Cavaliers setting the tone early

Lou holtz

CLEVELAND — Arrive late tonight at Quicken Loans Arena and risk missing some remarkable basketball by the Cleveland Cavaliers.Just ask the Thunder, Knicks and Hawks. The Cavs needed just 12 minutes to essentially knock out each of them over the last week. They look to do it again tonight at 7:30 when the Warriors visit the Cavs in the midst of their best start in franchise history.“We are just rolling right now,” LeBron James said. “We have a great team right now.”The Cavs are 12-3, having won three straight. In those three wins they led by an average of 15.7 points after the first quarter.“I think when you have first quarters like that, it kind of sets the tone, especially for the opposing team,” point guard Mo Williams said. “It kind cheap levitra of imposes your will on them, per se. That’s one of the things that we have done the last couple of games, is kind of put teams away and get it out of reach.”Of the last three teams, only the Hawks managed to put up a fight after the first quarter. They made things somewhat interesting by the fourth quarter, but still lost, 110-96.The Knicks and Thunder each only got hammered worse after the Cavs initially hit them hard in the first quarter.“We feel like we are a competent enough team that if we go up 20 points or so, there should be no way in the world that we give that lead up,” Williams said.Putting away teams comes from a simple mindset that coach Mike Brown emphasizes — play the game the right way no matter what.“One of the things we’re preaching is developing good habits,” Brown said. “Let’s keep doing what we do so we can keep trying to get better.”The message is getting through. The Cavs are coming out focused and setting a tone early on each of the floor. They then keep that focus once the lead expands into the 20s and 30s. They keep working on defense, they keep moving on offense.“We are going to continue to work the game and work hard,” guard Daniel Gibson said. “Developing those habits where you don’t get complacent and relaxed and let a team back in it; we’re doing a great job of doing that.”Often, that wasn’t the case a year ago. The Cavs would either let weak teams hang around way too long or if they’d get a big lead early, they tended to let it slip away.Game after game was decided in the final minutes. That also meant James played heavy cialis online minutes. Because of the early routs of the Knicks and Thunder, James played a total of 47 minutes the last two games.And he doesn’t mind the extra rest.“Guys are coming in and knowing what it takes to win, and we are not taking anything for granted no matter who we are going against,” James said. “We have a hunger about this season, and that’s how we are approaching the game.”Brown loves watching this group do its job.“I’ve said this a few times before, but we’re further along on both sides of the ball than we’ve ever been since I’ve been here,” Brown said. “These guys are intelligent, they play hard and they want to win. It makes my job real easy.”

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