How about that, Cavaliers faithful!

The post-LeBron Cavaliers are undefeated, ladies and gentlemen! They just beat the defending Eastern Conference champion Celtics, the team that beat LeBron, both last night and in the playoffs last year.

Sure, it's just one game, and you don't want to read too much into a 1-0 start. The Celtics were likely a little bit worn out, it being the second night of a back-to-back for them, and that likely contributed to the Cavaliers' 27-14 edge in the fourth quarter. But the Cavs were playing without Mo Williams, arguably their best player (I would say second-best). So this was still pretty big.

J.J. Hickson, who has shown flashes of brilliance before but was usually overshadowed by the bigger stars on this team, put on an impressive 21-point performance on 8-of-11 shooting. Daniel Gibson, who also fits the description I gave Hickson above, contributed 16 off the bench. But this was a total team effort. The Cavs had six players in double-figures, and that doesn't include their leading rebounder, Anderson Varejao, who got 10 boards to go with his eight points, along with his usual sterling defense.

This Cavaliers team has a lot of the same players they had last year, but they're a totally different team. Tonight's game proves they're not necessarily very much worse.

Tribe takes second straight series

Jake Westbrook came within a single out of pitching a complete-game shutout yesterday against the Orioles, just one start after getting his first major league win since 1988. OK, it was 2008, but the point is, it was a long time. Westbrook gave up nine hits yesterday, but a lot of them were ground balls that happened to find holes. He struck out eight, against a single walk. If he pitches like that on a regular basis, he'll do just fine. He still got the complete game in the Indians' 5-1 victory, on 116 pitches.

Westbrook was aided by home runs from Matt LaPorta and Russell Branyan, the latter of which was Branyan's fourth home run of the year, all coming in the past week. There's no question that the guy can touch 'em all if he makes contact. ... Incidentally, you may remember that "touch 'em all time" was Jack Corrigan's signature home run call when he broadcast Tribe games on WUAB-43. A friend of mine used to think he was saying "touch of old time," which confused him because there were more home runs being hit than ever before. I found that amusing.

In other notes:

• The Celtics beat the Magic in Orlando to steal home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference Finals yesterday. Maybe the Cavaliers weren't so bad in that series; maybe it's just that the Celtics are playing over their heads right now.

• WTAM has started a daily "LeBron watch" or whatever they're calling it at 7:45 every morning. The guy can't do anything until July 1, so what there is to talk about every single day between now and then, I can't fathom. But I'm sure they'll come up with something.

• In a non-sports-related note, heavy metal legend Ronnie James Dio died of stomach cancer yesterday. At various times the lead singer of Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, his own band Dio, and Heaven & Hell, Ronnie had a unique, powerful voice, and while his lyrics could be a bit hokey, he had his own style, and this is a great loss to the music world. Rest in peace, Ronnie. Anyone who wants to hear Ronnie sing on a great song they've probably never heard should check out this youtube link.

Epitaph on what used to be such a promising season

As last night's game ended, my wife was holding our three-month-old daughter and trying to put her to sleep. We watched LeBron James hug Celtics players one by one, then take off his jersey and walk into the locker room, as the ESPN commentators wondered aloud whether that would be the last time LeBron ever took off a Cavaliers jersey. As the postgame interviews started, leading off with Kevin Garnett, I picked up the remote and asked my wife what she'd like to watch. She said, "Definitely not interviews with Celtics players."

I scrolled through the recordings on our DVR, found last night's installment of Jeopardy!, and we watched that. It's the annual Tournament of Champions, and though it was a runaway for one of the contestants, the Tournament of Champions is always interesting to watch. At no point during the program did I stop thinking about what I'd just seen from Boston, but it was at least a helpful diversion.

After Jeopardy! ended, my wife asked me if I was sad. I don't remember word for word what I said, but it was something to the effect that no, I'm not sad, but I'm very disappointed. It's just a sporting event, it's really not important in the grand scheme of things, etc., etc. But I really wanted to see this Cavaliers team win a championship.

I really wanted to see this Cavaliers team win a championship.

