Icon SMI

The Cavaliers cruised into the new year the right way, by winning at an impressive rate.

They went 14-3 in the month of December, including a 7-0 record inside Quicken Loans Arena.

Those seven home victories were against some of the best the NBA has to offer. Four of the teams (Phoenix, Portland, Houston and Atlanta) they defeated in Cleveland currently have 20 or more victories on the season. To put that in perspective, there are only 11 total teams that this year have reached the 20-win mark.

Still, the Cavaliers are expected to win at home. When they beat a good team in their home arena, it really doesn’t come as a surprise because, after all, this is the same team that lost a grand total of two games at The Q last season.

What is more impressive is what the team did away from home in December.

Aside from a two-game losing streak early in the month– with losses against a talented, but young Grizzlies team and a gritty Rockets team– the Cavaliers lost just one road game.

Even a four-game West Coast trip did little to hinder the play of the Cavs.

After a tough loss to the Mavericks to begin the trip, they beat the Suns, Kings and Lakers over a span of five days.

Mo Williams averaged 21.8 points over the four-game span, while LeBron James poured in at least 25 points in each of the games.

The biggest win of the four came on Christmas against the reigning champs, the Los Angeles Lakers.

Beating a team like the Lakers at the tail end of a road trip isn’t a simple task, but the Cavaliers made it look that way.

They took the lead five minutes into the game and didn’t trail the rest of the way.

The Lakers came into the match up with just four losses, but were outplayed on both ends of the court by the visiting Cavaliers.

“I felt that it was going to be a good test for us,” said Shaquille O’Neal after the game. ”The Lakers are the best team in the league, they have won it before, and they have a lot of experience playing together.”

The Cavs held 2009 Finals MVP Kobe Bryant to 11-32 from the floor, well below his usual shooting percentage. Jamario Moon and Anthony Parker guarded Bryant for the majority of the game and did a good job of forcing him into difficult field goal attempts, resulting in the tough shooting night for the superstar.

On the other end the Cavaliers got scoring from multiple places. James and Williams scored 26 and 28 points, respectively, while O’Neal chipped in 11 0f his own. The most important contribution, however, came from the bench. Four reserves scored in the contest, led by 13 points from Moon and nine from Anderson Varejao.

Cleveland dropped both of their games against the Lakers last season, making the 102-87 victory even more important.

It was a good road win for us,” said James after the win. ”I think it ranks up there, just because of the caliber of the team and the caliber of the players they have.”

After the hard-fought win against the Lakers the Cavaliers finished off the month in style with three victories.

Two of those wins were against the Atlanta Hawks, who have been a much-improved team this season after being swept by the Cavaliers last year in the playoffs.

The two victories against the Hawks didn’t come easy, but being able to win games when you are not playing its best is the mark of a truly great team.

“All our wins aren’t going to be pretty, but I think if we continue to work hard and fight like that the outcome will always be like this.” said O’Neal after the Cavaliers December 30th win against the Hawks.

Playing well right now is something the Cavaliers are happy about, but they understand that the playoffs are still months away.

“We found a way to beat some pretty good teams during this stretch,” said Brown after the team’s December 30th win. “You feel good about that. But this is a long, long season and the thing that we have to continue guarding against is getting too far ahead of ourselves. We still got a long way to go.”