Photo: Ron Cortes/Philadelphia Inquirer

Coach Mike Brown won't save any space in his coaching memory book for this one, but the Cavaliers continued to do what they need to at this point in the season: beat teams that you are supposed to beat. Despite giving up a season-high 66 points in the paint, the Cavaliers clamped down to hold Philly to just 38 second-half points, and Mo Williams and the Cavalier bench led the second half charge. Andre Iguodala and Elton Brand played up to their salaries, but the wine and gold used 44 bench points to absorb the absence of Antawn Jamison.

One back, one out: LeBron James returned to the Cavalier lineup after two games of rest for a multitude of nagging injuries, including his right ankle. Meanwhile, Antawn Jamison took the night off to give his sore right knee some additional time to recover. Coach Mike Brown went with Leon Powe to fill the starting power forward slot. Well, he was there. That's about all you can say about Leon Powe's night as he was held scoreless with 3 rebounds in 15 minutes.

Big boys up front: With Powe and Hickson up front, the Cavaliers were incredibly small, and the Sixers captialized early. Elton Brand and Samuel Dalembert, both monumental disappointments this season especially, were active on the offensive glass and bullied their way into early interior success for Philadelphia. Powe was absolutely no match for Brand and his strong post moves, and Hickson failed to check out Dalembert on several occasions. This led to neither one of these two playing a meaningful role in the game down the stretch. Instead, it was Anderson Varejao and Jamario Moon who saw exclusive action. Brand finished with 24 points and 9 rebounds, hitting 12 of 20 shots. Dalembert posted 9 points and 12 boards before fouling out with four and a half minutes left. The two starting Sixer bigs accounted for 7 of the team's 14 offensive rebounds.

This guy has the total package.

That's what ran through my mind as Evan Turner drilled a 40-foot leaning jumper to send the Wolverines home for the season. Turner's shot was a prayer answered after Manny Harris and Michigan surged in the game's final minutes to take the lead behind several clutch shots. This win may prove to be a worthwhile scare for the Bucks, and it keeps their hopes for a number one seed alive, heading into tomorrow night's matchup with the winner of the Wisconsin-Illinois game. March Madness has truly kicked off.

Sims's quick start, kicking the rust off: DeShawn Sims got plenty of nice looks for the Wolverines early, and his quick 8 points gave Michigan the early lead. The rest of the U of M squad was aided by open driving lanes thanks to a cautious OSU defense that looked afraid to foul early in a game where the calls were few and far between. The Bucks also had 5 turnovers in the game's first 10 minutes as a couple of passes simply bounced off their hands. With a 10 day layoff, much of this is understandable, but U of M was not about to let them get away with it.

Photo: Scott Shaw/The Plain Dealer

The odds looked long with Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James out from the start and Antawn Jamison leaving after the third quarter due to injury, but the Cavalier backcourt of Delonte West and Mo Williams willed the team to its gutsiest victory of the season over the Tony Parker-less Spurs. It was a team effort led by timely fourth quarter defense and balanced scoring, and they needed every ounce of it to survive Manu Ginobili's 38 point effort. The Cavaliers with the win have now won at least 50 games in four of their last five seasons, and the win keeps them three games ahead of the Lakers for the best record in the NBA.

Lack of star power: This one was far from your classic Cavs-Spurs matchup. Besides LeBron James and Shaq being out of commission for the wine and gold, the Spurs are just beginning life without Tony Parker for about six weeks, after Parker broke a bone in his right hand. As a result, Manu Ginobili was in the starting lineup for just the second time this season. Also, for the Cavs, Daniel Gibson returned after missing a week with the birth of his first child.

Man oh Man(u)!: Some people have questioned whether Manu Ginobili is on the downslope of his career. If one game can reject a feeling, this one certainly qualifies. Ginobili stepped up in a big way and almost single-handedly carried his team to victory. In the first half, Ginobili got ridiculously open looks as the Cavaliers chose to go with a strategy of doubling Tim Duncan in the post. It was so poorly executed on one instance that Jawad Williams came down to double Timmy on the right block and TD kicked it out to a wide-open Ginobili on the right wing for the three. The Cavs tried Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, Delonte West, and Jawad Williams all on Ginobili in the first half, and none of them seemed up to the task. Manu got so many open looks, starting off 4 of his first 5 shots in the first for 14 points, and he had 23 points at the break.

