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 #### 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 o####ame 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.

In case you missed it, for the fourth time in his career, LeBron James had at least 50 points in a game -- pouring in 51 in Tuesday's overtime win over Memphis -- along with eight rebounds and nine assists. It was the sixth win in seven games for the Cavaliers and raised their record to 20-12 with him and 0-6 without him.

James enters Thursday's game at San Antonio averaging 29.8 points, with career-highs in rebounds (7.7), assists (7.5), field goal percentage (.487) and blocks (1.1) -- not to mention 2.0 steals a game as well.

So instead of falling apart, which so many prognosticators anticipated after their unlikely run to the Eastern Conference championship last season, James has inched the Cavs right back into contention for the fourth seed in the pathetic Eastern Conference. But the question remains: How long can he continue to do this without significant help? We saw how it broke down Kevin Garnett in Minnesota, how frustrated Kobe Bryant got after Shaquille O'Neal left, and now Dwyane Wade is suffering in Miami with the rapid deterioration of Shaq.

Granted, James just turned 23 and is an amazing physical specimen at 6-8, 250. But he does suffer a lot of sprained ankles, and so much is expected of him every game because there is no other consistent performer on the Cavs. And now that coach Mike Brown has been given an extension, it's time to figure out what to do next.

We've heard about the Cavs acquiring Mike Bibby ad nauseum -- whether he's really worth Drew Gooden and everything else required or just a vastly overpaid, undersized streak shooter.

But given no restrictions, who would be the ideal player to join James with the Cavs?

The first player who comes to mind is the player they lost for nothing ... Carlos Boozer, who essentially conned the Cavs into free agency and bolted to Utah. They'd certainly handle that differently if given the opportunity again. But Boozer is hardly the ideal, just an All-Star they let get away.

Garnett is an obvious one, but I'm inclined to think if I'm reaching into the NBA grab bag, my first choice is Dwight Howard, a great shot-blocker to run the floor with James. Tim Duncan is the other versatile big man that comes to mind quickly, and probably Amare Stoudemire.

But is the big man the perfect pairing?

What about pure long-range shooters such as Michael Redd, Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Mike Miller, Wally Szczerbiak, Mike Dunleavy or even a Jason Kapono? Hmmm, probably not worth it considering James' young sidekick from last year's conference championship run, Daniel Gibson, is proving to be as consistent (90-of-183, .492) as any 3-point shooter in the NBA the first half of the season. A sleeper who could really help shooting and toughness on this team is personal favorite Caron Butler.

That takes us to a much more obvious position -- point guard, which is why Bibby's name continues to surface with the Cavs. But is he the pure point guard that Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul or Deron Williams is? He's not even close. And while Paul and Kidd aren't the versatile shooter that Bibby is, Nash and Williams are better in all phases.

Granted, it's easy since no trade has to be made, but since this is our game, we can pick whoever we want, whenever we want.

So if I'm picking a partner for James, my choice is Dwight Howard.

Who's yours?

We’re about a third through the NBA regular season, and the perspective of most valuable player continues to waffle in unison with the irregularity of the officiating we watch nearly every night.

 

When the season began, it just seemed to be logical that LeBron James would my first pick for the season to build a team around. Now we’re not talking about fantasy basketball, or the future, or even attendance. I’m just talking about the one player to start with that would give you the best shot at winning the title this season. It was logical considering he had taken a very mediocre Cavaliers team to the Finals in 2007, and his Eastern Conference sidekick Dwyane Wade in superstardom was battling his way back from shoulder and knee surgery.

 

But once everything got going, it was hard not to notice what the presence of Kevin Garnett had done handling a coupled of gunners in Boston. Without him, it would likely be a shooting contest every night between Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. With KG, they’ve got the best record in the league and have blossomed defensively.

 

Of course, you could say the same thing every game and every year about what Tim Duncan does for Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili with the Spurs.

 

But two weeks into the season, the monster growing outside of Disneyworld in his own kingdom of Magic was Dwight Howard and their intense 14-3 start. At that point, he appeared to be the guy. Then the Magic lost eight of 12 and the allure of the kid lost its luster.

 

These days, the Los Angeles Lakers have become the vogue again knocking on the door in the Pacific Division, and raising his level of play – along with everybody else – has been the NBA king of notoriety, Kobe Bryant.

 

And then there are the playmakers – led by Steve Nash, Baron Davis, Chauncey Billups youngsters Chris Paul and Deron Williams, and very quietly establishing himself in the Pacific Northwest Brandon Roy. But would you even consider starting your team with any of them for one shot at a title when Billups is the only one to win a title … or actually even play in the Finals?

 

Consequently, I’m right back to where I started. I’m thoroughly confused at this point because it’s such a tough call. So I repeat, if you have the first pick of any active player to win the 2008 NBA title, where do you start?

 

Yep, I’m asking you.

Christmas Day in the NBA … seeing the Los Angeles Lakers every year doesn’t quite have the same allure as the NFL tradition on Thanksgiving Day, but at least it allowed for one game out of three to live up to it’s billing. And with the way the Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns 122-115, it certainly makes the race in the West a lot more interesting.

