Anderson Varejao (left), who had just moments earlier had his face pounded in by a Dwyane Wade dunk, gets tangled up with Miami's Jermaine O'Neal during the Cavs 111-104 victory on Thursday night

Highlights ll Box

Exactly a week ago, the Cavs were coming off of a nationally televised loss — at home -- to the Chicago Bulls, a loss that really made the NBA nation question the validity of the Cavaliers as a legitimate championship contender this year.

Fingers were being pointed, and nobody had them pointed at him more than Mike Brown. Something had to be done. Brown had to find a way to get the most out of one of the league’s most expensive rosters that had won a league-high 66 games just a year ago.

Last Friday night in New York may have been the media’s chance to stroke it to thoughts of LeBron in New York, but it also marked the beginning of a [minor] era in Cleveland. Because starting at power forward for your Cleveland Cavaliers was, at 6′9″ from North Carolina State, J.J. Hickson.

Hickson, who just turned 21 two months ago, had an up and down rookie year where he showed some flashes of being solid but then let a back injury sideline him for the stretch run. He and LeBron spent a lot of time this past summer working on Hickson’s game, and he was supposed to come into this season as a solid rotation player who — at the very least — would be Anderson Varejao’s backup at power forward.

In other words, the Cavs were counting on him to provide them with major depth in the frontcourt.

Hickson scored six points in 13 minutes on 3-for-4 shooting against the Knicks in his first career start. Then, after the Cavs enjoyed four days off, he came back and showed a tremendous improvement with nine points and six boards against the Magic.

But Thursday night at Miami in front of a TNT audience may have been his coming out party. Hickson played 31 minutes to score a career high 18 points to go with four rebounds as the Cavs won their third straight game to improve to 6-3 on the year.

And the offense has been playing very well with Hickson in their. They could have ambushed the 100 that they put up at New York on Friday. They clicked on all cylinders against Orlando on Wednesday. And they looked fluid on Thursday night at Miami. This is becoming a trend — a pleasant trend that hopefully continues as the season progresses.

Oh, those LeBron and Mo guys have something to do with it as well. After combining to score 64 at Orlando on Wednesday, Cleveland’s All-Star combo combined for 69 in South Beach on Thursday. James followed up his 36-point performance against Orlando with 34 against the Heat, while Williams followed up his 28 with 25.

Williams has had the hot hand lately. He had a tremendous impact on last season’s record-breaking season for the franchise. His fall from grace in the Eastern Conference Finals against Orlando was a big reason the Cavs never really got it going in that series, and his subpar start to this season also played a big role in the Cavs’ early season struggles.

The 6′1″ guard out of Alabama disappeared in big home losses to Boston and Chicago, but he’s back to being the kind of difference maker he was last season. He may realistically be the only other Cavalier besides LeBron who can create his own offense and create it effectively.

Regardless of which team you were behind on Thursday night, the highlight of the game was easily Dwyane Wade pounding Anderson Varejao’s face with a rim-rocking dunk that almost sent the 6′10″ forward back to Brazil in one fell swoop:

Didn’t take long for that to make its way to YouTube.

Another thing that’s becoming apparent is that Zydrunas Ilgauskas is forgetting to take his estrogen suppressants before these games. Seriously, how much of a pansy can one play like? You are 7-foot-3 for the love of all things holy. Why are you getting packed every time you go for a dunk? And with a jumper that seems to be gone, Z is now officially a waste of space.

Congratulations, Danny Ferry. Instead of having an expiring contract plus a serviceable player wrapped into one, you pretty much have an 87-inch version of Wally Szczerbiak on your hands. And we all know how easy it was to cash in on Wally last year.

Hickson’s progression should be the biggest thing for Brown, as well as Cavs fans, to keep an eye on moving forward. He goes up against Utah and the tandem of Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap on Saturday night, which will also be his first start at home. If he keeps this up, we have seen the effects that it has had for the offense as a whole.