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.

• One play that has been working a lot for the Cavalier offense lately is the skip pass in the corner to Mo Williams.  LeBron often drives the lane and kicks to either corner where Williams is spotted up wide open.  With Mo hitting almost 45 percent of his threes, it's a dynamite play when executed correctly.  The Cavaliers added a wrinkle tonight after they ran it a couple of times and added in a stonewall pick from Darnell Jackson to keep Mo clear in the corner.

• The Nets kept themselves in the game for the first half largely because of their three point shooting.  The Nets were 5-of-10 from behind the arc at intermission as Bobby Simmons and Jarvis Hayes were able to get open looks from Keeyon Dooling's dribble penetration and the Cavaliers' double team of Vince Carter.  I felt that the double team of Carter was pretty unnecessary even if he is the best player on the team.  Carter takes a lot of bad shots on his own, and Delonte West or Sasha Pavlovic is more than capable of keeping tabs on VC.  The Cavaliers got in trouble when they couldn't get out on New Jersey's shooters.

• The Nets got close in the third quarter, but the Cavaliers extended it out after a spectacular block by Z on Yi Jianlian and then a 3-pointer and 3-point play back-to-back by LeBron James.  The real danger zone was at the start of the fourth with LeBron on the bench and the bench bunch on the floor.  The Cavaliers gave up an eight point advantage to trail by one late in the quarter.  But, as they always seem to do, the starting unit came back in the game and things were firing on all cylinders again.  Delonte West hit 2 big threes as LBJ found the open man off the double team.  After that, a little defense and some free throw makes iced win number 58.

goes to: Anderson Varejao.  The Wild Thing posted a double-double tonight and has been doing a fantastic job filling in for Big Ben.  Andy has shown that he can start in this league as he has started 30+ games this season with the injuries.  Varejao has a great chemistry with LeBron and tonight, LeBron found him open several times.  Varejao had 16 points and 11 boards.

Team Grade: B

I'm being a little harsh on the guys tonight because they cannot continue to wait around until the last few minutes of the game to turn it on.  They did turn the ball over 14 times, but they won the board battle 49-32, had 7 blocks, and 25 assists on 33 field goals.  The Cavaliers need to work on the 3-point defense, too (10 made by the Nets on 22 attempts).

The Cavaliers' next foe is the Minnesota Timberwolves who come into the Q on Friday night.

Get PuMped!

Kirk

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