A new winning streak begins

The Cavaliers struggled to get past the New Orleans Hornets last night, but hey, when you come in with a three-game losing streak, any win is good. The Cavs roared out to a 12-point lead at the quarter pole, then gave up 40 points (!) in the second to trail by three at halftime. The Cavs took the lead again in the third, then the two teams traded the lead back and forth through the fourth, before the Cavs finally pulled away in the closing minutes. Mo Williams' three-pointer with 4:13 to go gave our boys a 92-89 lead, one they never relinquished.

Antawn Jamison played well in his first Cavs start, tallying 18 points and six rebounds. He also put up a +/- of +18, tops in the game. The great LeBron James only scored 20, but added 13 assists. Fellow future Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal also put in 20, with seven boards.

The fact is, this was not a strong effort. The Hornets are a good team, but are playing without first-team all-NBAer Chris Paul (who is also killing my fantasy team by being hurt), and the Cavaliers had a lot of defensive lapses in this game. That's not going to get it done tomorrow night in Boston, not to mention the playoffs.

Cavs fail another test

The Cavaliers have played two games against the NBA's elite, and have lost them both. Last night's 104-92 loss to New Orleans was disappointing, given that the Hornets were playing without starters Tyson Chandler and Peja Stojakovic, not to mention the fact that the Cavs were actually winning as late as the six-minute mark in the fourth quarter. You'd think that if one of the teams were to fall apart down the stretch, it'd be the one playing without two starters.

The difference in the game -- statistically, at least -- was turnovers. The Cavaliers made 18 of them, to the Hornets' 14. That's not a big difference in and of itself, but the Bees made better use of the turnovers they got, converting them into 26 points, compared to the 12 points Cleveland got off New Orleans' TOs.

LeBron didn't have a great game, scoring just 15 points on 6-of-15 shooting. He did dish out 13 assists and got seven rebounds and three steals, but as the Plain Dealer's Brian Windhorst reports, he went 2 1/2 quarters without hitting a single bucket from the half-court offense. When your all-world perennial MVP candidate and defending scoring champion goes dry for that long, it's pretty tough to win.

Left Chris Paul too much time

I had a bad feeling in last night's game between the Cavaliers and Hornets after LeBron scored with 7.7 seconds left, putting the Cavs up one. That gives Chris Paul too much time, I said out loud to my TV. Sure enough, Paul dribbled down the middle of the key, drew three defenders to him, then kicked it out to a wide-open David West, who nailed it. Hornets 100, Cavaliers 99.

We could take comfort in the fact that the Cavs took the team with the best record in the Western Conference to the last second of the game. But a loss is a loss.

But the loss did not taint Joe Tait's 3,000th radio broadcast as the voice of the Cavaliers, dating back to the expansion Cavs in 1970. I don't usually watch the TV broadcasts during halftime, because I've got 200-some channels, and there's always something more interesting on than halftime. But I did watch this one. Former Cavaliers owner Gordon Gund, who brought Tait back after Ted Stepien chased him out of town, came out and said some nice things, cracking a few jokes. An example: "My wife says I've listened to you more than I've listened to her." Danny Ferry said a few things too, but he was obviously nervous, as he's not used to speaking in front of so many people. But he did fine. And when Tait himself addressed the throng, he did it with his usual class and professionalism, thanking many, many people, including you and me for listening to his broadcasts.

Thank YOU, Joe. May you be around for 3,000 more.