Milestones- LeBron 10,000; Mike Brown 1

This was not a good night Cleveland fans. LeBron James became the youngest player to reach the 10,000 point plateau on a dunk in the second half, but that was the lone highlight. The Celtics won 92-87 but this game wasn’t really that close.

Boston is one of, if not the best defensive team in the league. Scoring on them usually means that you are operating your offense efficiently. Needless to say, the Cavaliers are not exactly hitting on all cylinders yet. Add to this frustration a near disastrous ankle injury for LeBron. Late in the second LeBron came down on Paul Pierce’s foot causing LeBron to hobble to the scorers’ table and lay prone, twisting in pain. LeBron would come back after halftime, x-rays after x-rays were negative. We’ve seen this before from LeBron, namely the Portland game when LeBron re-entered the game and was forced to miss several days afterwards. We’ll see if LeBron is able to go Friday against Minnesota.

LeBron was not playing especially well before his injury. He turned the ball over three times in the first half, and even missed 2 dunks. Finding a Cavalier that had a good game would be difficult. Delonte West made some shots, finishing 8 of 13 for 20 points, but managed only 2 assists in his 36 minutes. He did a decent job covering Rondo however. We’ll call him the Cavs player of the game. For what that’s worth.

Wally Szczerbiak had a brutal shooting night. He hit only 3 of 13 shots, and missed a few badly to the delight of the Boston crowd who chanted his name after each miss. Joe Smith was a force offensively, however his defense earned him 5 fouls in only 15 minutes, earning him a spot next to coach Brown.

Speaking of Mike Brown, the coach received his first ever ejection in the second half after arguing quite vehemently, grabbing a double technical in the process. As Austin Carr reminded us (again, and again, and again..) Mike was possibly still upset about last night’s officiating and snapped when Varejao was fouled with no call, then LeBron picked up a touch foul on the ensuing trip. Mike was restrained by his bench coaches and sent to an early shower. It would be great to say that the Cavaliers responded to their coach getting ejected, but truthfully they did not.

Zydrunas was back from his ailment, and Andy Varejao looked a little more like the Andy we remember taking a few charges and diving for a loose ball. Delonte West needs to realize that Andy should not be given the ball outside of the painted area however. For the second game in a row Andy put the ball on the floor way too many times. Varejao is not a ball handler.

Chicago fans couldn’t wait to get rid of Ben Wallace. Cavalier fans were hoping that a change of scenery would energize Ben. If last night’s game was any indication, Ben might not be playing 35 minutes very long. We’ll give him a break on this one, getting used to the system and playing the second half of the back-to-back. Not to mention guarding Garnett is not an easy task. I keep hearing from Cleveland’s dynamic announcing tandem (note sarcasm) that Ben Wallace will play the enforcer role on this team, protecting LeBron. If that is the case where was Ben when LeBron got raked across the face by Glenn Davis? where was he when Garnett nearly ran him through the backboard on a dunk attempt? The injury was a fluke thing, but these other plays were decisions to keep LeBron from getting to the basket. They were intentional. Ben, LeBron is your ticket to the finals, and probably your last chance to get there. You might want to make sure he gets to the playoffs in one piece.

So congrats LeBron. I’m sure you won’t waste much time celebrating this one. There’s more work to do, and an ankle to get healthy in the meantime.