The Cavs came out flat on Saturday night and only scored 10 points in the first quarter! The Cavs were trailing 76-60 at the start of the 4th quarter, and then the Cavs flipped the switch and out-scored the Celtics 34-17 for a huge win!

Three Cavs led the way to victory. LeBron James was a monster throughout the game with 38 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. Sasha Pavlovic was the player that really brought up the Cavs energy level when he entered the game. Pavlovic scored 14 points, grabbed 3 rebounds, dished out 4 assists and blocked 3 shots. Anderson Varejao provided alot of the needed muscle in the paint. Varejao scored 9 points, snatched 10 rebounds and blocked 2 shots.

This was a game the Cavs should have lost as they were sleepwalking for three quarters before flipping the switch. This was a huge win, but the Cavs need to get up better when they are playing bad teams…as they often seem flat against them. The Cavs have improved to 4-2 on the season.

The Cleveland Cavs led 30-18 after the first quarter and never looked back. The starters on the Cavs outscored their bench 57-56 in this game. The Cavs shot a scorching 57% from the floor in this game and out-rebounded the Bulls 47-30! Drew Gooden led the Cavs with 20 points & 9 rebounds. LeBron James had a box-score filler with 19 points, 4 rebounds, 12 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. Off of the bench….Sasha Pavlovic (16 points, 6 rebounds), Donyell Marshall (15 points) and Anderson Varejao (15 points & 7 rebounds).

The Cavs sent a message to the Bulls last night and moved to 3-2 on the season.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas is the prototype NBA starting center. Ilguaskas is a good rebounder and shot blocker but he’s also a good offensive center which is what sets him apart. Z has averaged 15.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.9 blocks per game over his career. Ilgauskas is one of the best centers in the NBA and the Cavs were smart for keeping him in the fold.

Anderson Varejao is the back-up center and he hustles every second he is on the court. Varejao is a good rebounder and defender. For his career, Varejao has averaged 4.8 points & 4.8 rebounds in only 15.9 minutes per game in his career. One area that he needs to improve on is his free-throw shooting. Varejao has only hit 52.4% of his free-throws for his career, and that stinks.

Scot Pollard will be the #3 center for the Cavs. Pollard is a good rebounder that always hustles. Pollard has averaged 4.7 points & 5.0 rebounds per game in only 17.6 minutes per game over his career. Pollard will give the Cavs some good minutes this season when they need him to play.

Dwayne Jones will be the #4 center on the Cavs. He’s got a reputation of being a good rebounder, but he only played 14 games last season as a rookie and will be hard-pressed to play that many games for the Cavs.

LeBron James is quite simply the best player in the NBA. He can do it all on the court and someday could average a triple-double, and I’m not kidding about that. James might be the fastest player in the NBA and he can jump right out of the gym. The real scary thing for the rest of the NBA is that LeBron is only 21 years old. James had a fantastic season last year when he averaged 31.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game! James has increased his scoring each season that he’s been in the NBA which is amazing. I wonder what he will do for an encore this season? Could an NBA Title or League MVP be in James grasp this season? I wouldn’t be surprised if he took home a ring & a trophy this season. That will depend on how the others around him on the team play, because he’s going to bring his “A” game almost every night. For his career, LeBron has averaged 26.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 1.8 steals per game. James is also improving as a shooter and he can nail threes which gives the opposing defense alot of problems because he can stand by the 3-point line and head-fake and drive right by you for a dunk.

Ira Newble will be on of the back-ups, but he doesn’t play that much. Newble has averaged 5.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 assist per game over his career.

Look for Donyell Marshall to be the main back-up at small forward, with Sasha Pavlovic and Shannon Brown also getting a little bit of time here too.

LeBron James missed a free-throw near the end of regulation that set the stage for Tyronn Lue to tie the game and send it to overtime. The Cavs got their butts kicked 14-5 in OT and lost at home. The Cavaliers only shot 62.2% from the free-throw line (23 of 37) and it wound up losing the game for them. The Cavs couldn’t hit the broad side of the barn with a shot, hitting only 36.3% of their shots as a team! The Cavs out-rebounded the Hawks 47-39, but they didn’t play any defense as the Hawks hit 51.9% of their shots from the floor.

LeBron James filled up the boxscore with 34 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, but he only hit 5 of 11 free throws including a crucial miss at the end of regulation. Drew Gooden had a good game, scoring 21 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Larry Hughes added 17 points. Zydrunas Ilgauskas only scored 8 points, but he grabbed 10 rebounds. Donyell Marshall had a pretty good game off of the bench scoring 12 points and grabbing 6 rebounds.

This is a game the Cavs should have won. If they think they are a NBA Title contender, they can’t lose home games to lousy teams like the Hawks.