Cavs will win (I voted once, and picked the Magic).

Me, I'm worried about Shaq — for a different reason. Tonight's game is one game, and the Cavs are more than candid about admitting that they are not playing at their peak at the moment. If they win, it would be great. If they don't, well they're not playing at their peak right now (Remind me I used this before if I'm still using it March).

I'm worried about Shaq because of off-the-court concerns. This week, his wife Va'Shaundya O'Neal (Shaunie) filed separation papers in a California court, with intent to divorce.

Your first thought in this is to extend a lot of thoughts to O'Neal. Because any time children are involved it's got to be painful. The O'Neals have four kids, who evidently were moved to LA the day before the legal proceedings were filed.
Clearly this is serious stuff. Potentially painful stuff. And if O'Neal has one thought on LA tonight and one in Orlando, well it would be understandable.

Just as clearly, what happens with his kids is prime importance. But divorces can be difficult — see Kosar, Bernie — and they can affect a player's mental well-being and ability to concentrate.

Shaq might have the experience and mental fortitude to plow right through it, but this might be a situation that stays with the Cavs as this season continues.

This game might have shown the strength of the combination of two superstars better than any since the season started a brief time ago.

James was excellent, but the Cavs took control of the game when they pounded the ball inside to Shaq, who made 7-of-9 shots, scored 21 points and had eight rebounds.

The Cavs basically took Shaq off that silly high pick-and-roll spot he had been in and permanently settled him on the low block, where he can be most effective. If teams single-cover him, he can score. If they double, he can pass.

It worked very well.

And as Mike Brown pointed out, O'Neal gets the other team into foul trouble, which gets the Cavs into the bonus quicker. Brendan Haywood fouled out of the game, and Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee both had four fouls.

"We had 12 fouls from the bigs alone (in the first half)," Haywood said. "You read in between the lines what you want to. It's not hard. The game is played a certain way until a certain point."

There were questionable calls, but no more than usual.

Too, does Haywood expect to get calls in the Q against O'Neal and James? What he did say that was accurate was the fouls took away the Wizards' aggressiveness. The Wizards had an 18-point lead in the first half that disappeared pretty quickly.

"What happened was that we had bigs setting good screens and doing things," Wizards coach Flip Saunders said. "And when the bigs got into foul trouble, it was tough to get some of those and they (the Cavs) put a little more emphasis and we didn't have as much of an inside presence at that point."

The key point: The Cavs had an option with O'Neal they've lacked in the past. If another team has foul trouble like Washington had, the Cavs can go to Shaq on the block.

Things pretty much worked the way they were supposed to work for the first time this season.

And it was nice to see.

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."

Psychologoists. The author of “The Love Test.”

Wow.