Photo: Associated Press

The young, athletic Sacramento Kings and budding star Tyreke Evans gave the wine and gold all they could handle tonight, but the Cavaliers' big three of LeBron James, Mo Williams, and......... Zydrunas Ilgauskas refused to let the Cavaliers fall in this one. LeBron's fourth quarter defense on Evans, Mo's key buckets late, and Ilgauskas's three trifectas in overtime helped the Cavs outscore the Kings 13-0 in the extra five minute session. The Cavaliers are now 2-1 on the roadtrip with the Christmas day extravaganza against the Lakers next on the slate.

Big King lineup: Sacramento may very well have the largest starting lineup in the league. Tonight, they started a 6'6" point guard in Tyreke Evans and a 6'11" shooting guard in Donte Greene. In fact, all of the starters for the Kings were in the first, second, or third season in the league, showing how truly green they are. Kevin Martin, their best overall player, has been out several weeks with a wrist injury, so it's a credit to this team that they are playing near .500 basketball without him. They are also missing three-point shooter Francisco Garcia.

Mo hits the deck: In the first quarter, that King backcourt size proved dangerous for the 6'1" Williams. As Evans aggressively took it to the basket, he banged knees with Mo and sent him to the ground. Williams went to the locker room and was relieved by Delonte West. Luckily for Cleveland, he returned to start the second quarter, but the pain he was in was evident on his face. It's yet to be seen if what the Cavaliers described as "a left knee contusion" will swell and/or stiffen up and keep Mo from playing on Christmas day, but the fact that he played 40 minutes last night on that knee makes you like his chances.

LeBron vs. Evans in first: The stage was set early on for a duel between these two dynamic players. LeBron scored 12 first quarter points, coming on wide-open backdoor dunks and long jumpers that the Kings dared him to shoot. Each defender that Sacramento put on LeBron allowed him to dribble without disrupt around the three point arc, and they didn't step up quick enough to contest the long twos when James was heating up. Meanwhile, the rookie Evans made quick work of Mo with the injury, and Delonte West and Anthony Parker didn't have much more success on him. Despite their size as defenders, Evans was getting past them into the second level of the defense, drawing fouls and finishing buckets. The Cavaliers needed to force Evans to shoot jumpers much earlier than they did, because he is still developing his range. Tyreke had 10 in the first.

Right this way to the paint: It wasn't just Evans that found safe haven in the paint tonight. The Kings took it to the Cavaliers in one of their greatest areas of strength, defense of the key. Sacramento dropped in 52 points, about 20 points more than the Cavaliers average giving up per game. What helped them in this facet was their offensive rebounding and second chance points. The Kings had 12 offensive boards, and it was basically due to the young Kings playing with more energy behind a feverish home crowd. If the Cavaliers let Bynum, Gasol, and Odom rule the paint like Sac-town did tonight, the Cavaliers are going to find it impossible to win.

Mo's flowin' third: With LeBron sitting on 26 points at the half and considering the way he scored with high-volume jump shooting, you thought we may see another 50 point performance in the California capital. Instead, Mo Williams took the lead as he so often has in the last week. Mo scored 15 in all during the quarter on 5-for-7 shooting, and hit a couple of shots with a high degree of difficulty. You could see that Mo's knee was bothering him, but it was not affecting his determination to get to the basket and knock down outside shots. Without Mo's take-charge third, the Cavs wouldn't have been in position to take this one.

Enter LeBron vs. Evans in fourth: With Tyreke Evans devastating the Cavalier guards by scoring 24 points in the first three quarters, it was time for the Cavaliers to go back to what was so effective last season: LeBron on the opponent's best player in the fourth quarter.  Evans struggled against the longer James and shot just 1-for-8 after LeBron took over on him, and he scored just four points in the fourth. The one field goal he did have, however, was a drive to the rack with 38 seconds left to tie the game at 104. After the Cavaliers failed to score on a long LeBron jumper, it took a final LeBron stop with help from Anthony Parker to keep Evans outside the arc and not even let him get a shot off to send the game into overtime.

Experience shines in OT: Once the game hit the extra session, experience took over, the Kings sped up, and they couldn't slow down enough to make a single shot. Actually, three shots in a row did not draw iron at all. Three shots from Zydrunas Ilgauskas didn't draw iron either; that's because they were three mirror images of each other from the right corner that were nothing but net. Z's three key treys in the fourth quarter were the reason the Cavaliers walked away with a W and the reason LeBron walked away with a triple double, gaining assists number nine and ten on the last two Z 3s. It's so great to see Z have such a high-confidence game. If you recall, he really tried to avoid taking big shots when he was slumping in the first part of the year. Tonight, he took several key shots in the fourth quarter and overtime, and he hit nearly every important one. The big man hit 10-of-14 shots for a season-high 25 points, adding eight rebounds for good measure.

Game ball goes to: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, LeBron James, and Mo Williams. The triumphant trio were the first to each score 25 points for the Cavaliers in a game since December 29th, 2006 when LeBron (32 points), Larry Hughes (26), and Donyell Marshall (29) did it in a 109-99 win versus Milwaukee in The Q. Thanks to Brian Windhorst for the heads-up on the season in which this occurred. Z's clutch heroics were just part of a 25 point, 8 rebound effort on 10-of-14 shooting. James notched his 2nd triple double this year and the 26th of his career. LBJ had 34 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists in 44 minutes. Mo played on a painful knee nearly the entire game, but still logged 40 minutes and scored 27, shooting 10-for-19 and 3-for-7 from three.

Team Grade: B+

The Kings are far from elite, but they are tough to beat at home (now 10-4 this season). The Cavalier defense in the first three quarters was pretty painful to watch, but as bad as they were in the first three quarters, that's how spectacular they were in overtime, shutting down the Kings who had just dropped 104 points, their average, in regulation. The wine and gold did shoot 51 percent, won the boards 49-36, and made 8-of-16 treys. The 52 points in the paint and 21 second chance points are what need to be improved upon for Friday.

Friday, of course, is Christmas day, and the Cavaliers and Lakers are set for a 5:00 pm showdown in the Staples Center. I cannot stress how much of a tall order this is going to be for the Cavaliers. The Lakers are playing great right now, and they have been helped by a home-heavy schedule early. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers will be on the fourth game of a west coast swing that has tested them and worn them out I'm sure. If they hope to win, Mo must play and be effective, Shaq must at least make his presence felt on the defensive end, and the Cavaliers must take turns on defending Kobe between Delonte, Moon, Parker, and LeBron. If they can pull this one off, expect some of the national disbelief that currently exists about this team to evaporate.

All for one. One for all.

Kirk

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