Cavaliers coach Byron Scott was still basking in the glow of Wednesday's 83-81 victory over Milwaukee. He was in the middle of extolling the virtues of Mo Williams, who hit the game-winner at the buzzer to cap a 25-point night, as well as the contributions of Daniel Gibson, Anthony Parker, Anderson Varejao and the Cavs defense when he was...
Cavaliers coach Byron Scott was still basking in the glow of Wednesday's 83-81 victory over Milwaukee. He was in the middle of extolling the virtues of Mo Williams, who hit the game-winner at the buzzer to cap a 25-point night, as well as the contributions of Daniel Gibson, Anthony Parker, Anderson Varejao and the Cavs defense when he was interrupted by a reporter who had the nerve to bring up Friday's date with the Orlando Magic.
"I really don't want to talk about them right now," Scott said with a smile. "I'd rather talk about some Thanksgiving dinner, turkey and dressing."
Who can blame him? The Magic currently have the second-best record in the Eastern Conference at 10-4 and are tied with the Boston Celtics for the best home record in the East at 7-3 after Wednesday's 104-95 win over Miami. All-Star center Dwight Howard, always a tough cover, is averaging 21.9 points per game and 12.1 rebounds.
This will not be the same sort of heated rivalry that developed the last couple of seasons after the Magic ousted LeBron James and the Cavs from the Eastern Conference finals in 2009. Too many things have changed on both sides.
But one thing remains the same: The Magic are still a handful.
"Orlando is obviously one of the best teams in the NBA," Scott admitted. "Dwight Howard's a beast down there. They surround him with shooters. So it's almost pick-your-poison when you're playing that team. So we've got to obviously take a look at some of the things we hope we can do against them on the defensive end.
"But the main objective when we go down there is, obviously, to win, but to battle and compete.
"I think our guys did that tonight, and hopefully, we'll carry this on for the next couple months."
The coach admitted that it will be hard to maintain the emotion of Wednesday's victory for 48 hours.
"It's probably too far," he said. "Once you get some turkey in you, you'll going to probably be fat and happy. So we'll go down there [Thursday] night and Friday morning we'll start getting ready."
Williams, however, thinks the victory will have a positive effect going forward.
"You have to feel like you can beat anybody," he said.
Gilbert Tweets: Cavs owner Dan Gilbert took exception to an ESPN headline on a story by Chris Broussard that read, "Cavs banning anti-LeBron gear on Dec. 2." Another version read, "Cavs ban anti-LeBron James apparel." Gilbert interrupted his Thanksgiving celebration on Thursday to Tweet, "ESPN headline is wrong & silly. Obviously no profanity, vulgar stuff U wouldn't want kids 2 see but we are not going 2 be the Gestapo @ The Q."
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mschmitt@plaind.com, 216-999-4668