Last I checked there is a very big Cavs game tonight in Orlando. There we get our first glimpse to see how much of a difference the addition of Shaquille O'Neal will have on the Cavs.

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.

The best thing about the Cavs win over Washington Tuesday night was that Shaquille O'Neal played so well. The second-best thing was that LeBron James did not have to be spectacular in the win.

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.

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."

It's been out a while, but it's still worth reading … One SI.com analyst is not all ga-ga over the Cavs acquisition of Shaq. He writes: “Aside from his abysmal free-throw shooting, the biggest flaws in Shaq's game are defending the high pick-and-roll and executing quick rotations in the paint. Put simply, he doesn't remove the Cavs' most glaring vulnerability against teams they must beat to make their season a success and foster the loyalty of their homegrown superstar.”

The Wall Street Journal (of all publications) takes a look at how Shaq and LeBron James will get along. The story is headlined “Is this basketball marriage doomed?” And it includes this: “Dr. Virginia Rutter, a sociologist, psychologist and co-author of ‘The Love Test,’ likens the Shaq-LeBron union to an arranged marriage, where ‘the well-being of the group depends on a good union, and the necessity of [the group's] well-being also helps the relationship.’ In other words, the pair's obligation to the team, she says, makes it more likely they'll get along than if they were friends independently.”

Psychologoists. The author of “The Love Test.”

Wow.

From Yahoo on Dwight Howard: " … there’s no escaping Shaq now."

AOL's David Whitley has an interesting take on Shaquille O'Neal: "Cavs fans are going to discover what people in Orlando, LA , Miami and Phoenix already knew. Shaq is far more interested in being Shaq than being a basketball player.Being Shaq means pursuing every whim, indulging every desire and getting motivated when he darned well pleases. "

I think the boss wants me to write about Shaq’s reality show for the paper. Offer some kind of opinion. But I'm not sure what opinion to have. Shaq does a reality show. It's gonna be funny. It's gonna be interesting. What's the fourth graf. I may still do it, but right now I wonder: Does the world really need another reality show?

Meanwhile, I like this picture of Shaq (credit to Getty Images) …

Orlando's Anthony Johnson re-arranged Mo Williams face in the playoffs. Now Johnson is opining on the Cavs acquisition of Shaquille O'Neal. His thoughts as told to the The Post and Courier in Charleston: "Shaq is always a force to be reckoned with. But he's slowing down quite a bit, and it doesn't really change things with how we match up with Cleveland."

We haven’t had a Shaq update in a while. He wears Li-Nings, the Chinese shoes, and I found this latest ad featuring Shaq in the shoes here.