Photo: Jeffrey Phelps/AP

Coach Mike Brown made the decision earlier today to sit LeBron James out of tonight's contest with the Milwaukee Bucks. In doing so, he left his team without an identity that it struggled to find throughout the game. Compounded by the fact that Mo Williams had one of his worst shooting nights of the season, the inspired offensive showcases of Antawn Jamison and Delonte West were not enough as the Cavaliers got next-to-nothing from everybody else. The Bucks used their always solid defense under Scott Skiles, coupled with timely three-point shooting to beat the wine and gold, ending the Cavs' six game win streak and the Cavs six straight wins against Milwaukee.

The King sits on the throne: After LeBron tweaked his right ankle twice in last night's game against Detroit, coupled with the heavy minutes LeBron has been playing, it was too much for Mike Brown to resist. MB held LeBron out of the lineup for the first time this season, and he gave the starting nod to Jawad Williams. Brown said that he also may hold LBJ out of the team's next game Monday night versus San Antonio as well, because the Cavaliers don't play again after that until Friday, which would give LeBron a full week off. I'm okay with this decision since the Cavaliers most definitely have to think long term, but with the team already missing Shaq, Z, and Boobie, they can't be giving too many games away with the Lakers right on their heels for the best record and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs.

Predictable start: With little preparation and even less experience playing without LeBron for an entire game, the Cavaliers were bound to struggle out of the gate. They did just that, falling behind 8-2 as the wine and gold missed their first 5 shots and were only 1-of-8 at the point where they trailed by six. The Cavalier frontcourt struggled to stay in front of the Buck bigs, and the team looked incredibly timid. It took a long while for anybody to step up and take action, because LeBron throughout all the injuries, trades, and absences has been the glue that has held this thing together. Without him, there was a significant disconnect in several ports of the Cavalier network.

PLAY BALL!

The Cleveland Indians opened their 2010 Cactus League season Friday against the interstate rival Cincinnati Reds; beating the Red’s 9-2 behind 15 hits and solid pitching. Indians pitchers held Cincinnati to just five hits while striking out nine and walking just one.

It’s very early; but there are some potentially valuable nuggets to take from this game.First, Cleveland’s pitchers are going to have to throw strikes this season. 2009 was brutal for Cleveland pitching.The Indians finished the season 2nd worst in ERA (5.07), 5th in BB/9 (3.75), 28th in K/BB (1.65) and 6th in HR/9 (1.15). By the numbers, Cleveland’s staff was the 2nd to Baltimore as the worst staff in baseball. If they are going to be competitive, they are going to have to rely on an average or above-average pitching staff. In order for this staff to do that, they cannot afford to give too much away. Suffice it to say, the Indians are going to need to control the ball a little more and hit the zone, especially to stay ahead in the count and keep opposing runners off base. In Friday’s game, three pitchers critical to Cleveland’s success this season retired every batter faced. Those pitchers are Aaron Laffey, Rafael Perez and Chris Perez, who combined for 4 IP, 3 K’s, and 0 BB. Another player who will be relied on heavily is starter Justin Masterson who faced seven batters in 2 IP with 3 K’s and 0 BB’s while throwing only 13 pitches, all strikes. I for one am extremely high on Masterson who looked stellar in his final outing of last season 9 IP, 12 K’s and 2 BB’s while giving up only one earned run; Friday’s performance was in a similar vein.

On the offensive side, the Tribe just plain hit the ball, with 11 of their 20 batters collecting hits including three doubles, a triple, and three homers while going 5 for 14 with runners in scoring position. Also, 4 of the 11 players had multiple hits. Cleveland also showed some patience accumulating five walks while striking out six times. Newly appointed leadoff man Asdrubal Cabrera lead the game off with a homer, going 2 for 3 and up and coming left fielder Nick Weglarz hit a mammoth opposite field home run and walked in his only other plate appearance.

There’s not a lot to analyze from this as it is only one game, but I liked what I saw on both sides of the ball. I think that Cleveland will put up runs. If we get some pitching support, things could get interesting, especially playing in the AL Central. It’s truly hard to project what will happen this season, but it’s good to come out of the gate with such a strong, encouraging performance.I really hope that Indians’ pitchers throw strikes this season, if for no other reason than for me to keep my sanity. Today was definitely a step in the right direction.