The team that steamrolled through the NBA all season, swept the Lakers, hung tough against all the league's heavy hitters, and looked unstoppable, simply rolled over when it counted the most. LeBron James' elbow obviously is a big part of the reason why, as he clearly was physically off his game for this whole series against Boston, but he seemed mentally off his game too. He grabbed 19 rebounds and had a triple-double last night, but he seemed to play lazy defense too. How many times did he fail to stay in front of his man, for example? And as the seconds ticked off at the end of the game, he and the Cavs completely gave up, conceding when they still might have had some faint glimmer of hope if they fouled to stop the clock.

Now the talk will turn to LeBron's future. Will he stay in Cleveland? Will he go to New York or Chicago or Miami? I have no idea, and right this minute, I barely even care.

Which LeBron James will show up tonight?

Will it be the LeBron who torched the Celtics in game three, or the LeBron who couldn't hit a jump shot to save his life in game five? Will it be the LeBron who scored the Cavs' last 25 points to beat the Pistons in double-overtime in game five of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2007, or the LeBron who kept passing up opportunities to drive the lane off pick-and-rolls the other night? Will it be the LeBron who has dominated the NBA all season, or the LeBron who had seven turnovers in game four of this series? Will The King show up, or will he The Serf? Will we witness the kind of dominance we've always known him for, or will he let this Cavaliers season (and possibly his Cavaliers career) end with a faint whimper?

I don't know. By the next time I post on this blog, the Cavaliers season may be over, and LeBron may have played his last game as a Cavalier. I dearly hope neither of those things will be true, but both of them have an uncomfortably high probability of being so.

If that happens, maybe I should stop subjecting myself to the torture that is being a Cleveland sports fan. The Cavs won't be worth much without him, and the Browns and Indians don't seem to be anywhere near contending anytime soon. Maybe I should start watching ballet or take up knitting or something instead.

Pathetic

I don't have much to say about that embarrassment at the Q last night. If it was LeBron James' last home game as a Cavalier, he will have gone out with one of the worst performances of his NBA career. He didn't have much help, either from his teammates or from the coaching staff, but LeBron is the back-to-back MVP. He sure didn't play like it. We've seen him take over games like this, but for whatever reason, in this series — with the sole exception of game three — he's been unable or unwilling to do it.

If the Cavaliers lose game six in Boston and LeBron leaves in the coming offseason, he can't say the front office didn't give him enough pieces to win with. The only person LeBron can blame for not winning a title in Cleveland is LeBron.

Don't panic, Cavalier nation

Yes, the Cavaliers lost yesterday in Boston, and it was a game they could have won. They had it down to a two-point game with less than five minutes left, before the Celtics pulled away at the end.

Yes, Rajon Rondo dominated, scoring 29 points with 18 rebounds and 13 assists. How does a 6'1" guy get 18 rebounds in an NBA playoff game? Seriously! We've got to find a way to slow that guy down.

Yes, LeBron James played like he did in game two, failing to take over at any point, perhaps raising more questions about the health of his elbow. He flirted with a triple-double himself, but only scored 22 points and turned the ball over seven times.

But you know what? It's now a 2-2 series, and games five and seven (if necessary) will be in Cleveland. The Cavaliers are clearly the better team, when LeBron is playing like LeBron. Game five is tomorrow night, and I think the Cavs will be ready.

Now THAT is what I'm discussing

Was there some question about one of LeBron James' joints? I vaguely seem to remember something like that ... maybe a shoulder or a wrist?

I'm joking, of course. We all know there has been some doubt about the health of LeBron's elbow, pretty much since the playoffs started against Chicago. And after game two of this Boston series, you read in many places (including Of Fair Hooker) that the elbow was clearly hampering The King. But he came out last night and silenced all that talk. LeBron came out like a man on a mission in that first quarter, pouring in 21 in the game's first 12 minutes and spurring his team to a 19-point lead at the quarter pole.

A lot of times, when a team gets off to a huge early lead, they'll start relaxing and let the other team back into the game. The opposite happened last night. The Cavs never let the foot off the accelerator, and coasted to a hugely impressive 124-95 win. It was the biggest road victory in Cavaliers postseason history, which is impressive; it was the biggest home loss in Celtics postseason history, which is astounding, given how many playoff games the Celtics have played in their storied history.

