Cleveland Barons return ... well, one of them

OK, that was a bad pun, and probably nobody reading this even remembers the Cleveland Barons. For those who do not, they were an NHL team that played here from 1976 to 1978. Still ...

The Cavaliers have traded Mo Williams and Jamario Moon to the Clippers for Baron Davis and a first-round draft pick. My initial impression was, gee, I hate to lose Mo, and Baron Davis is definitely on the far side of the hill.

But then I thought about it a little more. The Clippers currently have the eighth-worst record in the NBA, which means the Cavs will have two lottery picks. If they use them wisely, this could be the way to build another contender down the road. Remember how Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, Hot Rod Williams and Ron Harper were all rookies at the same time for the Cavs? They don't necessarily have to have four super rookies to build a good team, but stockpiling draft picks sure can't hurt.

So yeah, I like the move. Good job, Cavs.

Surprise! LeBron dominates again

It seems like it's always been this way: When the Cavaliers play the Bulls in the playoffs, #23 takes over and makes sure his team doesn't lose. Of course, that #23 plays for the Cavs now. LeBron James looked every bit the MVP he is in last night's 112-102 win over Chicago, pouring in 40 points to go with eight rebounds and eight assists. Among those 40 points were one of the niftiest dunks you'll ever see, weaving through traffic and fending off contact from James Johnson, reaching back with the ball to get more power, and stuffing it in with tremendous authority. And in the fourth quarter, when the Cavs were slowly building their lead after being tied at 77 to start the period, LeBron kept taking jump shots with one or two seconds left on the 24-second clock — and hitting most of them, including a three-pointer with Joakim Noah in his face. LeBron put up 15 points in that decisive fourth quarter.

One of the subplots of this game was Noah insulting Cleveland, saying there's nothing to do here, nowhere to go out at night. I frankly don't give a rat's petoot what Joakim Noah thinks of Cleveland, but he obviously didn't look very hard. It's about 10 blocks from the Q to the Warehouse District, for example. And there are plenty of places to go that are even closer. ... Meh, whatever. Noah brought the wrath of the Cleveland faithful upon himself, but it sure didn't seem to slow him down. If anything, he seemed to have fed off it. Noah put in 25 points to go along with 13 rebounds, and almost single-handedly kept the Bulls in the game. ... So if the series does come back to Cleveland (which it won't), don't boo him anymore.

LeBron's exploits crowded the rest of the club out of the game story, but he did have some help. I especially want to mention Jamario Moon coming off the bench to hit 4-of-5 shots, all from three-point range. That was killer.

The Cavs are now up 2-0 in this series. Game 3 is Thursday in Chicago, game 4 is Saturday in Chicago, and game 5 won't happen. This is going to be a sweep.

Moon those Nets

I'm not sure how the New Jersey Nets, a team that came into the game with a 2-22 record, managed to stay within 10 points of the Cavaliers last night at the Q. It was a lethargic effort by what is supposed to be one of the NBA's elite teams. The Cavs led by eight after one quarter, and then pretty much coasted the rest of the way. LeBron had an un-LeBron-like 23, though he did lead all scorers. The twin towers, Shaq and Z, each had 16, which was pretty big.

But the thing that stands out about this game was Devin Harris' mugging of Jamario Moon while Moon tried to go in for a layup on a fast break, after Shaq stole the ball from Harris on the other end of the court. Harris says he was going for the ball, and that may be true, but what he got was Moon's head. He clotheslined him down to the floor and was immediately grabbed by LeBron, with Shaq coming in from behind to join the fray. The officials called it a flagrant-2, which is an automatic ejection, then spent the better part of 10 minutes looking at the tape to make sure they were justified in tossing Harris. I can't imagine why it took so long — I mean, the guy tackled someone by the head, which isn't even legal in the NFL — but they did eventually make the right decision. By all accounts, Harris isn't considered a dirty player, but that was just plain ugly.

In any case, the Cavs have the 6-18 Philadelphia 76ers tonight. Five of the Cavs' seven losses this year have been to sub-.500 teams, so let's hope they don't sleepwalk through another one.