When the defending Eastern Conference champs pulled the trigger just moments before the NBA trade deadline six weeks ago, it was hard to figure which way they were headed.

Watching the Cleveland Cavaliers always is, if only because LeBron James has so much impact on the team and every game, it's hard to tell whether they're coming or going. But after blowing a 17-point lead at home to the Bulls with 15 minutes left Thursday night (losing by three), suffice to say they're going.

Sure, they'll hold on to the fourth spot in the East, but most of that is because the Sixers didn't find out they were pretty good until too late in the season, and the Wizards and Raptors have been too beaten up to establish any continuity.

The Cavs have been a mess all season for myriad reasons, but at least they have James to haul the garbage.

It began before the season started with Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao holding out and dropping just enough doses of cyanide into the team chemistry to prevent any sort of flow. And when they finally woke up and signed their contracts, predictably, they both got hurt.

Then after Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden and Ira Newble were dealt, with newbies Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West dressed in their finest duds and watching because all the physicals hadn't been passed in the three-team deal, they somehow managed to beat the Washington Wizards with only eight players. Two of those players were late call-ups from the D-League never to be heard from again.

That was Feb. 22, and until Thursday night they hadn't had their full compliment of players. Whether it was Daniel Gibson's ankle, the aching back of Zydrunas Ilgauskas or, more recently, similar back problems for Wallace, something had always been awry.

After watching Gibson's wide open 3-point attempt at the buzzer miss badly, obviously something still is. By the end of the game, James' back had become an issue too - his 0-for-5 shooting in the fourth quarter and 1-for-2 free throws after 32 points in the first three quarters telling that tale.

But the most reflective moment of the game came in the final three minutes when Wallace went up for an uncontested dunk and the rim became an insurmountable obstacle. It was embarrassing. It had everything to do with why the Cavs had just one field goal the final seven minutes of the game and converted just 6-of-23 in the fourth quarter after shooting better than 53 percent left in the first three quarters.

You know that little idiot light on your car that tells you the gas tank is almost empty?

It looks like it might be on for the once fierce Ben Wallace ... and maybe the Cavs.

Coach Mike Brown desperately clung to what he believes will be his rotation come playoff time, eschewing the more effective Damon Jones and Devin Brown for the obviously struggling Gibson and still uncomfortable Szczerbiak.

And for the umpteenth time, please, puhleez don't play Wallace and Varejao together for more than a flashing minute. Just go small instead. One of them with Ilgauskas is fine. As a duo they look as unpolished as a couple of overgrown high school football players on the basketball court just for the sake of knocking people around. Besides, they certainly didn't keep the Bulls from shooting 63 percent in the second half.

With two weeks left until the playoffs begin, the Cavs will draw the Wizards, Sixers or Raptors, have homecourt advantage and be eminently capable of beating any of them provided James is healthy. He proved that last year. But that was a team that had already established its own chemistry and pecking order - they were predicated on defense, staying close and allowing James to win games.

This year's version has no idea. Sure, they won at Charlotte on Wednesday night despite James fouling out with just less than four minutes left in the game.  It did end their six-game road losing streak, and to be fair, the game and the travel certainly took its toll down the stretch Thursday. Even the most ardent of Cavs fans - if they're honest - know that it really wasn't any different than many other losses this season.

They are 10-10 since that first game with Wallace, Szczerbiak and West, and showing no signs of gaining any consistency on either end of the floor. They still haven't shown any ability to run an offense down the stretch of a game other than the proverbial "Get out of the way and let LeBron do it."

On one hand, they have lost five games on a last-second shot. On the other, they have won more games coming from behind in the fourth quarter than anyone in the league. James is just such an amazing talent, maybe Brown figures he's better off just staying out of his way as a coach down the stretch of games. Nonetheless, the Celtics, Magic and even the aging Pistons, whom the Cavs upset last year to win the East, are all better than they were at this time last year.

The Cavs are not. Right now, they are James and 11 guys who look like they are concerned about crossing a busy intersection. And with just six games left, they'd better figure it out fast. The light is about to change again.