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The Cavaliers looked like an offensive juggernaut on Monday night. The Knicks just have that effect on them.

The visitors from New York were little match for the NBA’s best, suffering a 124-93 rout that allowed LeBron James to watch from the bench for the entire fourth quarter. After jumping out to a huge halftime lead, the Cavaliers used the opening few minutes of the third period to embarass the ‘defenseless’ Knicks.

LeBron James and Co. outscored Mike D’Antoni’s team 27-11 in the third period, allowing them to head into the final 12 minutes with a remarkable 42-point lead.

“I thought that after getting up big, we did a nice job of staying focused, coming out in the third quarter and trying to close and finish the game the right way,” Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said after the game. ”Give everybody in that locker room credit for trying to string a game together for 48 minutes, even though we were fortunate to get off to a big lead.” (more…)

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Although Austin Carr owns the title of Mr. Cavalier, Zydrunas Ilgauskas has to be a close second.

Maybe that is why the realization that, for the first time since 1996, Ilgauskas is not a part of the Cavaliers’ organization is leaving so many fans uneasy.

There is little question the Cavaliers, who are currently at the top of the NBA standings with a 43-11 record, needed to pull the trigger to acquire Antawn Jamison on Wednesday night. Jamison embodies exactly what the team’s starting lineup was missing — a stretch forward — and will fit into the locker room perfectly.

Still, giving up Ilgauskas was not easy, even for Cavaliers’ general manager Danny Ferry, a teammate of the 7-foot-3 Lithuanian for a few years back in the late 1990s. (more…)

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The New Jersey Nets may be on pace for the worst NBA season ever, but that doesn’t mean they can’t compete with the best the league has to offer on any given day.

Exhibit A: Tuesday night’s game.

The Nets – now 4-47 on the season – didn’t seem intimidated by the league-leading Cavs, and although Cleveland led from the second quarter on, they failed to build up a comfortable lead until late in the fourth quarter. The final outcome was a 104-97 Cavaliers’ victory, not exactly the blow-out win that you would expect over a team with a 1-27 record on the road.

Still, a win is a win.

“It wasn’t quite there in the first half, it wasn’t quite there in the second half,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said after the game. ”But with other guys stepping up, especially offensively, we found a way to get the W.” (more…)