The evolving Eastern Conference playoff picture is nowhere near as interesting as the one developing on the other side of the league, but an interesting wrinkle has emerged for the Cleveland Cavaliers: As they’ve pretty much secured the No. 4 seed, the Washington Wizards have come up and, for at least the time, taken the No. 5 seed from the Toronto Raptors.

This means that, potentially, the Cavs would host the Wiz in the first round of the playoffs. While the Eastern Conference bracket will be mostly a joke (I think No. 1 Boston would play the Rutgers women team, No. 2 Detroit is slated to play the defunct-Cleveland Rockers and so on), this match-up would be one of the most intriguing in the league. Not only have the Cavs felled the Wizards two postseason’s in a row – under some questionable circumstances – but the rivalry between these two teams is growing. Forget the rough regular season games these two teams have had this year – including a merciless blowout by the Cavs when the Wizards were hot – because the most interesting portion of the rivalry has to be LeBron James vs. DeShawn Stevenson.
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By week’s end it will be a month since the trade that shook the foundation of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Gone and almost forgotten are Drew Gooden’s stretches of offensive inactivity and Larry Hughes’ remarkably sensitive skeletal system.

Gone and completely forgotten are Shannon Brown’s high-flying dunks (followed by unexplainable lapses in basic basketball judgment), Donyell’s Marshall’s dog-like ability to age on a basketball court, Ira’s Newblehood and the Invisible Man some called Cedric Simmons.

In return, the Cavs have to feel happy with all the players they got in return. Joe Smith is the team’s most consistent scorer off the bench, Delonte West leads the league in weird tattoos, and Ben Wallace, when healthy, has been a solid defensive contributor and a favorite of the bumbling broadcast team of Fred McLeod and Austin Carr. Yep, everyone is happy with every piece of the trade. Nothing to do but say we got good players at a reasonable price….
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Last night, as the Cavs were putting the sleeper hold on the Portland Trail Blazers in a 88-80 home win, the ‘Q’ erupted in MVP chants as LeBron James took the line in the closing minutes. And why not? Though he’d slumped his way to a very mortal 24 points, he tacked on 10 boards, 11 assists and two blocks.

The fact of the matter is, if this is a bad game for LeBron, then the MVP trophy might as well go to the engraving office now so the guy can start carving the L before the playoffs begin. Of course, folks in LA and New Orleans will take offense to that comment. (more…)

An interesting thing happened to the Cleveland Browns during the last week or so. In the midst of acquiring a few big names on both sides of the ball – moves that immediately solidify some of the team’s biggest concerns heading into ’08 – General Manager Phil Savage basically told off and then resigned quarterback Derek Anderson.

It was the equivalent of your boss saying it’s time to get your resume in order because cutbacks are coming, then walking into your office with that, ‘Someone is getting a noogie’ smile and offering you a 400 percent raise. (more…)

So many things happened to the Cavs in the last week – the trade, the short-handed win against the Wizards, the first big win with the new unit – that I don’t have time for a clever insult to all my loyal readers about how you live with your parents.
To save valuable time that you need for watching free porn previews before your mom comes home, let’s dive into a Cavs blog. (more…)

Official DreamBoat Brady Quinn got rocked at sea for the first time in his pro career this past week when a story broke that on New Year’s Eve he and some friends were caught in the middle of a shouting match where slurs were let loose at a gay man.

In the days that followed there was much public discourse – including stories on several national media outlets – about the DreamBoat’s choices that night. And, even though my first reaction is to protect a Browns player at all costs, I appreciate that this was a valuable learning opportunity for Quinn. (more…)

Last season around the NBA All-Star game I made several fearless predictions like the Cavs would win 50 games and the Suns would win the title. Because I was exactly right about the Cavs, I have decided to never make predications again.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t take some time out to grade each of the Calves (yep, they’re so short-handed right now I refuse to acknowledge the team that got dismantled by the Nuggets last night at home as the Cavs) by sending home an interim report to their parents.
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We will get to the hoopla surrounding the Super Bowl later in this week’s column, as I want to tackle an issue that got buried in the hype of the big game: Johan Santana, best known for his multiple Cy Youngs with the Minnesota Twins, signed a six-year $137.5 million deal with the New York Mets.

The fallout from the deal has led to Armageddon with loyal Indians fans. With Santana getting this many years, and the option to make up to $150 million with extensions and incentives, it now seems impossible that Tribe ace C.C. Sabathia will stay with the team when his contract is up after the 2008 season.
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In case you haven’t heard, the NFL season is coming to a close this Sunday when some team from New England will face the mighty New York Giants in Phoenix for Super Bowl XLII. The game, which is two weeks after the championship games for both conferences, has been receiving more media attention than Britney Spears if she was found trying to sneak into Heath Ledger’s coffin.

And, personally, I love it. With 14 full days to talk about two teams playing one game I think there is just enough time to really get the story. Mega-networks like ESPN have even had the time to rate every single player on each team’s roster.
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I hate Bill Belichick for obvious reasons. I hate Tom Brady’s smug demeanor. I hate that Randy Moss can pick and choose when to honor his contractual obligations to play football. I even hate that Mike Vrabel, born and raised in my hometown, seems to be more prone to trip a quarterback than sack him.

But when I put all that hatred aside – well, I can’t put it all aside of course – and look at the body of work the Patriots have lain out I have to make an admission: They are OK at the game of football. Not great, not terrible, just OK.
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