LeBron was the main catalyst, but this was a total team effort. James dominated that first quarter and put in 38 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists on the night, but really, everybody contributed. Antawn Jamison had 20 points and 12 rebounds; Shaquille O'Neal had 12 points and nine rebounds; Mo Williams had 12 points and seven assists; Anthony Parker scored 11 on four-of-four shooting, including three from downtown; Delonte West scored 14 off the bench; Anderson Varejao had six points and four rebounds in just 17 minutes.

And the Cavaliers regain the upper hand in this series. If they keep playing like this, it's going to be a five-gamer, and the Cavs will clinch it at home on Tuesday. Obviously, the Celtics are capable of beating our boys in one game, but I say it's over two games from now.

Time for concern, Cavaliers faithful

It's a new series with the Boston Celtics, ladies and gentlemen. But now it's a best-of-five, and the Celts have home-court advantage. And the questions about LeBron James' elbow are back. Fortunately, he's got three days to rest it, but that helps the aging Celtics too. Beantown manhandled our boys on the way to a 104-86 victory.

LeBron, on the day he formally received his second straight NBA MVP award, made a lot of mistakes and had little impact on this game until the fourth quarter, when the game was out of reach. He scored 24 points, 12 of which came in that fourth period, on 7-of-15 shooting (0-for-4 from downtown). He was able to get the ball inside a few times, and that's where most of his points came from. He wasn't able to hit from the perimeter worth a darn. He turned the ball over five times. He made some defensive contributions, to be sure, but this game was proof that as LeBron goes, so go the Cavs.

The Cavaliers were lacking in defensive intensity in this one. The Celtics had six players in double figures, but the biggest key to their offensive output was point guard Rajon Rondo. His 19 assists tied a Celtics team record for a playoff game — and when you tie a Celtics team playoff record, you know you've done something special. And late in the second quarter, he made one of the prettiest basketball moves I ever saw, dribbling toward the right side of the backboard, then stopping short as he held the ball off to the right, before moving left and laying the ball up. That move faked out not one, but two Cavaliers defenders. Regardless, it's Rondo's ability to create for his teammates that the Cavaliers simply have to find a way to stop.

There is reason for optimism, however. For example, look at the teams' respective outside shooting in this one — the Cavaliers shot just 4-of-21, the Celtics 9-of-19. Neither team is going to keep up that kind of pace. The Cavaliers went 2-2 against the Celtics in the regular season, splitting two games in each team's building. The Cavs' win in Boston was a very convincing 108-88 victory on Feb. 25, in which our guys outscored theirs by 21 in the fourth quarter. And as Tim Legler pointed out on SportsCenter, the Cavs were the best defensive team in the NBA this year. Their lapses in this game were uncharacteristic, and there's no reason to believe they'll continue to play like that. They'll pick it up.

... I hope.

Some quick thoughts

I've been busy, but I want to share just a few thoughts on just a few things:

• I've heard some people call the Cavs' win on Saturday over the Celtics "troubling," or words to that effect. Like them, I didn't enjoy seeing our boys fall behind early, but I sure did enjoy watching them claw their way back into it and pull away at the end. These Celtics may not be quite as talented as they were when they won the title two years ago, but this is still a very good Celtics team. I would be delighted to see three more games against them go exactly the way this one did.

• Our man LeBron James has been named MVP for the second year in a row. Yawn. ... Don't get me wrong, LeBron had an outstanding season and certainly deserves the award. But I find it hard to care who gets the hardware. I'm interested in results on the court. And I'm far more interested in whether LeBron is still in Cleveland when he wins his third MVP.

• Speaking of LeBron, he says his elbow feels about the same as it did at the end of the series against the Bulls. Given that he shot his last free throw in that series left-handed but came back with 35/7/7 in Game 1 against the Celtics, I find that kind of hard to believe. But only LeBron knows what LeBron feels like.

• The Indians pulled out an exciting 11-inning win over the first-place Twins on Saturday, but came back with a lackluster effort yesterday that included the trifecta of poor clutch hitting, poor pitching and poor defense. The Indians gave up 20 hits in that 8-3 loss. Twenty freaking hits! The Twins stranded 16 runners, including at least one in every inning but the fifth. The 2010 Indians are not that bad a team, but they're clearly inferior to those Twins.

