Written by Jesse Lamovsky

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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.