If you are in the Eastern Conference and want to make it to the NBA Finals, it is now official that the road to the Finals will go right through Quicken Loans Arena. The Cavaliers made sure of that with a solid road victory against the currently sixth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers.

For the first time in four tries this season, the Cavaliers played their game against the Washington Wizards running them into the ground as it was a LeBron-less fourth and a cruise to victory.

Ben Returns: Ben Wallace returned from a nearly six-week absence tonight in a bench capacity. After 767 straight games in the starting lineup, a stretch that spanned over 10 years, Wallace entered the game with about 3 minutes remaining in the first quarter. Ben had to shake the cobwebs off early on as he looked a little rickety on the defensive end of the floor. But, Ben had one of his more productive offensive games this year as his teammates found him in favorable positions directly under the basket or cutting to the bucket. Wallace finished with 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting, 6 boards, and 2 assists. His defense was also much better during the second half.

Ben-ch Issue: Here's my take on how the Andy-Ben debate shook out tonight. Ben entered the game with about three minutes to go in the first quarter and played alongside Gibson, Szczerbiak, James, and Smith. My first take was that it looked like for the time they were out there together in the late first and early second quarters, that Ben and Joe didn't gel that well together on the defensive end. They hadn't played together yet this year, but they were teammates last year in Cleveland as well as Chicago. I could be wrong here, but I think Ben-Z and Andy-Joe combos work better than Andy-Z and Ben-Joe combos. One of my main arguments was that I didn't think Ben would bring the energy Andy does off the bench. I was wrong tonight, and if Ben can give them production like he did tonight, this move could work out well for the wine and gold.

Early success: One of the key stats from tonight's game was the points off turnovers for the Cavaliers. Cleveland forced 9 of them in the first quarter and scored 12 points off those turnovers. The Cavaliers used a 12-3 run to close the quarter with a 13 point lead. The Wizards shot just 35 percent in that opening stanza.

It appears that Coach Brown will ease Big Ben back into the rotation by first playing him off the bench.  Wallace has come out publicly and said that he does not have a problem with accepting a bench role.  The question is whether Wallace can work himself back into playing shape fast enough and even if he does, does Mike Brown think Varejao in the starting five is best for the team?

When this issue first was brought to my attention, I was opposed to starting Varejao over Wallace for several reasons.  The first and most obvious is that without Varejao, the bench gets significantly weaker.  We've debated the scoring issues the bench has had as well as the increased number of minutes that the starters have logged in the last dozen or so games.  Starting Wallace gives you a bench player in Varejao that can log 30+ minutes a game without a problem.  He brings consistency to the struggling bench and the second unit overall.  The next reasons is that I feel that Mike Brown might find it hard to get Ben minutes off the bench.  This may sound trivial but hear me out.  If Ben starts, that means there is 6-8 minutes off the bat before MB subs in Varejao in the first quarter.  Then, there is another 6-8 minutes at the start of the third quarter where the same thing happens and the starting five plays together.  Right there, that is 12-16 minutes for Wallace without including any second or fourth quarter playing time.  And, while Ben rarely plays much in the fourth, he does usually get a few minutes in the second quarter.  He would be playing with a more offensively-challenged second unit in the second, late third, and early fourth quarters which I don't think benefits anyone.  I'm not entirely sure how well Ben and Joe Smith would play down low together, but we've seen from last season as well as lately that Joe Smith and Varejao can play together quite well.

It was gut check time Sunday afternoon at the Q, and the Cavaliers looked like title contenders again. After 2 losses that LeBron James described as "embarrassing", the Cleveland Cavaliers used the home crowd to dismantle the San Antonio Spurs. LeBron James asserted himself as a scorer early on, and watching this game, you could tell LBJ was not going to let this team lose 3 straight games for the first time this season. Cleveland moved to 37-1 at the Q and 62-15 overall.

• Andy Out, Darnell In - Anderson Varejao was sidelined for today's game due to wrist soreness. It is uncertain how Varejao's wrist injury occurred, but it is not believed to be serious. In the absence of Andy, rookie Darnell Jackson got the start. Mike Brown and his staff have really taken a liking to Jackson in the past couple weeks. I am very interested to see how Brown plans to distribute minutes between his bigs when Ben Wallace gets back.
  

• Eric Snow Off the Books - The wait is over; Eric Snow's medical release from Cleveland has finally been approved by the NBA. The Cavaliers will only be responsible for a portion of Eric Snow's contract, and this will be significant when it comes to paying the luxury tax.
  

• LeBron James vs. Tony Parker - In the first quarter, LeBron James and Tony Parker put on a show. LeBron scored 18 points on 6 of 9 shooting from the floor and 6 of 6 shooting from the free throw line. Tony Parker scored 14 points on 5 of 6 shooting from the floor and 4 of 6 shooting from the free throw line. Tony Parker continues to carve up Cleveland perimeter defenders; Parker got to the hoop at will, and every time he does that to the Cavs, it's a disturbing memory of the 2007 Finals. However, in this game, the Cavalier defense did not let the other Spurs scorers get off.

