The Cavaliers snapped their three-game winning streak in dramatic fashion Friday night in Charlotte, sinking the Bobcats 106-104 on Kyrie Irving’s jumper with one second remaining. Being the Cavaliers, they made it as tough on themselves as humanly possible. This game never should have come down to a final shot. But it did, thanks to a horrific fourth-quarter collapse that turned what should have been a walk into a nail-biter.

For most of the night the Cavaliers did whatever they wanted against the Bobcats, who were fresh off their first win in over a month on New Year’s Eve in Chicago. Cleveland took the lead midway through the first period and expanded it relentlessly against a Charlotte team that entered the night with the worst scoring defense in the NBA. When C.J. Miles splashed home his third three-pointer of the night it was 84-67 Cleveland with 3:37 to play in the third period.

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Here’s the question no Cavalier fan wants to face, much less answer: Is it time to give up on Anderson Varejao? Is it time to say “Nice knowin’ you,” and “Buena suerte, mi amigo”? Is it time for the Cavs to recognize that purging the roster of one of the last remaining ties to their ill-fated divisional championship teams would place their fate in the hands of a new generation of players, exemplified by dynamic young point guard Kyrie Irving?

Yes, it would be extremely difficult for Dan Gilbert, the front office, and the entire cadre of devoted Cavs fans to bid adieu to the one guy who has been a valuable constant over the course of nine mostly exciting seasons. But Varejao’s hectic, damn-the-torpedoes style of play has caused him innumerable injuries, especially during the past three seasons. His real age of 30 translates to more like 60 in the NBA world, so he's no spring chicken any more. There may be four more productive years left in that decrepit body, but it's not likely.

Andy appeared in 81 games in the 08-09 season and 76 games in the 09-10 season. Since then, he’s missed 51, 41 and 8 regular-season games. Mathematically, that means he’s appeared in just 55 percent of the Cavs’ games since the beginning of the 2010-11 season.

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The Sacramento Kings came into Cleveland as a team that had only one road win in fourteen tries.  They were on the second night of a road back-to-back.  The Kings were missing their second and third highest scorers.  The Cavs were well-rested having not played since they lost to the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night.  Last but not least, the Cavs had the best player in the match up on their side.  It didn't matter as the Cavs dropped another one.

The Cavs lost by a final score of 97-94, which leaves them with a 7-26 record.  The Cavs broadcast team of Fred McLeod and Austin Carr were taking solace in the fact that the team is losing close games as opposed to being blown out on a regular basis like they were in seasons past.  As promising as that is, the Cavs are still losing at an alarming rate.  To put it into perspective, the 2010-2011 Cavs were 8-25 after 33 games.  The Cavs have actually managed to regress in comparison with the first post-LeBron James team as far as wins and losses go.  To make matters worse, the 2011-2012 Cavs were 13-20 after 33 games despite the condensed schedule. This season is one bad Kyrie Irving injury away from being a complete disaster.  Simply put, this is not the sort of progress that Cavs fans were hoping for two years into the rebuild.  

The biggest issue for the Cavs on Wednesday night was defending the paint.  Without Anderson Varejao, Byron Scott is forced to reach deeper into his bench for big man help.  Luke Walton played 18 minutes against the Kings.  Many of his minutes came at the power forward position due to Tristan Thompson being in foul trouble for much of the game.  Whenever the Cavs are short-handed and have issues with their starting power forward being in foul trouble, they do not stand much of a chance against a team with a guy as talented as DeMarcus Cousins.  The volatile Kings big man was incredibly effective against the thin Cavs front-line.  Cousins finished the game with 18 points, 16 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 1 blocked shot.  DeMarcus Cousins was not the only King big man to give the Cavs trouble.  Jason Thompson had his 9th double-double of the season by recording 19 points and 10 rebounds.  The Kings scored 52 points in the paint.

There was once a point where the Cavs would be at an advantage if they found themselves in a close game with time windind down.  In fact, Kyrie Irving was rated as the "most clutch" player in the NBA last year.  Unfortunately, 82games.com has not updated their clutch stats for the current season, but the eye test has to show that Kyrie Irving has taken a step back in that department.  Irving tripped over his own feet with 38 seconds left which led to a bad turnover.  This set the table for an Aaron Brooks layup that put the Kings up by 4.  Kyrie Irving did redeem himself on the following possession by converting on a 9 foot jump shot.  That was the last time that Kyrie Irving would get a shot off before the buzzer sounded.  It should be noted that he launched a three point shot from beyond half court that almost went in, but it would have probably been disqualified had he converted on it. 

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When you get a near-career performance from C.J. Miles, you ought not to waste it. Unfortunately, that’s what the Cavaliers did. Cleveland fell to 7-25 Saturday night with a 103-100 loss to the Nets in Brooklyn, a loss that- despite a shot at overtime in the final seconds- was only deceptively close on the scoreboard.

Brook Lopez is a skilled player. But he’s not exactly the picture next to the term “physical presence” in the basketball dictionary. A steady diet of the early-90s pivot powerhouses- Olajuwon, Ewing, Robinson, Shaq- might leave him snuffling away tears like a picked-on boy in a schoolyard.

If Brook Lopez is whipping your ass down low, you have a problem. He did just that to Cleveland on Saturday night, bulling his way to a season-high 35 on 13-of-20 shooting with 11 rebounds. Included were 15 first-quarter points to help establish a lead the Nets did not give up. Lopez overpowered the callow Tyler Zeller, who isn’t exactly a stout defender at the best of times. The Cavaliers, without the services of Anderson Varejao for the sixth straight contest, had no answer.

it was just another loss for the Cavaliers- one of a great many done and yet to come- but the night was rather flukey all the same. It’s not often that this team is carried by C.J. Miles and Tristan Thompson. Miles could barely miss, racking up 33 points on just 15 shots and nailing 8-of-10 from three-point range, and Thompson banged and bumped for 17 points and 15 rebounds, hitting 7-of-8 from the line. Miles almost single-handedly got the Cavaliers back into the game after Brooklyn charged out to a 15-point first-quarter lead.

Too bad no one else showed up, including Kyrie Irving. The prized sophomore clanged away to 5-of-16 shooting on the way to 13 points and missed the game-tying three-point attempt in the final seconds. Dion Waiters was near-invisible with 5 points on 2-of-8 shooting and while Tyler Zeller was statistically decent- 12 points on 6-of-14 shooting with 7 boards- the beating he took at the hands of Lopez took away whatever impact he had offensively.

Next: Wednesday night at 7:00 when the Charlotte Bobcats, they of the current 18-game losing streak, invade the Q. Happy New Year, everybody.