The start to the Cavaliers’ 2009 season did not go so well, as the team fell at home to the Boston Celtics and then was pummeled on the road against Toronto. But another back-to-back brought the Cavaliers consecutive wins in Minnesota and at home against Charlotte.

With the new pieces added to the team, old regulars like Mo Williams and Daniel Gibson stepped up in the wins. They combined for 34 points and 7 3-pointers against the Timberwolves, including Gibson’s 14 off the bench.

Williams continued his great play against the Bobcats, dropping a game-high 24 points on 9-14 shooting and 5 3-pointers in the win.

A game in which LeBron James doesn’t have to score over 25 points and still winning by double-digits is always a good sign because it means one night of team-wide balance in scoring. A game where LeBron isn’t “the guy” goes a long way in the argument that James has a team that he doesn’t need to carry night in and night out.

Anthony Parker has also proven to be a solid scoring option, averaging 10.3 ppg in the first four games, including shooting 63% from 3-point range this season.

But probably the biggest reason for the two wins of 2009 was the strong performances of backup C Zydrunas Ilgauskas off the bench, shooting a combined 12-19 from the field and averaging 12.5 points in the two victories. Managing Z and Shaquille O’Neal might be the biggest challenge on Mike Brown’s plate, as we have seen less of the pairing on the floor together but limiting each of their minutes by rotating them in-and-out of the game.

This ends a rough early stretch for the Cavaliers, playing four games in five nights to open the season, leaving very little time to hit the practice floor to work out the kinks of team bonding and chemistry.

Cleveland will have time to hit the practice floor over the next few days before playing host to rivals Washington and Chicago before a trip to Madison Square Garden and the endless pursuit of LeBron in 2010 questions being a distraction.

For the first time this year, the Cavaliers are fully healthy at 100% of the roster and looking ahead to a Veteran’s Day showdown against the hated Orlando Magic, a team that averages 13 threes a game so far even without star F Rashard Lewis, suspended for the first 10 games due to violations of substance-abuse policies.

Remember at this point last year, Cleveland was 1-2 before finishing the season 66-16. They may or may not reach that marker once again, but all that matters is that the Wine & Gold are back in the win column.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.