Cavs Addict

They win when they play awful (which is almost never). They win when they play so-so. They win when they play good. They win when they play really good. They win when they play great.

And they win when they play lip-smacking, forehead-slapping, trash-talk yapping, chalk-toss clapping, ain't nobody in the gym got enough gunners jacking to save their butts from a royal zapping by the King and his Court at full-throttle thrashing.

We are all witnesses.

What a show.

Can we just fast forward to April and May, and get on with the playoffs right now?

No, on second thought, let's wait. These Cavaliers games are too delicious to be so, well, cavalierly dismissed. This is what great basketball looks like.

Look long. Look hard.

In the words of Anchorman Ron Burgandy, don't act like you're not impressed.

At roughly the one-third mark of this NBA season, the Cavaliers are 25-4. That's 25-4. Winning percentage: .862. Repeat: .862.

At their current pace, the Cavs would finish the season with a record of 71-11.

That is not a typo.

As a point of reference, if a Major League Baseball team finished the season with a winning percentage of .862, its won-loss record would be 140-22.

That's where we are with this supersonic start by your Cleveland Cavaliers.

Of course, the defending world champion Boston Celtics are even a little better than that. Which is perfect.

Let the Celtics with their histrionic twins of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, plus the much more professionally comported Ray Allen, have the spotlight.

Let Team Green accept the genuflecting worshipping from the masses.

Let the Cavs sit quietly in the weeds. Overlooked and underrated.

There have been no Sports Illustrated cover stories, or inside the cover stories, for that matter, on the Cavs. There have been no ESPN ad nauseum special reports, a la "To Retire or Not To Retire, The Brett Favre Saga" centered on the sensational start by the Cavs.

Oh, sure, there is the occasional casual mention during NBA broadcasts to the effect that, "Oh, and Cleveland is having a nice little season so far. ... but here comes Kobe on the break!"

In Boston, Garnett's phony camera-hogging mugging and Pierce, the tearful drama queen — could you ever imagine Larry Bird or Bill Russell crying on the court? — dominate and manipulate the media coverage.

And, as always, Kobe is Kobe. All for Kobe. And the Lakers are Hollywood's team.

So lah-de-dah!

That's all sizzle.

The steak is in Cleveland.

This year, in this NBA season, what's happened in Cleveland is more significant than what's happening anywhere else.

And it ain't the meat. It's the motion.

It's a nearly perfect offense. A flawless triggerman (Mo Williams), two gunslingers (Delonte West, Daniel Gibson), two maniacal, indefatigable rebounding machines (Ben Wallace, Anderson Varajao), the 7-3 geek-o-matic, who can drain a 3 or drop step your laundry onto the floor (Zydrunas Ilgauskas), and, of course, the bombastic global icon/man-child (two years younger than Grady Sizemore!), who was dropped lovingly within our midst one score and four years ago, for the expressed purpose of leading the local congregation out of the wilderness and into the promised land.

The Chosen One. Who are we to argue?

The defense?

Suddenly, inexplicably, inescapably, irrefutably world class. Even The Chosen One has chosen to play defense, and he's even more scary crazy when he does that. They defend intelligently, ferociously, unselfishly.

They get the ball, they share the ball, they play the game the right way.

Every night is a clinic. NBA 101. Winning basketball. They space the floor, protect the ball, make the extra pass, crash the boards. Nobody cares who scores. Nobody pouts. Everyone is comfortable in their role. The chemistry is so pristine it's frightening.

Trade deadline? Forget it. They need nothing. Except good health. Barring a major injury to a key player, everything is in place. All systems are go. They are healthy. They are happy, and they are a certifiable load for any NBA opponent on any NBA night.

They are the best team in the NBA right now. Better than Boston, though the country and the major media choose to ignore it, which is fine. Check back with them in May and June.

They are the best team. They have the best player, and, as ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy said on Thursday's telecast, "It's not even close."

LeBron James is playing at a level so high you at times question the credibility of your eyeballs. It makes you take the impossible for granted. Once merely great, he is now even greater. Is that even possible?

In this Cavaliers season, yes. There is no more watchable team. No more appealing style of play. Not one nit you can pick with this team. One-third of the way into this NBA season, the best player in the league plays on the best team in the league.

He and it are freight-training their way through their schedule.

Pass the chalk.

Jim Ingraham