• 1st Quarter Numbers - Cleveland held a 1 point lead after the 1st quarter, 28 to 27. Cleveland had a 47% field goal percentage with 9 of 19 from the floor and the Spurs shot 56% with 10 of 18 shooting. The Cavaliers out rebounded the Spurs 10 to 8.

• No LeBron, No Worries - James took his normal rest to start the 2nd quarter, and the Cavaliers increased their lead from 1 to 11. Mo Williams and Delonte West carried the offense to start the 2nd with 12 of the Cavs first 14 points of the quarter. Mike Brown made a rotation adjustment and sat Mo and Delonte the last 4 minutes of the 1st quarter so he could bring them off the bench to start the 2nd. Also off the bench, Joe Smith offered some straight up D on Tim Duncan and kept him in check.

If the Cavaliers were hit in the mouth last night, tonight they were hit in the mouth, kicked in the groin, hit over the head with a baseball bat, set aflame, and dropped off a ten story building.  This wasn't even close as the Cavaliers phoned this one in real early and trailed by 41 at one point.

• What went wrong tonight? In a word, EVERYTHING! The most obvious thing was the field goal percentage.  The Orlando Magic were sending everything through the hoop tonight to the tune of 54 percent, while the Cavaliers endured flat-out blizzard conditions with 37 percent shooting.  Not only were the Cavaliers struggling to hit shots, they weren't taking smart shots either.  Their shot selection has been a cause of concern lately, and it is only getting worse.  The Cavaliers sit and watch their shots and fail to hit the offensive boards hard, with the exception of Anderson Varejao. Let's face it, the Cavaliers as they are currently built are a perimeter-oriented team, so when they don't hit their outside shots, especially from the land of three, they are going to struggle to win ballgames.  If they don't bring the defensive intensity, they have to shoot the lights out to win.

• The Cavaliers are 1st in the league in opponent's field goal percentage, opponents points per game, and opponent's three point percentage, but they have abandoned those practices the last two nights.  Tonight, the Magic were 13-of-27 from three point land (48%), they scored 116 points, and the Magic shot 54% overall as mentioned previously.  Mike Brown says that is his greatest cause for alarm, and it should be.  In past seasons, it was the atrocious offensive play that worried Cavaliers fans, but no matter how inept the offense was, the hard-nosed defense kept them in games.  This year, the defense has had games where it has lost all control of things, and that lends itself to blowouts far more than the other style.  The Cavalier offense has been exceptional for most of the season, but they cannot forget to dance with the girl that brought them to where they are, their defense.  Coach Brown and company really need to get back to hanging their hat on the defensive end, because if their defense isn't up to par in the next couple of weeks, we as Cavalier fans could be in for a letdown of epic proportions.

Tonight, I am the most upset I have been with this team all season long.  The Cavaliers went into a game they knew would be tough against the rival Washington Wizards, thought they would cruise, and got absolutely hit in the mouth and beat down.

• After a solid start where the Cavaliers jumped out to a 9-2 advantage, everything was downhill from there.  The Wizards had Brendan Haywood and Gilbert Arenas, which is a welcomed surprise for them as each of them was playing just their 2nd game back from nearly season long injuries.  Haywood didn't waste anytime in making the Cavaliers look like boys down low as he hit the boards hard for 7 rebounds in the first quarter.  He finished the evening with 12 points and 10 rebounds, but the numbers don't show how much he owned the glass against the Cavaliers tonight.  Agent Zero was just 3-of-11 shooting the ball, but he did dish out 10 assists and grab 6 rebounds to go with his 11 points.  The Wizards used their full strength roster along with the homecourt crowd who treated this one as their playoff game to take the Cavaliers to the cleaners.

• Who does Darius Songaila think he is? Songaila pulled off the game of his life tonight seemingly, especially in crunch time as he seemed to find his way to every key rebound along with hitting two ridiculous shots in the fourth.  Songailia looked all world tonight because he got to match up with Wally Szczerbiak, who seemed to be having an out-of-body experience for stretches tonight.  Darius ended up with 17 points and 6 rebounds.  Mike Brown needed to pull his head out of his rear end and realize THAT MATCHUP WAS NOT WORKING. That's on Mike Brown, not Wally.  I thought MB was a little lacking in the coaching department tonight.

The wine and gold went toe-to-toe with a potential first round opponent in a game that had a definite playoff intensity.  While the Cavaliers struggled shooting the basketball, they used defensive stops and timely offensive rebounds to nip the Pistons for their 13th win in a row, improve to 36-1 at the Q, and place themselves squarely into the driver's seat for homecourt throughout the playoffs.