• A recent Wall Street Journal study found that the Indians are baseball's most hated team. How can this be? Local fans are obviously not impressed by the current crop of Indians, but they can't be more hated than the Yankees, can they? Well, according to Page 2's Jim Caple, the study was not intended the way it was taken:

But it turns out Cleveland ... [is] not hated ... The Journal simply misinterpreted the analysis. A Nielsen rep told the New York Daily News that its rankings were based merely on positive-and-negative feelings generated by teams from their performances the first three weeks of the season. They were not meant to show whether at team was most-hated or most-liked overall. Which explains why teams off to bad or disappointing starts ranked poorly, as well as the Yankees whose lofty standards require that anything short of a ticker-tape parade by May is considered disappointing by their fans.

Whew!

Acta era begins today; go Butler; etc.

Very quick hits, because I don't have a lot of time this morning:

* The Indians open the season at 2:05 Eastern this afternoon on the south side of Chicago. It's not just any opening day, because former All-Star Jake Westbrook gets the start for the Tribe, in his first action since May 2008, after having Tommy John surgery. The White Sox counter with Mark Buehrle, who I will always remember as the guy who hit Travis Hafner in the mouth with a pitch in 2005. Like Westbrook, Pronk is also trying to return to his All-Star-caliber days, so maybe seeing Buehrle out there can get him going.

* Despite the Cavaliers' loss yesterday in Boston, they clinched home-court advantage throughout the postseason thanks to the Lakers' loss to the Spurs. So, with five games left in the regular season, the Cavs officially have nothing to play for. It is perhaps slightly ironic that their next game after clinching home court throughout is against their likely first-round opponent, the Raptors, tomorrow night. I don't expect the Cavs to take it too easy on them, but I don't expect them to play with fire in their eyes either. 

* It's worth noting that despite the loss yesterday, the Cavaliers came back from 22 points down against the Celtics to take the lead in the fourth quarter. And if LeBron James could have hit that three-pointer with four seconds left, the Cavs probably would have won that game. Ultimately, a loss is a loss, but that was awfully interesting.

* I don't have a whole lot of confidence that this will happen, but I'm very much hoping Butler can beat Duke tonight in the national championship game. (I rooted for Butler against Michigan State, even though my dad went to Michigan State, because I can't resist an underdog. So you can imagine how badly I'd like them to beat the Blue Devils.) Duke is probably the better team, but then, so was Syracuse, and Butler beat them too. The Bulldogs beating the Spartans on Saturday despite going over 10 minutes of the second half without hitting a field goal was one of the most unlikely things I've ever seen. Butler won it with defense, and they'll need more of that to beat Duke.

* Tiger Woods makes his return this week at the Masters. I wonder if that'll get any headlines?

Cavs won't go 82-0

The King-n-Shaq Show opened last night at Quicken Loans Arena, with a 95-89 loss to the Boston Celtics. OK, big deal. The Cavaliers blew a 14-point first-quarter lead, which the Celtics turned around to a 15-point third-quarter lead, before the Cavs made it interesting late.

Sure, I'm a little disappointed our boys didn't win, but the Celtics are a darned good team too. This doesn't mean they're better than we are, it just means they were better than we were last night. Give Shaq and LeBron some time to get used to each other — not to mention newcomers Jamario Moon, Anthony Parker, etc. — and they'll be OK.

Boston, here we come

An espn.com poll found that 65% of the country believes the Celtics will win the seven-game playoff series against the Cavaliers that starts tonight. And there's certainly good reason to think so. The Celtics had the NBA's best record this year, at 66-16. They started the season strong, struggled a bit in January and February, and then finished the regular season strong. Yes, Atlanta surprisingly took them to seven games, but Boston dominated its home games. And the Cavaliers struggled after making the mega-trade that brought them more talent than they gave up, but altered their team chemistry.

But the Cavs did beat Washington pretty handily in two games, and pulled out two others, which was enough to take the series. Sure, the Celtics are a better team than the Wizards, but let's not forget the Cavaliers did win two of four games against Boston this year. Each team won both home games, but it's not like the Celtics blew us out.

And one other thing. Yes, the Celtics clearly have more overall talent than the Cavaliers. But we do have one thing they can't match: LeBron. He showed us last year against the Pistons that he's capable of winning a playoff game practically singlehandedly.

It should be an interesting series. Go Cavs.

Moral victory?

