The details of Cleveland’s 103-87 loss to the Magic in Confederated Products Arena Sunday evening are unimportant. As you may have guessed Orlando hammered the Cavaliers on the boards, 61-35, with Dewey Howard racking up twenty caroms and Ryan Anderson adding seventeen. The Magicians never trailed in moving to 31-17 on the season. Manny Harris led the Cavaliers with twenty points, but, with all due respect to the undrafted rookie from Michigan, that isn’t important either.

No, what is important is that the Cavaliers lost their twentieth game in a row on Sunday, moving them into a five-way tie for the fourth-longest losing streak in NBA history. Just five more losses in a row and Cleveland will own the longest losing streak in the history of the Association, snapping the mark of twenty-four straight set by… the Cavaliers, in 1983. That, more than the mundane details of another in a long, long line of beat-downs, is what makes this night unique.

Instead of going into the gory details of what went down in Orlando on Sunday, I’ve decided to go another, even gorier route. Here, for your perusal, is my list of the five sorriest teams in the history of Cleveland sports. Some were around before my time; some, unfortunately, were all too within my frame of reference. In a city sports history replete with losers, here are the biggest, in order.

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By now, you’ve probably heard enough of “glass-half-full” Byron Scott’s optimism to last you for the next 10 years.

Not me.

Watching his Cleveland Cavaliers, it’s easy to see what’s wrong with the team and difficult to see what’s good. Even though they’ve lost about 143 games in a row, I contend that some balance still exists in the universe. Nothing is all good, and nothing -- not even this version of the Cavs -- is all bad.

Although they are near last in the league in just about every team statistic, there are indeed some good things to embrace.

#1 - Athletic ability. The young Cavs have as many tremendous all-around athletes as any other team in the league. That’s right. You heard it here first (and you’re not likely to hear it anywhere else). When it comes to pure athleticism, not many players can compare to J.J. Hickson, Christian Eyenga and Jamario Moon. The problem is that pure athleticism does not win ballgames.

#2 - Room to grow. The Cavs are the youngest team in the NBA. I haven’t checked the rosters of every other team, but it would be difficult to fathom a less experienced team, too. Which means that a wealth of untapped potential exists. If Hickson and Eyenga could ever figure out how to properly compete in the NBA, and if they could add a consistent jump shot to their games, they might become perennial all-stars. Depending on how much they can improve before they reach the age of 25, it is not difficult to imagine Hickson being the starting power forward and Eyenga the small forward on (dare I say it?) a title contender. The problem here is that Hickson appears to be a defiant learner and that Eyenga is still an uncut diamond in the rough. Manny Harris, Samardo Samuels and Alonzo Gee also seem to possess a certain amount of untapped potential.

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The essentials:

1. This was the Cavs' 19th loss in a row, tying the franchise record for consecutive losses in a season, set in the 1981-82 season. It's also worth noting that the Cavs possess the NBA record for consecutive losses at 24. That 19-game losing streak bled over to the following season for five more games. This Cavs team, however, will almost certainly set a new league record for consecutive losses, neatly wrapped up into one campaign. The next time they play a team anywhere close to their putrid level, it will be Feb. 13 against the Wizards. That's eight games from now.

2. This is what it's like when a team really stops giving a crap: In addition to never playing a second of meaningful defense in any game, the Cavs' offense has pretty much devolved into a game of H-O-R-S-E. If you get the ball and you are beyond the three-point arc, you shoot. If you are Daniel Gibson and you get the ball inside the three-point arc, you dribble to the nearest spot outside the three-point arc and shoot. That is how you go 8-for-26 from deep, as the Cavs did on Friday. Gibson went 5-for-11 by himself.

3. In other words, the Cavs are your college intramural team. Except instead of a bunch of short, slow white guys with delusions of becoming Mark Price, these guys are NBA players with NBA bank accounts.

4. Not that it was all bad. The Cavs did manage to shoot their way back to within six points in the fourth quarter. Nobody within viewing distance thought they were actually going to win, but they did display a pinpoint of competitive light for about six or seven minutes in the second half.

5. Carmelo Anthony had a game-high 33 points. He's still a Nugget. He's still hellbent on hooking up with Amare Stoudemire and Chris Paul in New York. Every superstar and their brother is still going to want to form their own version of the Miami Heat in a city where the dance clubs stay open until 6 a.m. The lunatics are still running the asylum, and the league still has a nice, big mess on its hands. You do not want to be David Stern right now.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall:

What happens in the Cavs' locker room pregame? What happens at halftime? Do the players tune Byron Scott out? Has Scott stopped coaching? Does Scott spend halftime out by the loading dock with a cigarette and a cup of coffee, texting his agent? Whatever is happening, it's becoming apparent that the players are running with little, if any, structure. Either Scott has lost the team, or Scott is counting down the days until he can submit his resignation letter and forget that he ever spent a season coaching the post-LeBron Cavs.

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Greetings from South Beach, FLA— sports capital of the world, Baby! It’s only 72 degrees and a bit breezy down here, so rather than braving the elements, I’m finally getting around to updating my hugely popular “Heat Sheet” blog. Today, I’ve just got a simple message for Pat Riley on behalf of all of us true Miami Heat fans. Hey Pat, we’re starving for a championship here, Bro! It’s been like five years already. Sure, we all dug what you did over the summer and everything, and it’s working out okay, I guess. But come on, you know the deal. We gotta get Carmelo Anthony up in this biznatch!

THE HEAT SHEET, Entry #4 (since 2005) by BimboColesFan1 - Read More Below...

Seriously, am I the only one who’s starting to get kind of bored with the “Three Kings” or the “Heatles” or whatever we’re calling them? I mean, yeah, the team’s way better than last season. I think. We were bad last season, right? But still, it’s been like six months now since those dudes pranced around in front of the smoke machines and lasers and promised us roughly 15 consecutive NBA championships. And what happened this month? Well, apparently, we lost a few games. I mean, what the hell is that about? Why are we losing games? I guess LeBron was hurt and D-Wade was hurt for a while, and maybe Bosh was hurt, too? I don’t know. But it’s still no excuse. We were promised 27 consecutive NBA championships, and I think it’s about time this front office started putting their money where their mouths are. I’m talking to you now, Pat Riley. Why the hell do I keep hearing about the Nuggets trading Carmelo Anthony to New Jersey or New York or Chicago or some other cold-ass stupid city where they pay income taxes? Seems pretty obvious to me that the Heat wouldn’t lose any more games if we went out and did what we should have done back in the summer—get Carmelo Anthony!

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