• There were some new faces in the Detroit starting lineup from the last time these two teams met.  Rasheed Wallace, in his first game back from injury, came off the bench for the Pistons, and Allen Iverson has since taken a spot on the bench as well.  Instead, Rip Hamilton and Kwame Brown were in the lineup for Detroit.  The Pistons got off to a nice start by beating the Cavaliers up the court as they looked to setup their halfcourt defense.  Detroit led by as much as nine twice tonight in the early going as the Cavaliers started ice cold shooting the ball for the second straight game.  Cleveland was firing at just a 26 percent clip after one, and they were dominated on the boards by an astounding 20-6 margin.  How a team can get 20 rebounds in a single quarter is beyond me as that is usually enough for an entire half.

• Helping the Cavaliers close the gap with LeBron on the bench in the second quarter were Mo Williams and Daniel Gibson.  Often, it seems like that second quarter stretch with LBJ on the bench is when Mo really gets into his offensive flow, and he carries that MO-mentum for the rest of the game.  Gibson gave the Pistons just a little taste of the '07 Eastern Conference Finals ownage that they remember all too well as he knocked down three buckets for 8 points to go with 2 rebounds and 3 assists.  A 10-2 run to close the half knotted the score at 44 heading into the break.

Someone forgot to inform the Cavaliers that gametime was 1:00 PM today at Quicken Loans Arena. Once they woke up, it wasn't even a contest as the Cavaliers absolutely flattened the Dallas Cubans.

• The Mavericks came out of the gate today and looked like a team that wanted to play giant slayer. Dallas got out to a 13 point lead in the early going thanks to 9-of-13 shooting while the Cavaliers shivered to the tune of 3-of-14.  Interior defense was an issue early as Erick Dampier had four easy buckets inside in the first quarter.  Jason Kidd did an excellent job distributing the ball as well as hitting a few open jumpers.  Cleveland shot just 26 percent in the first with the Mavs at a 46 percent clip.  It seemed like the Cavaliers were doomed to suffer their second home loss as they trailed by 15 in the second quarter with absolutely no life or energy to speak of.  Then, it happened.

• What happened is what seemingly always happens when the Cavaliers get hit in the mouth: the Cavaliers got serious on defense.  They made a strong effort to take away the open looks and easy dunks the Mavs were getting early on.  Anderson Varejao did a spectacular job on Dirk Nowitzki in my opinion.  The Wild Thing frustrated Nowitzki several times as he got the benefit of the doubt on the foul call (or lack thereof) to the point that Dirk was complaining and Dallas coach Rick Carlisle was T'd up.  They also got some offensive production from the bench as they stopped settling for jump shots.  Joe Smith gave them a big lift as he hit an awkward corner three at the first quarter buzzer and gave the wine and gold 10 first half points.  The Cavaliers as a result trailed by just two at intermission.

Well, there wasn't much doubt that the Cavaliers should have and did make light work of the T-Wolves tonight, but tonight's game wasn't without its own intriguing story lines.

• LeBron started out the evening like he didn't much care to play in the fourth quarter.  LeBron put up 18 points in the first quarter with a variety of different shots.  The T-Wolves showed early on that they had absolutely no one that could contend with LeBron on the defensive end.  Some bad teams still have someone who can at least slow LBJ down, but not Minnesota.

• The negative tonight was open perimeter shots and in particular three pointers for the T-Wolves.  The Timberwolves hit nine three pointers tonight, although they did so in 23 attempts.  The Cavaliers also gave up some easy buckets inside, but I'm reaching a little bit as they gave up only 85 points.  Randy Foye was the man who found the open looks most around the arc tonight as he hit 5 of them for most of his 18 points off the bench.  Kevin Love also found some buckets inside for 18 points and 6 boards.  Many wondered if his game would translate to the NBA, but he seems to have found a role.  In the T-Wolves' defense, they are missing their superstar in Al Jefferson with a season-ending knee injury, and they are a young team with potential.

At the start of the season, you had a feeling that the Cavaliers had a chance to be one of the best teams in franchise history.  Tonight, they cemented that feat in the record books for the regular season at least.  The 58th win of the season tonight gives the Cavaliers a new franchise records for wins in the regular season, but this one wasn't a piece of cake.

• Well, it was a home game, so you can almost bet the Cavaliers got off to a great start.  The Cavaliers boasted a ten point lead in the first quarter as they were incredibly aggressive on the boards.  In particular, Delonte West and Anderson Varejao got things going in that category.  West had six boards and Varejao had five boards in the first quarter.  The Cavaliers were passing the ball too.  In fact, the Cavaliers had assists on all 10 field goal makes in the first quarter and their first 12 shots overall.  Finally, LeBron got everyone involved early as the starting five were all in the scoring column a few minutes into the game.

• Darnell Jackson continues to carve out his time in this current Cavalier rotation.  D-block found himself with 10 minutes of game action tonight, scoring 6 points and pulling down 3 boards.  The main difference in Jackson from the start of the season to now is his offensive comfort level and aggressiveness.  He is actually looking for his shot now as he has the ability to knock down the 15 foot jumper as well as dunk the ball.  Jackson is always in the right place on defense, and he doesn't let anyone get a layup while he is in the game.