Cavs show some heart in defeat

Last night, the stage was set for a blowout. The Cavaliers were missing their best player, Kyrie Irving. They were also missing their best wing defender, Luol Deng, who would normally have been tasked with defending LeBron James. They came into the night essentially out of playoff contention. A fraction of their home crowd was only there so they could root for the other team.

If they had been run out of the building, nobody would have been surprised. And after the first quarter, it looked as if that is exactly what would happen.

Then, they fought back. They acted like they gave a shit, which I know is a pretty low standard for professional athletes, but it was still fun to watch.

In the end, it was just another close loss on the way to another Draft Lottery.

But it was nice to see the players who were out there have some pride, and play to win. I don't want to take too much away from one ultimately meaningless game in March, but it does seem like these guys haven't quit on Mike Brown.

Again, that's a low standard. With this team though, low standards are probably just fine.

In a way, last night's game was a throwback to the first couple of seasons post-LeBron, when they didn't have near enough talent to compete and all we could root for were moral victories. Sometimes rooting for a scrappy group of underdogs can be just as much fun as rooting for a real contender. Sometimes.

I just can't stand the thought that being the scrappy underdog is going to become the norm.