You know, the Cavaliers were down nine after one period tonight against the Celtics, and they only lost by five. And for a short time, it looked like LeBron might be seriously hurt. But he came back, and he scored his 10,000th career point on a spectacular left-handed dunk. He's now the youngest player in NBA history to score 10,000 points. But the bottom line is, it goes under "L" in the standings.

I usually gush about LeBron on this blog, and I still believe he's the best player in the game today. But it seems like every time he stubs his toe or bumps his elbow, it looks like the worst injury in the world. He writhes on the ground and grimaces in pain. And then he gets up and finishes the game. I don't know if he's a drama queen or what, but it's getting a bit old. That said, I'm still enormously glad he's on my team, and I hope he stays on it.

Delonte West had his best game as a Cavalier so far (out of three, but still), with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting. And he had a plus/minus of +6. He's a former Celtic, and had a good game against the Celtics earlier this year, while with the Sonics. Let's hope he can keep it going.

Mike Brown put on quite a show too -- getting thrown out of an NBA game for the first time, late in the third quarter. He didn't like a foul called against LeBron. I honestly wasn't watching the play, so I can't say whether he was right or wrong, but I've never seen him that animated.

I don't have much else to say about this game. When we fell behind in the first quarter, I decided to do some reading and didn't pay very close attention. What can I say? I'm human.

Give Redd credit

Michael Redd hit a clutch 3-pointer at the buzzer to carry the Bucks to a 105-102 win over the Cavaliers Tuesday night. He hit it with Wally Szczerbiak's hand in his face; Szczerbiak had to be careful, so as not to allow Redd to break the tie from the foul line, but he still definitely contested the shot.

Redd's dagger followed LeBron's layup with 5.9 seconds left, capping a furious Cavs comeback that was made possible, in part, by Redd himself missing a free throw in the closing minute. It looked like the game was destined for overtime. But James left too much time on the clock. Even so, we figured to have an extra five minutes, with Redd jacking up a prayer at the buzzer. But it went in.

Interestingly, the first and last buckets of the game were both pretty darned improbable. The first, in fact, was far more improbable than the last. Anderson Varejao, playing in his first game in a month, due to an ankle sprain, started in place of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who had an upper respiratory infection and watched the game from a Milwaukee hotel room. And Varejao's the one who scored the first hoop. So right there, you're looking at fairly long odds. But the way it happened was beyond the normal limits of probability.

Varejao got the ball at the lower left corner of the key, and with his back to the basket, tried to make a pretty pass to Delonte West, who was cutting under the hoop. The Bucks' Mo Williams got a hand on the ball, however -- and batted it right into the basket from about four feet away. And the Cavs were up 2-0.

Z was obviously missed, and Varejao was not in any kind of shape to pick up the slack for him. I don't know many people who would be in great shape after missing a month, though. Andy finished with six points, six rebounds and five personal fouls.

The top two new guys both played worse than they did in their first game as Cavaliers, though neither was really bad. Ben Wallace got 11 rebounds, but did basically nothing else; and Wally Szczerbiak scored 13 points, but on 5-of-18 shooting. He seemed not to see a single shot he didn't like, and there were plenty of shots he shouldn't have liked.

Joe Smith had a decent game, with 12 points and eight rebounds off the bench. And Delonte West did OK too; he had just seven points, but with eight rebounds and seven assists.

Mr. James was his usual MVP-candidate self, with 35 points, though he recorded just four rebounds and six assists. Somehow, it seems like an off-night if he doesn't at least threaten to get a triple-double. But that just shows you how spoiled we are when it comes to LeBron. He did get the Cavs' only blocked shot of the game, though he blocked it right into the hands of the Bucks, who scored anyway.

I think it's pretty clear that if Z had been healthy, we'd have won this game. We had almost no low-post presence on the offensive end. Mike Brown has said repeatedly that the Cavs are a "no-excuses team," but that means they can't make excuses for themselves -- it doesn't bar me from making excuses for them.

Also, we have to remember that we have four key players who have now played exactly two games with the rest of the team. Take away the second-most-important holdover, and you can't be that surprised to lose, even to a pretty bad Milwaukee team.

We've got the Boston Celtics tomorrow night, in Massachusetts. I'll be shocked if we pull that one out. But when you've got a LeBron James, you just never know.