Photo: Tracy Boulian/The Plain Dealer

Last night was an eventful one at the Q with a world record broken, a player rushed to the hospital, and an LBJ injury. Lost in all that was a highly competitive game, where the Cavaliers snoozed in the first half and trailed by as many as 21 points in the second quarter before mounting a tremendous comeback, taking their first lead in the fourth quarter and winning their sixth straight game. Coupled with the Lakers' loss in Charlotte, they now hold a three-game lead on Los Angeles for the best overall record and homecourt throughout the playoffs.

Some coming and going: Delonte West returned to the lineup, while Daniel "Boobie" Gibson continues his absence with the birth of his first child. He is expected to miss today's game in Milwaukee as well. As for the Pistons, who have been riddled with injuries all season long, center and former Cavalier Big Ben Wallace was held out with a knee injury, that was suffered earlier in the week and looked eerily similar to the injury that held him out of the stretch run of last season. Here's hoping that Ben can get back into action real soon.

Put on a Snuggie!: It was Snuggie night at the Q, and as one person on Twitter put it, the Q crowd looked like they belonged to a wine-clad cult. The sellout crowd of 20,562 donned the blankets with sleeves for a five minute period as a representative for the Guinness Book of World Records was on hand to verify the record. Video evidence will bring that figure down a little bit, but it was an impressive spectacle to see, and I imagine it was even more neat inside the Q. LeBron James even made rookie Danny Green head out to warmups wearing his custom Snuggie.

Photo: Bill Kostroun/AP

The Cavaliers didn't say it, but their play demonstrated it. If they played their game, winning would not be an issue in the least bit. Doing more than enough for the victory, the Cavaliers did a pretty good job defending and created more than enough scoring and transition opportunities with several solid frontcourt performances, crushing the Nets in their last trip to the Izod Center ever. The Cavaliers played this game like they expected to win and were looking for their next challenge, extending their winning streak to five games with twenty games left to play.

No centers, one point guard: First, the Cavaliers are left without a true center in the absence of Shaquille O'Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Then, tonight, both Daniel Gibson and Delonte West were inactive for the game for personal reasons. Gibson's girlfriend, Keyshia Cole, gave birth to the couple's son, Daniel Hiram Gibson Jr., late last night, and he was with his family for tonight's game. Meanwhile, Delonte was held out for the same thing that has kept him sidelined periodically throughout the season, emotional issues. However, it appears that the Cavs hope to have him for Detroit on Friday, and they are very understanding about Delonte's path to recovery. The fact that this is the first game that Delonte has missed for this reasons in a long while is a testament to his improvement. What it did though was leave Mo Williams as the team's only real active point guard. For the Nets, they were without shooting guard Courtney Lee.

Make that no point guards: Of course, Mo Williams picked up two quick fouls in the first three minutes of the game, forcing Mike Brown to look down his bench and see no point guards. Luckily for him, LeBron James had heard that tale a time or two already this season. Brown went to Jamario Moon, and James slid over to the point, and the Cavaliers athletic lineup was off and running. Moon had two transition dunks in the blink of an eye, and the Cavaliers had built a substantial lead. With an athletic lineup of LeBron, Moon, Hickson, and Jamison, the Cavaliers can really push the ball and cause all kinds of matchup difficulties. I personally think that Moon will benefit from this quicker pace, and that Mike Brown should reward him with playing time over Jawad Williams in this setup.

Photo: Scott Shaw/The Plain Dealer

The Cavaliers got some pretty tough news today with Shaq's 8 week absence ahead of them, but they didn't waste any time in getting back to work. Coach Mike Brown rolled out a new-look starting lineup, and what ensued was a complete destruction of the lowly Knicks, who still consider "defense" a foreign word. D'Antoni's dummy D led to a season-high margin of victory (31), largest lead this season (49), most points in regulation (124), a tie for most points in a half this year (74, also against the Knicks), and a rim-scorching 57% shooting. The wine and gold have now won 4 in a row as they look to keep piling up as many wins as possible in this advantageous month of March.

