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.

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.

Photo: Jon Fobes/Cleveland.com

It wasn't pretty and it certainly wasn't easy, but the Cavaliers found a way to break their longest losing streak in the past two seasons with their home crowd behind them. With six guys in double figure scoring and running more diverse offense, they overcame their defensive woes and Marcus Thornton's game of his life to stop the skid at three games heading into a heavyweight bout on Thursday night.

Rotation tidbits: Tonight was a preview of what we are likely to see for the rest of the season: Mike Brown narrowing down his rotation and finding what will work. On this occasion, that meant no Daniel Gibson, Jawad Williams, J.J. Hickson, or Leon Powe. Granted, it was Powe's first game deemed medically ready to play and J.J. was suffering from the stomach flu, but it was a sign that the 10-11 man rotation that Brown has used at times is coming to an end. The new starting of five of Mo, AP, LeBron, Antawn Jamison, and Shaq, Delonte, Andy, and Jamario Moon; 8 guys; that's it. I see that getting stretched to nine eventually, either when Z returns or as J.J. or Jawad Williams is pressed into service. There's still a lot to work out, however, including some of the moves Brown made tonight. For instance, he played Jamison with LeBron for the entire first quarter, then both had to sit at the start of the second rather than having 'Tawn to fill-in scoring with LBJ resting. Furthermore, Coach Brown played his two centers, Varejao and Shaq, together quite a bit. If memory serves me correctly, the team had reservations about Andy and Shaq playing alongside each other when they WEREN'T the only two centers on the team; that's why J.J. made his way into the starting lineups. After playing both Parker and Shaq heavy minutes in the first half, he did even it out a bit in the 2nd half. With that being said, Jamario Moon had just 9 minutes, while Shaq had 31, LeBron had 44, and Antawn had 37 minutes respectively. They need to make this a full eight man rotation or give both Jawad and Jamario 9 minutes. I don't want to see Shaq ramped up to 30 minutes consistently until just before the playoffs. It's fine in the Boston, Orlando, Denver, and Lakers games, but not against lesser competition. We need the Diesel for the long haul.

Photo: Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP

The Cavaliers have been foreign to the term "losing streak" during the last two seasons, but they're starting to get a grasp on the concept again. With their third straight loss, the Cavaliers have done something that they had not done in the last two years, lose more than two straight games. Against a lethal Magic squad, Dwight Howard started the scoring early, and the Magic hit everything in the fourth led by Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter. Rashard Lewis stuck the dagger in, and the Cavaliers couldn't pick up enough stops, dropping their first game to Orlando this season with Shaquille O'Neal in the fold.

FINALLY!: It didn't take too long for the Cavaliers to finally get Antawn Jamison to make a shot in wine and gold, or blue and orange. Jamison cut to the middle of the floor and caught a pass that resulted in a jump hook swish in the first quarter. It was apparent that after he got that first bucket out of the way, his nerves settled and he was able to worry much more about the task at hand. It appears that Jamison is a fast learner, and his adjustment time frame may not be as long as you would think after that first performance.

Shaq exits, Howard excels: Clearly, Dwight Howard demanded to be the key element of the game plan today. Not only did he play the first fifteen minutes of the game, but he worked on a wide array of shots mixed in with his strong post moves. Shaq drew foul number two at the 10:20 mark of the second quarter on a loose ball foul at the offensive end. In between that, Shaq took his customary rest to close out the first quarter, and the Cavaliers went to their new backup center, Anderson Varejao. Andy has not played much backup center against the biggest and baddest of the league, being used instead in favorable matchups against smaller teams at the 5 spot. With Z gone, Andy had the task of maintaining "Superman" without Superman being out there (I couldn't resist). Howard scored three quick buckets on Andy, and the Cavaliers were trying to double team to help Andy, often arriving late. I just don't see the Cavaliers being able to go one on one with Howard with anyone other than Shaq. That's when the trouble arose.

Photo: Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer

The deck was stacked against the Cavaliers tonight, but they certainly didn't do themselves any favors. Antawn Jamison's first game as a Cavalier, Mo Williams's first game back as starting point guard, and a back-to-back where the Cavs had to travel after an overtime loss was an absolute perfect storm for the Bobcats. They used their previous success against the Cavs to fuel 55% shooting and held the Cavaliers in check with just 39% shooting. The Cavaliers' absolute carelessness on the defensive end and poor three-point heavy shot selection allowed the Bobcats to dominate the paint 48-24 and cruise to a blowout victory, their third in four tries against Cleveland this season.

New faces all around: Antawn Jamison made his Cavalier debut, coming in off the bench for 26 minutes of playing time. More on that, ahem, showing later. Mo Williams, still on a minutes cap, returned to the starting lineup after playing 19 minutes off the bench last night, but Daniel Gibson found himself with some playing time still since Mo was limited to 25 minutes. As for the Bobcats, they pulled off a trade of their own the other day, and both Tyrus Thomas and Theo Ratliff were in uniform and played big minutes for Charlotte. In other words, this game was a bit wild in the sense that there were often 2-3 players out there who had little grasp of their new team's offensive and defensive schemes.

Yet Another Rotation Switch: Mike Brown's job over the next couple weeks is not going to be an easy one. He played 11 guys tonight, and with Zydrunas Ilgauskas potentially on his way back and Leon Powe back soon from injury, the minutes are really going to get crunched. One thing's for sure: Mike Brown will not be playing 11 guys in the playoffs when LeBron and Mo beef up their minutes. As for tonight, Jawad Williams was the guy left without minutes early since Jamario Moon returned from a DNP-CD last night in Denver to snatch 17 minutes. Daniel Gibson, as mentioned before, did get 13 minutes helping backup Mo.