Written by Brian McPeek

---

It was "2 Hour Lay Up Line Night" Friday night at

It was "2 Hour Lay Up Line Night" Friday night at ‘The Q' as the Cavs ran roughshod over the Minnesota Timberwolves. The 107-85 win was the Cavaliers' 11^th in a row and ran their Eastern Conference-best record to 59-13. 

The good news was the Timberwolves apparently have mastered the art of making their flights as they arrived in Cleveland on time for the 7:35pm start Friday night. They also had the talent and experience to pack the correct uniforms and to suit up the correct number of players for the ballgame. 

Sadly for the ‘Pups, that was also the bad news as it required them to actually take the floor and play the game.  

LeBron James actually played Minnesota even in the first quarter; he scored 18 points and the T'Wolves matched it. Unfortunately for Kevin McHale's club, the Cavs had other guys on the floor who also scored. 

James led the Cavs with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists and he got 22 points of help from Mo Williams. All five Cavalier starters hit the double figure mark on the night and Daniel Gibson joined the double-digit points parade with 12 points off the bench, all of them coming from behind the arc. 

Minnesota was led by Randy Foye and Kevin Love. Each of those players scored 18 points off the Timberwolves bench. The only starter to hit double figures was some guy named Craig Smith. 

Takeaways 

• Man, that is one bad basketball team that represents the Twin Cities. To their credit, the T'Wolves play hard enough. They run hard, they hustle, they keep in bounding the ball correctly after every opponent field goal, but the cupboard is bare in regard to talent.  

Foye is a solid player and so is Love, but neither is really much more than a role player and a capable guy off the bench for a good team. With a starting five of Brian Cardinal, Smith, Kevin Ollie, Rodney Carney and Bobby Brown you have to pray there is some talent off the bench.  

• The win ran the Cavs record at home to 34-1 on the season. This one was like a lot of those 33 other wins in that the Cavs just came out and punished a bad basketball team and set the tone early. The Cavs are simply not content to build upon their franchise best win mark nor are they satisfied with their five game lead for the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Cavaliers clearly have their sights set on the overall #1 seed throughout the NBA playoffs and that 33-1 home record is a big reason why.

This basketball team also just flat-out enjoys winning. It's become a driving force to see how many ‘W's' they can ring up and to improve their playoff chances while doing so. We've said it an awful lot this season but fans really need to step back and take in what the Cavaliers are doing this season between their overall mark and their ridiculous home court numbers. 

• Bad news for the rest of the NBA; the Cavs are healthier today than they were two weeks AND Daniel Gibson is starting to find his range. Think about this fact: The Cavaliers have won 11 straight basketball games and they've done it for the most part without 25% of their regular eight man rotation. Ben Wallace and Wally Szczerbiak have been sidelined for multiple games and will miss a few more before the entire roster is back together. And it doesn't seem to matter in the win-loss column.

For his part, Gibson looked like the Boobie of old Friday night. Gibson was 4-7 from three point range on the night and hit three straight long balls during a 7 minute period in the 4^th quarter. It seems like every time the rotation a hit with an injury or two, someone on this roster steps up and fills the hole. Friday night was Gibson's turn. If this sudden shooting streak wasn't just a tease or a mirage (and there have been a few of those from Boobie this season) and instead it marked a turnaround of sorts for Gibson, well, the road to the NBA title just got a lot more difficult for any team outside of Cleveland. 

• Put down another solid day at the office for Anderson Varejao. The guy may play like his highlighted tips are on fire but you'll take 10 points and 9 rebounds from ‘Wild Thing' every single night.

And that's pretty much what you're getting every night. I was not one of those in favor of owner Dan Gilbert writing a real big check to retain Varejao's services after this season, but I'm becoming increasingly in favor of spending some more of Gilbert's money to keep the Brazilian in town for a few more years. 

If Varejao learns from the past and doesn't treat the playoffs like open gym while showing off moves and shots he hasn't attempted since he was a moppy haired kid in Rio de Janeiro he'll have earned a spot in my heart and a spot on this roster for as long as LeBron is here to find him on back cuts and help make him the player he is today. 

They Got Next 

The Cavaliers host Dallas on Sunday afternoon (1pm on ABC) and then Detroit on Tuesday (7pm) to end the month of March. It's a month they'll be sorry to see end as they sit at 14-1 in March right now.