Wine and Gold in the Wild, Wild West

Hey everyone, it’s A.C. here! What’s happening?

That was one nice win for the Cavaliers on Sunday over the Lakers. The L-Train was incredible and Cleveland’s fourth-quarter defense was outstanding. Ira came in and did an excellent job. He started at guard and finished at forward.

As far as Ira replacing Sahsa in the starting lineup, it’s definitely going to be an adjustment period. It may not be a big adjustment period, but it will be an adjustment because the Cavaliers are a TEAM, and not a bunch of individuals – just like my Cavaliers were when I played.

And you take a guy out of that rotation, it is an adjustment period. Because what Sasha would do very well is, on the opposite side of the double-team of LeBron, Sasha was able to penetrate to the basket and get inside. But Ira’s a different kind of player – he’s not looking to get inside and he doesn’t finish like Sasha. So the biggest difference is that they’re going to have to adjust to a different kind of player on the weak side.

But Ira’s definitely going to bring a defensive presence. There’s not going to be a lot of people penetrating on Ira, or going by him. I think the biggest difference is going to be that Sasha is a better outside shooter than Ira, but everything else should pretty much stay the same. Ira’s going to bring some positive minutes to the floor for the Cavaliers. There’s no doubt about that.

The Cavaliers are a much better road team than they have been in any year of the LeBron Era, and some of these huge wins out West – against Dallas, San Antonio and now Los Angeles – prove it every time. If you look at the Finals experience, it teaches you to play tough games on the road. And it’s carrying over into the regular season now.

And that’s basically what I see: They have experience playing tough games on the road – games that you have to win. They know the mindset they have to bring to the floor on the road, so it’s a comfortable feeling they have now instead of a question mark.

Winning on the road is the key to the playoffs. And the playoff picture is starting to shape up in the Eastern Conference. It’s pretty much the same as it was last year – minus the Bulls and Heat – except Boston is going to push somebody out, because they weren’t in it last year.

As far as the Cavaliers are concerned, they need to go one more 7-of-10 or 8-out-of-10 stretch to really solidify themselves into that upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. They needed that run to get themselves back in the race, and now they need to solidify their standing by going on one more run.

I know the players are starting to look at the All-Star Break right now. Not so much for the “break” but just that it’s the unofficial half way point. I feel that the Cavaliers could have three guys at All-Star Weekend.

Obviously, LeBron was voted in, which is a no-brainer. But right now, Boobie should have an opportunity to be in the Three-Point ShootOut. He’s one of the best three-point shooters in the league. And Z, I think, deserves a shot. I would say the East could use three centers, because there really isn’t a true center in front of him. I think Z should be an All-Star this year. He’s having that type of year – he’s running the floor, he’s rebounding, he’s scoring consistently. The coaches are the ones who pick now, so hopefully they’ll give him the nod.

The schedule is set up for us to have a good finish. We don’t have any strenuous trips left. They have time to get practices in now; they have time for rest. So the schedule is set up to where if we can whether the storm out West right here, we can take advantage of that schedule. We seem to have our confidence back and we’re ready to roll. So I’m looking for a good finish.

During my days with the Cavaliers, a trip out West could be really good or really bad.

Once we started winning, it was great. At first we didn’t want to go out West at all because we’d come out here and get our butts kicked. Once we started winning, it was really a pleasure to not only come out here, but to compete because the fans treated us so bad before, that when we started competing, it was a good thing to walk out of a place – like the Forum – with a win.

Everybody played hard once we figured it out. Guys turned up their game for the Lakers and the Blazers and Sonics. It was something that we looked forward to.

The West Coast trip is a way to get a little break from the weather and eventually it turned out to be a good situation for us – once we started winning, of course. At first, it was not pleasurable because we would get just beat up. But when we got it together, you walk out of a win in L.A., you walk out with your chest out.

And that’s an excellent feeling.