The bitter news: Word came from Baltimore today that the surgery on Shaquille O'Neal's thumb will likely keep him out for 8 weeks. That would keep the man in the middle out for the rest of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs. The Cavs hope to re-sign Zydrunas Ilgauskas in three weeks, but until then it's going to be a feeling out process with lots of small lineups. Luckily for the Cavs, the March schedule is favorable, and they have a cushion in the Eastern Conference. The most important thing is that the Cavaliers likely would not face the Orlando Magic until the Eastern Conference Finals as it is becoming increasingly unlikely that the Celtics or Hawks will jump up and knock the Cavaliers from one of the top two spots. Let's hope the time off for Shaq is beneficial, and he will be well rested for what could be up to seven of the most important games in Cleveland sports history.

Switching up the lineup: Shortly before gametime, it was revealed that J.J. Hickson, not Anderson Varejao, would be the team's starting center tonight. Brown thinks that he may go with this look for the time being, and it is most likely because he values Varejao's bench presence so much. It also could help keep Varejao in games longer, considering he fouled out in Toronto Friday night. Hickson, who started his first NBA game at power forward against the Knicks in New York earlier this year, thrived with the promotion, running around and making plays on the court left and right. J.J. posted 17 points and 9 rebounds on 6-of-7 shooting in only 23 minutes. He also had 2 blocks, including a very impressive block on David Lee.  

Photo: Chris Young/AP

After a fantastic victory over the Celtics in Boston, where some of the best Cavalier defense all season was played to cool off the scorching Celtics, the defense took the night off north of the border in Toronto. Luckily for the Cavs, the Raptors' defensive fortitude was just as poor, and when the Cavaliers did play solid D in overtime, it was enough to propel them to their third straight victory. Six Cavaliers were in double digit scoring, and the Cavalier offense continues to incorporate Antawn Jamison more and more, making them stronger and more capable than ever before.

Deci-Z-ion?: A report surfaced earlier in the day from WKNR's Michael Reghi that a source informed him that Z had made his decision to sign with the Cavaliers after the mandatory 30-day wait following his trade to the Wizards. It's pretty much been a forgone conclusion that Z would return, and Shaq's significant thumb injury may have just wrapped that return up 100 percent. If Shaq requires surgery on the thumb, Z would be the team's starting center for the last three weeks of the regular season after his return.

Going into the post not required: Shaq missed his first game with the thumb injury, but the Cavaliers were fortunate that Toronto's Chris Bosh missed his fourth straight with an ankle sprain. Without the two post presences, there was not much need for post feeds and inside-out action. In fact, nearly the entire game was played on the perimeter on both sides. This lead to a lot of back-and-forth transition, the triple digit scores, and the tariff on defense.

Photo: Michael Dwyer/AP

It really couldn't have been much worse for the Cavaliers in the first half in Boston. They lost their only true center, Shaquille O'Neal, to a significant thumb injury, Mo Williams was getting destroyed by Rajon Rondo, and the Cavaliers allowed a staggering 60% shooting to the Celtics. The tables turned in the 2nd half as the Celtics cooled off and LeBron James took charge. Then, the Cavaliers took the lead without LeBron on the floor, fueled by a lineup led by Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao, and J.J. Hickson, propelling the Cavs to a blowout 20 point victory when they were in danger of getting rickroll'd themselves.

No Pierce: All-Star forward Paul Pierce missed tonight's game with a sprained thumb, and Marquis Daniels started in his place. The Celtics certainly missed Pierce's scoring and outside threat, because Daniels had just 4 points in 31 minutes. Ironically, Shaquille O'Neal left with a similar injury midway through the second quarter.

Can't get much better than that: It really couldn't have been much better for the hometown Celtics in the early going. They built a double digit lead in the first thanks primarily to Rajon Rondo's flatout abuse of Mo Williams as Rondo made 6-of-9 shots for his 12 points and handed out 6 assists. Williams offered virtually no resistance as Rondo knifed through the lane and had several easy layups and just as many dishes for open dunks as the Cavalier frontcourt did a poor job of helping and recovering onto the Boston bigs. Boston hit 10 of their first 13 shots and finished the quarter with a staggering 70% shooting and a 10 point lead.