Not bad, considering ... but still a loss

With the Cavaliers in Milwaukee last night to play the 32-29 Bucks, and already playing without Shaquille O'Neal, Mike Brown decided to sit LeBron James and start Jawad Williams. He surely knew he was giving away the game, but felt that it was worth it to get LeBron some rest. Was he right? I don't know. LeBron did roll his ankle in Friday night's game against the Pistons, but Brown says it had nothing to do with that. But I'll bet there were a lot of pissed-off Milwaukee fans who paid good money for tickets expecting to see The King. (Not that that's Brown's problem.)

In any case, the remaining Cavs did a pretty decent job hanging in there, though it obviously wasn't good enough. Antawn Jamison had his best game as a Cavalier, pouring in 30 points, and Delonte West added 27. Williams, in what was probably his first NBA start (I'm too lazy to look it up) contributed precious little, tallying six points and three rebounds, and putting up a +/- of -29 in 24 minutes.

When your team is playing without its two future Hall of Famers against a plus-.500 team on the road and only loses by seven, you have to be just a little bit pleased with the effort. But still, it goes on the ledger as a loss. They said on SportsCenter that Brown is considering sitting LeBron again on Monday against the Spurs. Of course, the Spurs just lost Tony Parker to a hand injury, so maybe they can still beat them, but I'd feel better about it with LeBron in there. We're in a race with the Lakers for home-court in a theoretical Cleveland-LA Finals, and I don't think that's a small matter.