Written by J.D. Shultz

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Anderson Varejao returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers' lineup on Tuesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers . . . and not coincidentally, the Cavs returned to the win column, with a 101-93 victory at home.  It snapped a two-game losing streak.  (Both the previous two games were also held at The Q.)

For starters, Andy was solid.  He had nine points (on 4-of-5 shooting) with five rebounds, two assists, a steal and a sweet block.  He was also instrumental in what I would consider to be the play of the game.

Here's the set-up:  After going into halftime knotted at 54, the Cavs came out and actually played well in the third quarter . . . thanks in part to some hot shooting by Jamario Moon.  Midway through the quarter the Cavs held the 76ers without a field goal for nearly four minutes of play.

With 4:45 left in the third - after Antawn Jamison nailed a 3 to extend the lead to 69-61 - Anthony Parker slapped away a pass on the defensive end, and dove headfirst into the sideline to save it.  Just before going out of bounds, Parker was somehow able to whip the ball, blindly, behind his back, up the court.

Antawn and Andy were running the floor.  Antawn picked it up on the run, and lifted it up for Andy, who squeezed a lay-up in as he was being fouled, and as he was falling under the basket.  Andy converted the and-one . . . putting the Cavs up 72-61.  And they were able to sustain that lead for the rest of the game.  (The Cavs never led by less than seven points from there on out.)

Daniel Gibson was the key to closing out the 76ers.  In the final 15 minutes of the game, Gibson had 12 points and four assists.  He finished as the game's high-scorer with 18 points (on 6-of-12 shooting; 3-of-5 beyond the arc).  He also had eight assists, four rebounds, two steals and no turnovers in 30 minutes.

Gibson has had at least seven assists in three of the five games that Mo Williams has been out with injury.  (Mo is currently out with a strained left groin.  It's a separate groin injury from the one that sidelined him in the preseason and kept him out of the season's first three games.)  And Gibson also had at least 15 points in four of the five Mo-less games so far.  But overall, Gibson's production has been inconsistent.  Still, he's averaging 13.8 points, 4.0 assists and 3.4 rebounds in the first 10 games.

Other than Gibson, the Cavs had four other players hit double-digit scoring.

Moon had 13 points (on 5-of-8 shooting) with a team-high eight rebounds, Joey Graham came out from under some rock to score 13 (on 6-of-11 shooting) with four rebounds . . . and Parker (3-of-8 shooting) and Jamison (4-of-11 shooting) each had 10 points.  Parker also had four assists, and Jamison grabbed six boards.

A couple other stats to note:  The Cavs only turned the ball over seven times.  (Unless you count the intentional team turnover when the Cavs let the shot clock run out with two seconds left in the game.)  The 76ers turned the ball over 15 times.

The Cavs had some impressive stretches in that department.  Ryan Hollins committed their first TO almost nine minutes into the game.  They went the first 10 minutes of the second quarter without turning the ball over . . . then they went another seven minutes without a TO . . . and then they went almost 15 minutes before their next one.  So there was a 32-minute stretch in the second, third and fourth quarters where the Cavs only coughed the ball up twice.

Cleveland scored 19 points off Philadelphia's 15 turnovers . . . and the 76ers scored just six points off the Cavs' seven.  The Cavs also beat the 76ers in fast-break points (20-12), points in the paint (42-34) and bench scoring (54-31).

Generally speaking, the Cavs kept the ball moving throughout the game . . . and that translated to points.  28 of their 37 field goals (or 76%) were assisted.  But without consistent playmakers right now, that alone isn't enough.  The Cavs need to improve their player-movement to create more high-percentage shots.  They did that well in this game, but it has led to offensive lulls throughout this season.  When they're moving, they're not having much of a problem scoring.  When they stand around, they don't have the shooters to live off (even open) jumpers.

OK, so the Cavs have proven that they can beat Philadelphia, a team that's tied for the second-worst record in the NBA.  But what else have the Cavs proved in the first 10 games of the season?

It's hard to say.

There have been some great team efforts, especially on the offensive end, for long stretches . . . and there's been some encouraging individual work from Gibson, J.J. Hickson, Varejao and even Hollins.  But there hasn't been a complete performance, aside from maybe that emotional first game against Boston.

Some of that can be attributed to not having their two best players healthy.

It's a shame that Mo and Andy have had to sit out so many games (five and two, respectively) with injuries, because the Cavs have had a cake schedule so far.  Only Boston, who they beat, and Atlanta, who they didn't, have above-.500 records right now.  And the other teams they played are probably going to be at or around the league's basement as the season plays out.

But the opponents are going to get tougher beginning this weekend.

The Cavs' next two games will be back-to-back in New Orleans on Friday and in San Antonio on Saturday.  They're both currently 8-1, which has them tied for the best record in the NBA.  On top of that, the next two weeks also include games against Boston (8-2), Orlando (7-3) and Miami (6-4).

So yeah, we'll see how that goes.