CAVS.SPACE

Now that the Miami Heat have finally snapped their 15-game losing streak, 2 teams are still in the midst of extended losing streaks: Seattle (lost 13 in a row) and New Jersey (lost 8 in a row).

Along with the rest of the team, LeBron James has taken his play up a few notches during the past few weeks. Today, he dueled with Kobe Bryant and held his own. James finished with 41 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. Meanwhile, Bryant finished with 33 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1 block. LeBron's solid performance, marked by his defense down the stretch, his two clutch free throws, and his one-on-one clutch basket over Kobe reflected the strongest case that LeBron has made this season in the quest for league Most Valuable Player honors.

The New Orleans Hornets continue to win. They now stand at 31-12, which is the second-best record in the NBA. This includes a 22-8 clip within the Western Conference, which trails only the Dallas Mavericks in winning percentage. They have won 9 of their last 10 games.

Hedo Turkoglu faked out Paul Pierce and hit a nice game-winning rainbow 3-pointer as the Orlando Magic knocked off the Boston Celtics, 96-93. The Magic boosted their record to 28-18 while the Celtics fell to 34-8. The Celtics played without Kevin Garnett and continue to struggle when one of their "Big Three" is not in uniform. Rajon Rondo also suffered an injury but returned to the game. With the Celtics going 5-5 in their last 10 games, they are starting to look beatable, and perhaps their questionable depth is starting to catch up with them. However, there is still plenty of time this season to see if the Celtics are just in a slump or need to add a piece or two to their roster.

In San Antonio, the Cavaliers controlled the tempo. Against Washington, the Cavaliers played outstanding team basketball while handling the ball nearly flawlessly. Today at Los Angeles, the Cavs hung tough and pulled out a tough victory. In these games and the other wins since the overtime thriller versus the Bobcats, the team has looked remarkably better than they had earlier this season. The players seem to be playing more complete games, with Z going to his left, LeBron and Damon Jones driving, and Hughes hitting free-throws and a few pull-up jumpers. Aside from injuries to Pavlovic and Varejao, the team looks poised to overtake the Eastern Conference standings in the coming weeks.

The Lakers squandered a chance to tie up the game with their final possession in today's loss to the Cavaliers. While the Lakers wanted to get the best shot possible, they lost track of time and failed to get off a shot attempt. Such an outcome was inexcusable, especially for a team with veteran players Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher and Coach Phil Jackson. Oh well. In the illustrious words of NBA Jam, "Cavaliers win the game!"

One thing that Coach Mike Brown has brought to the Cavaliers is a respectable road record. Under Paul Silas and Brendan Malone, the Cavaliers went 25-82 (.305) on the road. With Brown, the team has been 47-55 (.461). Overall, the team has gone 120-82 (.594) under the third-year Head Coach. In turn, Brown was rewarded with a two-year extension this week.

The Cavaliers are 8-2, which ties for second-best in the league (with New Orleans) behind the Los Angeles Lakers.

Fans and analysts alike have been quick to single out Larry Hughes (33.3%) and Sasha Pavlovic (34.1%) as shooting poorly this year. While these two players have been the biggest culprits of missing shots, the rest of the team has also struggled. For example, Devin Brown is only shooting 37.7% from the floor right now (although his defense has made up for the inconsistent shooting). Meanwhile, Drew Gooden is shooting a career-low field goal percentage of 43.7%. As a team, the Cavaliers are third-worst in the league at a mark of 43.3%. Furthermore, they are tied for fifth-worst in free-throw shooting at 71.7% (which is at least better than last season's 29th ranking of 69.5% at the line.) While Hughes and Pavlovic can improve in their shot selection, so can the rest of the team.

Midway through the season, several teams in the East find themselves lagging behind Boston and Detroit. In the midst of this, the Cavaliers find themselves in the sixth seed, with the Washington Wizards a half-game ahead and in the fourth seed. With that said, it is possible once again that the Cavaliers and Wizards face each other one more time in the first round of the playoffs. Once again, the teams match up well, but if the Cavs fail to improve (via trades or internally), perhaps Washington may finally figure out how to defeat Cleveland.

Tonight, the Cavaliers have a good chance to evaluate where they stand as a team when they face the defending-champion Spurs. Both teams have faced their share of injuries this year, with the Spurs having only 3 guys on their roster (Finley, Bowen, and Oberto) play in all 36 of their games, while the Cavs have had only 2 (Ilgauskas and Gooden) that have played in all 38 of their games. Granted, Cleveland suffered from the 2 player holdouts (Pavlovic, Varejao), but it is clear that San Antonio fields a much more mature team. In San Antonio, the players are very confident, and guys like Robert Horry are a little bit cocky, but when it comes to playing as a team, few in the NBA can match the chemistry of the Spurs. On the other hand, the Cavaliers struggle with playing time disputes, and despite making the Finals last season, players such as Damon Jones have already asked to be traded. While LeBron James's 4th quarter performance in Toronto was amazing, it was also disappointing

With a win over the Raptors today, the Cavaliers now have the advantage in the first tiebreaker situation (head-to-head record) and have overtaken the #6 seed, meaning no Pistons-Cavaliers first-round series as of today's standings.

Biggest surprise team: Portland Trailblazers Likely final four: Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, and Phoenix Suns Players in the most trade rumors down the stretch: Jason Kidd, Mike Bibby, Andre Miller As it stands - playoff seeding: Both seed #2 vs. seed #7 match-ups are quite interesting. Rivals: Pistons vs. Cavaliers; Red Hot Teams: Suns vs. Blazers

This afternoon, the Cavaliers came back in stunning fashion to defeat the Raptors in Toronto 93-90. Although the first 14 minutes or so were horrific, most of the Cavaliers' struggles happened early. Recently, rather than experiencing backbreaking 3rd quarters, the Cavs have spotted the opposition leads to start games. While poor starts proved to be too much to overcome against the Warriors and Hornets, these slow starts have worked over the past week. As the Cavaliers have seen, poor play can be overcome during the course of a game as long as there is time on the clock. That is, no matter how well or badly things go early, games truly are not over until the final buzzer sounds. In time, hopefully this Cavaliers team will only need comebacks to win every now and then. For the time being, though, it is nice to see that the team is alive and fighting and getting wins to show for it.