Photo: Scott Shaw/The Plain Dealer

To say the Cleveland Cavaliers sprinted out of the gate tonight would be a severe understatment. The wine and gold used their homecourt advantage to absolute blastoff from the beginning, leaving the Clippers and multiple team records in the wake. The Cavaliers sat on the lead for most of the game, and while Los Angeles did rally, they never truly threatened the Cavaliers the entire game. The Cavaliers continue to hold onto the small half-game lead for best record and extend their hold on the lead in the East with their win streak now at eight.

Kaman-less: Unfortunately for the Clippers, All-star snub Chris Kaman missed this showdown with the Cavaliers as well. When we last saw the Clippers, Kaman's back kept him out of action, and tonight a sprained ankle left him riding the pine. Delonte West continues to sit, missing game number five in a row without a definite timeframe for his return. That means that Cedric Jackson can probably count on another 10-day contract after his first expires tomorrow.

Photo: Darron Cummings/AP

The stars shined once again for the Cavaliers once again in Indianapolis, and it didn't take long to dispatch of the Pacers, who jump-shot and token-defended their way to a big loss tonight in the best defensive effort for the Cavaliers this season point-wise. The Cavaliers have now won seven in a row and still sit one-half game ahead of the Lakers for the best record in the league. As for Indianapolis, at least they have the Colts playing in the Super Bowl to ease the pain of a lackluster season for the Pacers.

Who's setting the pace?: Jumping out of the gate strong is something Cavaliers fans are mildly used to at this point, but rarely do the Cavaliers explode for a first quarter such as the one tonight on the road. The Cavaliers doubled up the Pacers 36-18 in the first on the legs of 13-of-21 shooting (62%). Meanwhile, the Pacers and their All-Star Danny Granger were having trouble even drawing iron. Indiana shot a dreadful 31% (8-of-26). In fact, I think the Pacers may have thrown up more that missed the rim than the Cavaliers threw up that missed total in the quarter.

Photo: Scott Shaw/The Plain Dealer

With LeBron carrying the team on his broad shoulders for the last three games without Mo Williams, the Cavaliers hoped that tonight's contest against Minnesota would prove to be an easy one. They got what they wanted, largely because several key role players, led by J.J. Hickson, stepped up their game and allowed James to take only eight shots on a night where he only needed to play three quarters. The Cavaliers kept the win streak rolling along at six.

Forcing the issue: The Cavalier coaching staff understood quite clearly that they had an opportunity to take the pressure off LeBron for tonight at least. To accomplish that, they started off with multiple looks for J.J. Hickson and Anthony Parker. Parker is starting to take more shots off screen-and-curls, something that everyone expected more of at this point in all honesty. If A.P. can get his scoring up a bit, it's really going to help fill the void while Mo and Delonte are out. Hickson looked like the player who had a string of amazing games when he surged into the starting lineup at the start of the season. LeBron was able to find him repeatedly on the weakside for dunks and easy layups, and it wasn't all because the Timberwolves suddenly forgot that J.J. could creep in behind the defense. It was because Hickson worked a lot harder in getting open and finding the lanes through which he could get buckets. J.J. seems to be one of those players that you have to keep an eye on constantly, but games like tonight, where he shows the ability to put anything in around the basket, are why the Cavaliers are still high on him. Hickson posted a new career high in points with 23 on 8-of-10 shooting. J.J. also made all seven free throws attempts, where he hovers below 70 percent, and ripped off 8 rebounds and 1 block.

Photo: Lynne Sladky/AP

Often times, when two of the premiere acts in the league face each other, the game is centered around those two players, but often it doesn't come down to those two battling head-to-head. However, that certainly was the case tonight as LeBron James and Dwyane Wade volume scored in the second quarter, but they saved the head-to-head showdown for the final minute. LeBron made two fantastic defensive plays and a pair of free throws, just edging Wade and the Heat by one point for the wine and gold's fifth straight win.

New Moon: Jamario Moon returned from the abdominal strain that caused him to miss the last 9 games. While he saw limited action, it was great to see him out there working his way into things by taking a couple of defensive possessions on D-Wade. In six and a half minutes, Jamario had 2 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist. With the injuries to Mo Williams and Delonte West, it means that Jawad Williams, Moon's replacement, will keep his rotation minutes for now. Also, Mike Brown believes he can continue to find Jawad some minutes even after both Mo and Delonte return. That, however, remains to be seen.

Photo: Tracy Boulian/The Plain Dealer

It wasn't pretty, the offense was in complete disarray at times, and the Cavaliers even had to use three guys that weren't in the rotation three weeks ago, but it was a wine and gold winner on the backs of LeBron and Shaq, adding in Daniel Gibson's phenomenal fourth and clutch bucket to give the team the lead for good. Cleveland has now won four in a row and has pulled to a virtual dead heat once again with the Lakers for the best record in the association.

Another one bites the dust: Delonte West's left ring finger, injured during the fourth quarter of the Lakers game, is in fact broken, and he missed tonight's game because of it. West is currently listed as day-to-day, and the Cavaliers plan to re-evaluate the situation early next week. Losing Delonte couldn't have come at a worse possible time, happening just hours after learning that Mo Williams would be in a suit for the next 4-6 weeks. This left the Cavaliers with only Daniel Gibson as their only "true" point guard, although you could certainly debate that. In response, the Cavaliers signed former Cleveland State point and Erie Bayhawk Cedric Jackson to a 10-day contract. The 6'3" Jackson was averaging 15 points and 8 assists with the NBDL's Bayhawks, and he is known as a solid defender.

