Cleveland Cavaliers

AP photoRasheed Wallace and the Pistons beat the Cavaliers at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit, a building the Cavs have had little success in.• The next big step for the Cavaliers is how to handle the fourth quarter....

AP photoJoe Dumars and the Pistons - the poster boys of stability in the NBA - shook things up in their quest to get back to the Finals.Watching the Pistons with Allen Iverson got me thinking about trades. More specifically,...

AP photoNobody knows what LeBron James will do in 2010. Probably not even LeBron."When I decide to make the decision, it's going to basically put me in a position where I feel like I can win multiple championships. If it's...

APThe New York Yankees put a time limit on their offer to former Indians pitcher CC Sabathia. Here's a funny story: The New York Yankees have given CC Sabathia a deadline to accept their free-agent offer, as reported in this...

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Since the Cleveland Browns are not known to have an imaginative offense, it was almost shocking that Josh Cribbs was involved in a new wrinkle that provided a rushing touchdown against Buffalo on Monday night. It was Cribbs, the...

INDEPENDENCE: Cavaliers coach Mike Brown hopes that his players learned something they can use from their loss Wednesday to the Detroit Pistons, beginning tonight with the Atlanta Hawks (7-4) swooping into Quicken Loans Arena.

AUBURN HILLS, MICH.: What happened with the Cavaliers in their loss to the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night has been emblematic of the team this season.

The Cavaliers lost to the Pistons 96-89 at the Palace of Auburn Hills in a game in which both teams turned up the intensity significantly at different times.

All good things must come to an end and on Wednesday, the Pistons snapped the Cavaliers win streak at eight. But the Wine and Gold has already established themselves as a growing force -- and we can prove it By the Numbers.

The Pistons topped the Cavaliers for the fourth straight time in Motown, snapping the Wine and Gold's eight-game win streak with a 58-point second half -- topping Cleveland, 96-89, on Tuesday night at The Palace.

The Wine and Gold look to extend their win streak to nine, but it won't be easy as they travel to the Motor City for a showdown with Allen Iverson and the Pistons. The Big O checks in from up north.

The LA Times says "Want Better Ratings? Hire LeBron James and Win Games" Perfect holiday gifts Mookie finds Magic wrapped up in cellophane Women Like Sports is looking for a Guest Poster; this plea also contains links to some...

Ethan Jaynes, the man who can make even a day when you wake up crying seem worth living, sent me a link to LeBron's latest set of commercials. This one is my favorite. Click here to view the rest....

AEM and I don't agree on everything, including The Best Basketball Player Ever; this subject, however, is ridiculous. I'm with you, AEM. Michael Jordan Has It All, Almost by AEM (The 5th Corner) If I asked you to tell me...

Thanks to the folks at Gillette and EA Sports, the guys gave away a free copy of NBA Live '09 for the XBOX 360 on yesterday's Wednesday Night Tip-Off Show.

The question posed to our listeners was, "Instead of a buying a brand new Hummer H2, what would you have done with the $80,000 that LeBron James' mother received when he was a senior at St. Vincent-St. Mary?" The best and most colorful response came by way of Jon from The City of Brotherly Love:

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80K the Bron Bron Way

"With $80,000, LeBron's moms was definitely trying to buy her baby a phat ride. No knocking that. So, your boy needs a car. He's also 6'8" and 240 pounds, so no Fiats. Your manchild needs room. So, here's what I suggest:

Forget the Hummer. Get him a vintage 1957 DeSoto Adventurer! A car Snoop Dogg would be proud of! Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1I4Pp15ato

You've got to go with the white with gold trim! Get some hydraulics in that mother and Bron gets his pimptastic ride for half the cost!

With the other 40 G's, Momma can get a make over. Hair, nails, facial -- the works. Then she buys a fur coat. Cause the mother of the best basketball player needs to look good.

How much does an oxygen chamber cost? With whatever is left, buy a donkey cause you know Bron's back will be killing him from carrying his teams!"

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We'd like to thank Jon and all the other listeners who sent in their responses. Thanks for your support of MVN Live and we hope to hold more contests like so in the future. We'll see you next Tuesday at 5 p.m. ET for the Maui Invitational Preview!

Last night was a busy one in the NBA, with two-thirds of the league in uniform and on the court.  A number of intriguing matchups took place, including the Cavaliers at Pistons, Mavericks at Rockets, and Bulls at Trail Blazers. Which teams came out on top, and who has been playing well of late?  Keep reading to find out who's been looking good, and who might be needing another pep talk from Lou Holtz.

