Cleveland 107, Indiana 75

Weird starting lineup tonight. With Drew Gooden injuring his groin just before game time and Larry Hughes being eased back into the lineup, the Cavaliers started Daniel Gibson and Anderson Varejao. I was really interested to see how Varejao did with big minutes; can he give his max effort for the whole game and can he stay out of foul trouble (if the Cavs feel they can have Andy start).

I like said lineup. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I like Z and Varejao out there together. That's a ton of hustle and offensive rebounds. Andy finished with 9 boards (3 offensive) and Z had 7 (2).

Austin Carr is annoying. "The L-Train", really? And he just keeps saying it. My favorite usage? "The L Train takes flight." Yes, the train takes flight... Also, what's an 'ooky dooky' move? Anyone?

LeBron set the tone early. The Cavaliers attacked the hoop early and often versus Indiana. LeBron had 24 first half points (27 overall) and controlled the game from the get go. He also added 7 boards and 6 assists.

Anyone else see those fans? I don't know if there's a pic or a screen shot out there, but there was a group of fans that were wearing Cavalier jerseys of, in order, Craig Ehlo, Derek Anderson, World B Free and Chris Dudley. I'd like to commend all of you. The Santa hats were a nice touch. Well done.

Sasha Pavlovic stinks. Behind the back of the foot. While dribbling the ball up. Terrible. However, he did have a nice garbage time dunk... so there's that.

The rest of the bench did well. And by rest of the bench, I mean Marshall and Jones. Jones was 3-6 from beyond the arc and Marshall finished with 17(!) boards.

That garbage time came at the right time. Having a blowout in Larry's first game back is nice. The Cavs got to give him 24 pressure free minutes on the court; that's a nice way to ease him back in. He made some mistakes and some nice plays; he also hit a 3 that led Fred McLeod to say, "That was a major rubber rim-job". That's right. Major. Rubber. Rim. Job.

and finally...

Let's not get too excited. The Pacers were without Jermaine O'Neal and the Cavs were at home. Of course, those are the types of games that the Cavs have taken off this year. Although, holding the Pacers to 16% from the field in the 3rd quarter was nice to see. I'm starting to feel like Browns fans; after every loss it feels like the end of the world and we need to blow the team up and after every win it feels like they're a finals contender. It's a nice win, don't get me wrong, but this was coming off a few days rest, at home versus a team missing it's star on the second night of a back-to-back. I'll take it (I'll take more!) but this was a team that they should've killed- and they did. For this team, that's a step in the right direction.