Photo: Scott Shaw/The Plain Dealer

I'll be the first to admit that I thought a Cavalier victory tonight was highly improbable. This team, however, showed its true grit and tremendous depth in the absence of their second leading scorer and point guard Mo Williams. The wine and gold did it with tremendous defense in the final three quarters and a brilliant six-minute fourth quarter surge from LeBron James to pull into a virtual tie with the Lakers for the NBA's best record, sending the sellout Q crowd home thrilled with a season sweep of the hated Lakers.

No Mo = Uh oh!: The disappointing news came in today that Mo Williams was not only going to miss tonight's showdown with the Lakers, but the All-Star point would miss 4-6 weeks with a left shoulder sprain. This is a huge blow to the Cavaliers, who are just embarking on a home-heavy and easier portion of their schedule. The Cavaliers have just Delonte West and Daniel Gibson at the point guard, and given West's inconsistency and off-the-court issues along with Gibson's history of struggling with ball-handling, the Cavaliers should look to sign a veteran point guard. My personal choice would be Antonio Daniels, who has good size, scoring ability, and worked out for the wine and gold earlier in the season. Some other possible candidates are free agents Juan Dixon, Brevin Knight, Damon Jones, Tyronn Lue, Coby Karl, and Andre Barrett. For the length of time that Mo Gotti will be M.I.A., adding a veteran to run the offense for stretches could payoff and keep the Cavs afloat. The Cavaliers are also still without Jamario Moon, who had an excellent game last time against the Lakers defending Kobe.

Photo: Scott Shaw / The Plain Dealer

Cavaliers coach Mike Brown will not be singing the praises of his team's defense against the Toronto Raptors. The Cavaliers lost to the Raptors back on October 28th, 101-91. In that game, the Cavs found themselves down 18 at halftime after giving up 57 first half points to the Raptors. Tuesday night's game seemed headed in the same direction as the Cavs gave up 60 first half points to the Raptors and only found themselves up 2 points; however, the Cavs got big performances from their Big 3 (Shaq, Bron and Mo) and outlasted the Raptors offense for the 108 to 100 victory.

Playing Their Style- One of the great things about the 2009-2010 Cavs roster is that they have the players to play any style of basketball; however, the ability to play any style is also one of Cleveland's downfalls. In some games this year, Cleveland has gotten too caught up in trying to win by playing another team's style and failed to put their defensive stamp on some games. Tonight was one of those games. Cleveland was running with the Raptors, taking quick shots, and failing to get their defense setup. The Cavaliers allowed the normally outside-oriented Raptors a clear path to the rim and could not handle Toronto's rookie DeMar DeRozan early. DeRozan had 10 1st quarter points and 6 of his points came off layups. Cleveland gave up 24 points in the paint in the 1st half to a team that prefers to shoot jumpers.

Photo: Andrew Glockner

With 6.7 seconds left on the clock, Clipper basketball, with the Cavs up just one, it crept into my head.

"Not again! Not in back-to-back games...."

Fortunately for most everyone reading this, a buzzer beater didn't sink the Cavs for the second straight game. Instead, the Cavaliers put up a wall on Baron Davis, who had sunk the Celtics with a buzzer-beater earlier this season. Baron took the contested jumper over Anderson Varejao instead of passing it to one of his two ridiculously scorching teammates, and the Cavaliers won their first game in the second half of the season.

Photo: AP

The Cavaliers reached the halfway point of their season tonight in one of the wildest ways imaginable. They lost the game, won the game, and lost the game again before the final buzzer sounded, losing to the Jazz in Salt Lake on Sundiata Gaines's 25-foot contested three as time expired. Lost in the shuffle was one of LeBron's most inspired fourth quarter performances in quite some time thanks to three missed free throws from Anthony Parker and Zydrunas Ilgauskas in the final thirty seconds.

Matchup switch and good start for Mo: Mike Brown made a nice decision by starting J.J. Hickson on center Mehmet Okur, a predominately perimeter shooter, and Shaquille O'Neal on Carlos Boozer, who operates more in the post than Okur. Boozer missed his first several shots with O'Neal's tough defense, and the Cavaliers got off to a nice little start. That start should be credited most to Mo Williams, who was all over the place. Mo had 5 points and 4 assists in the game's opening minutes, making things happen with dribble penetration.

Photo: Ben Margot/AP

When you shoot 53% on the road, get 52 points from your bench, and hold the opponent to 42% shooting, you expect to win. You certainly don't expect the other team to have a shot in the air to force overtime, but that's exactly what happened tonight in Golden State as the young, well-rested Warriors used highly-efficient three point shooting and 22 Cavalier turnovers to make this one a nail-biter.

Caught up in the pace: If a team, no matter who, is playing the Golden State Warriors, it is virtually inevitable that they are going to get caught up in the up-tempo style that the Warriors play. The Cavaliers are no exception to the rule, and the first quarter was a prime example of what happens. The Cavs held a two point lead after one at 33-31, but the Warriors were close because if you simply try to outscore the Warriors, you are going to have a hard time creating a lead and distancing yourself. Some of it is Golden State's shot-making ability, but the main problem tonight was anytime that the wine and gold missed a couple of buckets straight, Golden State would rattle off a quick run.