Rising:

Dallas Mavericks - One of the more intriguing story lines throughout the early part of the season has involved the three Texas teams. Both the Spurs and Mavericks have been struggling, while the Rockets have been trying to figure out how to best integrate Ron Artest into their gameplan. On Wednesday night, the Mavericks got their second chance to show the world that they are still a force to be reckoned with, as they faced Houston on ESPN. These two teams played during the first week of the season, with the Rockets, paced by Yao Ming's dominant 30/13 game, coming out on top.

Last night was a different story. Both teams were missing key players: Yao sat out because of a sore left foot, while the Mavs' Josh Howard was nursing a swollen ankle and couldn't go. Howard's absence gave Jason Terry a little motivation to perform off the bench, as he led the Mavs with 31 points, while Dirk Nowitzki added 24 and 12 as the Mavs beat the punchless Rockets, 96-86, for their third win in a row. Dallas will play nine of their next 11 games at home and should be back above .500 and in contention within a few weeks if they can keep up their solid play.

Dwyane Wade - The Miami Heat might just be an average team at this point, as they lost to the Raptors last night to fall to 6-6 on the season, but their main man, D-Wade, has been blazing all year long. Last night he notched a career-best five blocks to go along with 40 points and 11 assists. The last time someone put up a 40-10-5 game was 1977, five years before Wade was even born. There might not be anyone else in the league right now aside from LeBron James and possibly Chris Bosh that's playing up to the ridiculously high standards that Wade has set. It's still too early to start talking about MVPs, but this guy is certainly on my short list of candidates so far.

Marvin Williams - The Atlanta Hawks came into Wednesday night's tilt versus the struggling Wizards on a four-game losing streak. Washington, which still has only one win on the season, seemed desperate for a win last night, but it was Williams who refused to let the Hawks lose for the fifth straight time. With both Josh Smith and Al Horford injured, Williams was forced to play power forward and came up big. Even with having to defend Antawn Jamison, Marv scored 21 points and tied a career high with 14 rebounds. But best of all, he hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 26 seconds left to give the Hawks their seventh win on the year.

Others:  Minnesota Timberwolves (snapped eight-game losing streak in win over 76ers), L.A. Clippers (moved to 2-9 with 20-point win over Thunder), Greg Oden (puts up 11/10/3 in only 17 minutes in home debut), John Salmons (29 points to lead Kings to road win over Hornets), C.J. Miles (25 points in helping to boost Jazz's home record to 6-0) and Denver Nuggets (now 7-1 with Billups after beating San Antonio).

Falling:

Chicago Bulls - I was really looking forward to the Bulls-Blazers game last night, pitting the last two #1 draft picks, Derrick Rose and Greg Oden, against each other. Too bad Rose and the Bulls barely showed up, as Chicago fell behind by 21 after the first quarter and ended up losing by 42 points, 116-74. I turned off the game and went to bed at halftime, because Portland was absolutely having their way with the hapless Bulls. Rose had by far his worst game of his young career, scoring only 6 points off 1-for-8 shooting, with one assist and zero rebounds. Chicago, 0-2 so far on their seven-game road trip, looks to get back on track against the Warriors on Friday night.

LeBron James - The Chosen One actually scored 25 points last night, barely below his season average, but upon close inspection you'd see that he had an off night in yesterday's loss to the Pistons, which snapped Cleveland's eight-game winning streak. James went only 8-of-21 from the field, including 0-for-4 from downtown, but did manage to add his usual LeBron-like numbers of six assists, six rebounds and four steals. I realize I might be nitpicking in saying that James didn't play well, but his game over the last couple of weeks has made me raise my standards for him to near-MJ heights.

Michael Beasley - Over the last two games, Beasley has averaged only 14 minutes and contributed a combined 13 points, easily his worst two games production-wise of the season. Last night he picked up two quick fouls after barely playing a minute, and didn't even get into the game during the fourth quarter when Miami tried to make a comeback. Look for him to rebound on Saturday when Miami hosts the defensively-challenged Pacers.

Others: Oklahoma City Thunder (league-worst 1-11 and losers of nine straight), Bulls backcourt (Rose/Gordon combined 5-of-20 from field in loss to Portland), and New Orleans Hornets (underwhelming 5-5 after home loss to Kings).

As was evidenced in their recently-snapped eight game winning streak, the Cavaliers finally have a potent offense to match their potent defense this season.

One of the things I was skeptical about at the start of the season was the proposed commitment to a higher tempo game from the Cavaliers. One would think that if a team pushes the ball more on offense, it can only lead to more opportunities for their opponents to score, thus hurting the defense.

In one of Cleveland's early games, an announcer commented that every team says that they are going to run more this season, but after a while every team falls back into their own identity. In accordance with the conventional wisdom, the defensive-minded Cavaliers seem to have followed that trend, now 12 games into the season.

From what I have seen so far, it appears that the tempo advantage for the Cavs is not found in running more, but simply running better.