 

But that was the middle game -- and unless you already knew better, that meant you had to survive the first game, leaving almost no possibility of staying awake through boredom and a second day of turkey to see the nightcap.

 

Oh, we did manage not to nod out before seeing the upstart Portland Trail Blazers extend their NBA-best winning streak to 11 games in an ugly 89-79 win against the Seattle Sonics Tuesday night. It wasn’t supposed to be about the rivalry in the Pacific Northwest, though. It was scheduled in July to have provided enough time for the highly publicized top two picks of the 2007 draft -- Greg Oden and Kevin Durant -- to get their feet on the ground and excite everyone with a glimpse of the NBA’s future superstars.

 

As we’ve learned ad nauseum, Oden is out for the year never to play a game this season after microfracture knee surgery. And Durant continues to show flashes of his superlative scoring skills amid the other immature aspects of his game on a bad team. The best part of the Blazers is still seeing how 2006 rookie of the year Brandon Roy has blossomed into the floor leader that coach Nate McMillan had dreamed about (even if Sergio Rodriguez did show sparks of spectacular ballhandling and passing skills). Maybe that lock of another lottery pick in the wake of Oden’s absence won’t happen after all, and the Blazers slip into the playoffs. That would be one of the great stories of the season if they can sustain … but they are so young.

 

The first game was in Cleveland, with the underachieving Cavs hosting the pathetic Miami Heat. Of course all eyes were on LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.  But all the Heat had in them was one good quarter, and it’s hard to imagine Wade making it through this season healthy after offseason surgery on his shoulder and knee from which he certainly returned too soon. It’s one thing to carry his teammates with Shaquille O’Neal. It’s quite another for Shaq to be jumping on his back. At least coach Pat Riley showed Shaq enough respect to yank him after he had just picked up his fifth foul with just less than seven minutes left. It saved him from tying the all-time record of six consecutive games of fouling out, but didn’t prevent everyone from witnessing just how unproductive he has become. At 8-20, they are astonishingly bad and Wade didn’t even score in the second half until there were eight minutes left in the game.

 

The Cavs, carrying the moniker of Defending Eastern Conference champs, were made to look like chumps on Saturday night by the wacko New York Knicks. For the first time, James stormed out of the arena without a word. And things looked pretty bleak Tuesday when they went dead in the second half. But they did bounce back and manhandled the Heat in the second half, led by James’ 25 points, 12 assists and 6 rebounds for an easy 96-82 win. The key for the Cavs though, was what happened around James, with Andy Varejao coming around quickly from his late contract signing – averaging 11 points, 11 rebounds and 2.8 steals in the past three games. And Drew Gooden is still very capable of a double-double on any given night. The key is in the backcourt, where Larry Hughes didn’t put up numbers, but ran the offense and had four steals, while Daniel Gibson was deadly from the perimeter. All of this was predicated by getting back to their defensive roots that had seemingly vanished. The good news for them is after the Celtics and Pistons, and the rapidly tumbling Magic, everybody else is lingering around .500 for the fourth seed. And the Magic have played their way back to the field losing 8-of-12 after their great start.

 

Nonetheless, the Lakers' win over the Suns lived up to its billing and more. Even though Kobe Bryant scored 26 of his 38 points in the second half, it wasn’t about him for the most part.. It was about Andrew Bynum, the precocious young center with his tutor Kareem Abdul-Jabbar looking on.  The seven-point win wasn’t the story as much as Bynum was just too much for the Suns All-Star center Amare Stoudemire to handle, making 11-of-13 shots to finish with 28 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists. We have yet to see a skyhook out of the 20-year-old Bynum, but you have to figure at some point in time, with the touch he is already showing, that it’s coming.

 

The other eye-catcher for the Lakers was Trevor Ariza, earning a start in the wake of Luke Walton’s ankle sprain. Ariza, acquired from Orlando for mechanical Brian Cook and erratic Maurice Evans, gives them much needed athleticism and defense on the perimeter. And Tuesday, he added eye-popping dunks like he had at UCLA. It’s no wonder coach Phil Jackson signed a two-year extension, you can tell he’s having fun – bow-ties and all.

 

Despite continued great play from Steve Nash, the Suns just couldn’t keep up and they’re looking more vulnerable every day. Not only do the Lakers now have more speed and depth, but with Bynum and Lamar Odom, they now have two players the Suns can’t control inside – thus the Lakers 2-0 record with them this season. Even more to the point, although the Suns (19-10) still hold a one-game lead over the Lakers (18-11) for the top spot in the Pacific Division, the Suns built that record playing teams in the East. They are a surprising 7-7 against the West this season, and that’s got to be a huge red flag for coach Mike D’Antoni and new general manager Steve Kerr. They are asking more of Nash, who turns 34 the first week of February, than ever before. And teams like the Lakers, Blazers and Golden State Warriors now are showing the ability to run with them … or even outrun them.

 

And that’s why the middle game was interesting Tuesday. No longer are we hearing a peep out of Bryant about wanting to be traded. The Lakers look eminently capable of at least a top five finish in the West and maybe leapfrogging the Suns to get a second seed. All of a sudden, it’s the Suns that are beginning to look like a team that needs to make a move … which means those Shawn Marion rumors are bound to start bubbling up again.