It was supposed to be an easy victory for the NBA's best team on Monday night.  The struggling Cavs (3-11) were missing their young superstar Kyrie Irving and the Memphis Grizzlies (10-2) had the benefit of playing at home.  The Cavs didn't get the memo.  The underhanded team played Memphis tough through three quarters and were within striking distance of winning the game.

The Cavs got off to a poor start and found themselves in a quick 9-2 deficit.  It looked to be a long night for the Cavs until Dion Waiters capped off a 12-6 run with a pair of converted free throws.  The Cavs took the lead with a Dion Waiters 19 foot jump shot with 1:22 remaining in the first quarter and held onto that lead until the fourth quarter.  The Cavs were outscored 22-9 in the last quarter.

Perhaps the Cavs were exhausted from putting up such a tough fight against the Grizzlies.  Whatever the reason, it looked like the Cavs were completely incapable of scoring in the fourth quarter unless it came off of a broken play or an extremely lucky shot.  The Grizzlies defense did not make things easy for the Cavs and it cost them the victory.  Kyrie Irving could have probably made a difference in the final quarter, but he was still sidelined with the fractured left finger.  It is a shame that Irving did not get to play because it was the exact type of game that Irving thrived in during his rookie season.  If his teammates can help him keep a game close through three quarters, he has an extra gear that is entertaining for Cavs fans to watch.

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JJ Hickson scored 20 points, Anderson Varejao put in 16 off the bench, Shaquile O'Neal had an effective 19 minutes and Daniel Gibson recorded 11 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists while replacing the injured Mo Williams in the starting lineup.  The Cavs improved upon their 42-11 record and were primed for a long playoff run with home court throughout the entire playoffs.

The date was February 11, 2010 and it was the last time the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Orlando Magic.  Since then, they have played 10 games against the Magic and have lost each one.  It goes without saying that the Magic were at an advantage during all but nine of those games because they were playoff contenders.  With the loss of Dwight Howard, this was quite possibly Cleveland's best chance at beating the Magic since they did so three seasons ago.  The Cavs were without Kyrie Irving for the second straight game, but the Magic also do not have the benefit of having two top four lottery picks on their roster.

Like other games this season, the Cavs came close to winning.  The final score was a 108-104 victory for the Orlando Magic.  In the world of professional sports, close is not good enough.  However, all is not doom and gloom in Cleveland.  Dion Waiters had one of his best games as a professional.  He recorded 25 points, 5 assists, 2 steals and 0 turnovers on an improved 41% shooting.  Waiters looked comfortable in his 12th game in the NBA.  The one criticism that can be made of Waiters against the Magic is that he shot far too many times from beyond the three point line.  There is not reason that Dion Waiters should ever shoot 11 threes in one game.  His strength is driving and breaking double teams.  With a highly-skilled screen setter in Anderson Varejao as a teammate, Waiters should be playing up to his skills.

Anderson Varejao was simply phenomenal again.  The Brazilian big man has played in 11 games this season and he has pulled down 15 rebounds in 6 of them.  Varejao finished the game with 19 points, 17 rebounds and 3 assists.  Things proved to be difficult for Varejao due to foul trouble.  He had his fourth foul with one minute left in the third quarter.  Unfortunately for the Cavs, Varejao becomes a leff effective player when he is in foul trouble due to the way he plays the game.

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For the first time since November 5th, the Cavs were the victors.  And it came at an unlikely time.  The Cavs (3-8) bested the Philadelphia 76ers (7-5).  The 76ers were playing good basketball as of recently despite missing their newly-acquired superstar center Andrew Bynum.  They had won three straight but sweeping a home-and-home series almost always proves to be more difficult than it sounds. 

There was little excitement leading into the game due to the news that Kyrie Irving would miss the next four weeks with a fracture in his left index finger.  The Cavs bench has been abysmal thus far in the season and it was without Jeremy Pargo due to the fact that he was named the starter in Irving's absence.  In addition, Daniel Gibson missed his second straight game with a sore right elbow. 

The story of the night was the performance of Jeremy Pargo.  The second year point guard stepped up and set the tone early.  He scored 7 points and had an assist in the first 6 minutes of the first quarter.  Pargo followed it up with a 6 point second quarter.  Pargo did his best Kyrie Irving imitation by scoring in a miriad of ways and played with a lot of control and confidence.  When Chris Grant traded for Pargo in late July, it was assumed that he did so in order to get a second round pick from the Grizzlies.  Jeremy Pargo should not be anointed the backup to Kyrie Irving quite yet, but he contributed quite a lot already considering what few assets the Cavs gave up in order to acquire him from Memphis.  To put it into perspective, Pargo came into Friday night's game having scored 8 points in three appearances.  One has to wonder how much of a buzz there would be if Pargo had this performance in Madison Square Garden while wearing a New York Knicks jersey.  The Cavs probably would not have won this game if it weren't for his 28 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. The only logical explanation is that Jeremy Pargo pulled a Thunderstruck and somehow acquired Kyrie Irving's talent prior to the game.  

Jeremy Pargo's performance is going to outshine the bench actually showing up.  The numbers weren't great, but the shortened three man bench scored 20 points.  Most impressive was C.J. Miles scoring 13 points and converting on three out of four attempts from beyond the arc. 

Much like Jeremy Pargo, the Cavs set the tone early.  Three minutes into the second quarter, the Cavs more than doubled the score of the 76ers and had a comfortable 36-17 lead.  It turns out that they needed almost every one of those points because Philadelphia made it a game and actually had a short-lived two point deficit in the fourth quarter. 

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It’s the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and your beloved NBA and NFL teams are both playing at a .200 clip. When it comes to things we can all be grateful for, winning sports teams are clearly not among them. Tonight, it was the Cavaliers (2-8) keeping pace with the miserable Browns, as Kyrie Irving’s worst outing of the young season sent them stumbling to an 86-79 loss in Philly. 

The schedule makers are not doing the young Cavs a ton of favors. Following a brutal six game road trip that sent them to both coasts, Cleveland had to follow a home loss last night to the Mavericks with an immediate turn-around game-- on the road again-- against a young, athletic 76ers squad. The Sixers (6-4) have been inconsistent out of the gate, still awaiting the debut of their big offseason acquisition Andrew Bynum—who apparently suffered a bowling-related setback in his rehab last week (can’t make this stuff up). Anyway, Philadelphia came into the game ranked 29th in the league in scoring, so the fact they only managed 86 points is no surprise. Unfortunately, Cleveland’s final tally fell about 20 points below their own season average, resulting in a sixth consecutive loss. 

As mentioned, Irving—whose been putting up 24 points per night—just never found his stroke against the similarly flashy young point guard Jrue Holiday. In the battle of Uncle Drew vs. Uncle Jrue, it was Holiday (6-14, 14 pts, 9 assts, 4 rbs, 2 turnovers) outperforming Irving (4-14, 9 pts, 4 assts, 4 rbs, 5 turnovers), who may have been hindered by a bruised index finger suffered the night before against Dallas.

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