The addition of Mo Williams has allowed the Cavs to be more effective in the open court by allowing LeBron to run free off of the ball and finish more in transition. Much of these observations can be explained by some of the statistics brought up earlier. With regard to pace factor, the Cavaliers rank 25th in the league with 89.3 possessions per 48 minutes. That is slightly down from last season where they had a pace factor of 90.2.

The more interesting stat is their offensive rating in the 2008-09 campaign through the winning streak. Last year, the Cavs finished the season ranked 20th with 106 points per 100 possessions. This season, however, is a vastly different story as the Cavs - get this - lead the league in offensive rating with an astonishing 113.8 points per 100 possessions. The impact of a full complement plus the addition of Mo Williams has done exactly what was expected and really bolstered this team's offense.

When taking a closer look at the team's offense the conventional wisdom, you could say that the improved shooters have primarily led the Cavaliers' offensive surge. With sharp shooters like Williams, West, Gibson, and Szczerbiak, the Cavaliers surely have their best three-point lineup in the LeBron James era. However, when looking at the percentages, this team is shooting worse than it did during the last two seasons.

At 35 percent, the Cavaliers are not exactly lighting it up from the three-point line. In fact, that percentage puts them at 17th in the NBA. As with everything else referenced to in this article, this is still a young season. But it is definitely a point of interest that a supposed strength of the Cavaliers is, at this point, somewhat of a weakness.

One possible explanation is a propensity for quick or even bad 3's from more confident shooters. In any event, it is an interesting statistic for all of those praising the Cavs new-found three point shooting "prowess".

The real improvement is with regard to the general field goal percentage and the Cavs free throw shooting. Cleveland is off to a torrent start, at least by their standards, from the free throw line. Led by their star LBJ, the Cavaliers are shooting 77.9% from the line, up 6% from last season. As far as field goal percentage is concerned, the Cavs are shooting a hot 47.6%, up a big 4% from last season.

This leaves us to the question of how the defense matches up with both the league and past Cavalier teams.

Last season, the Cavaliers ranked 11th in defensive rating, allowing 106.4 points per 100 possessions. As usual, come playoff time the Cavs were able to lock down on the defensive end and used that to propel them to a game seven against the Celtics. This season, the Cavaliers have managed to give up only 104.9 points per 100 possessions.

In other words, if anything has changed defensively, it's that the Cavs have gotten even better.

The last three games before the loss at Detroit summarize it exactly. When the Cavs needed to step up on the defensive end late in the games against the Nuggets, the Jazz, and the Nets, that is exactly what they did. This is even more reason to be excited about the potential for this years Cavaliers as they now not only can dominate defensively at will, but they can also score it at will.

It appears as if the improved efficiency across the board is key to the Cavaliers increased offensive production from last season. It will be quite interesting to see if Mike Brown is able to get these guys to play his defense alongside their new found offense for 48 minutes. Especially if the shooters begin to knock down their 3's, this team has the potential to remain very dangerous even when they continue to play the better teams in the league.

However, it is certainly very early, and the Cavs have much room for improvement - mainly with the consistency of their new-found offense. This was evidenced throughout the streak and in Wednesday's game against the Pistons. Even so, it is clear that the offense is much improved from a year ago and the rest of the team is certainly no worse for the wear.

The loss to Detroit marked the Cavaliers first opportunity to take the next step this season and win a tough game on the road against a division rival. Instead, Cleveland was given a dose of their own medicine as the Pistons were able to shut the Cavaliers down in the second half, holding them to just 40 points. The Cavs defense was also absent from the second half, allowing the Pistons to rack up 58 points after the break. It seemed as if the Cavaliers were satisfied with the first half and reverted back to their 2007 form, i.e. standing around on offense and watching LeBron and now Mo Williams try to carry the team.

Even with the loss to the Pistons, the Cavaliers still have to be quite pleased with the way this season has started. But they have yet to beat a true contender, with most of their wins coming against lottery teams from a year ago. This is a strong criticism against this team, but the fact of the matter is that the Cavaliers are beating the teams they are supposed to beat. This is important because it is something that they haven't always been the best at. It appears as if the regular season means something to these guys this year, and it clearly shows.

Look for the Cavs to start another winning streak as they travel back home to face the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. After Saturday, the Cavs have a streak of seven games against non-playoff teams from a year ago, four of which are at home. This has all of the makings of another productive stretch of eight games for the Cavaliers.

After the first week of December they could conceivably be sitting pretty with 15 or more wins, a mark they didn't pass last season until after the first of the new year.

Dear Sir, Please relinquish control of your awesome website to Chicago Bulls fans like myself.  I realize you do not like the Bulls and to be honest, I am not too fond of the LeBron’s either.  But man this thing is bigger than Chicago and Cleveland’s respective NBA franchises.  You and I and every Bulls, Cavs, [...]

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