Tony Mejia

ORLANDO, Fla. - After a disgusting effort against Denver, Cleveland tried to get to Orlando in the wee hours of Monday morning. It wasn't to be. Mechanical problems caused their charter to bail on them, pushing them out of their normal routine in preparation for the second night of a back-to-back against a Magic team that's ahead of them in the Eastern Conference standings.

The team didn't get to Central Florida until 1:30 and didn't wind up checking into their hotel until 2:15, less than five hours prior to tip. The Cavs didn't have the normal team meeting they always stage during back-to-backs, where they watch tapes and go over assignments and the opponents personnel. Instead, Mike Brown just went back to basics and told his team to try and live up to their identity, play hard, play defense and see where that leaves them.

Larry Hughes scored 40 points, Drew Gooden (groin) and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (back spasms) started despite being game-time decisions and the Cavaliers wound up frustrating Orlando to the point that Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy wound up at odds, the franchise center benched for his lack of effort on the defensive end.

Look for more on that on Tuesday, though Howard didn't fan the flames, taking responsibility for his deficiencies and preferring to keep the conflict in-house.

"That's between me and Stan," Howard said about what was said that resulted in him being benched for a couple of pivotal fourth-quarter minutes. "We'll deal with that ourselves. That's between me and Stan."

Even a beef between the Magic's coach and best player can't upstage what Cleveland accomplished in its 118-111 win, showing a sense of toughness they're rarely given credit for. Gooden called the performance a stepping stone in the team's growth.

"It was tough. This was probably one of our toughest games, not even physically," said Gooden, who wasn't at 100 percent and said he now knows what he's going to feel like 14 years into his career if he's able to last that long. "This was a mental game. Honestly, knowing that you have a game yesterday, it's a back-to-back, usually you get in late already at night into that city, but getting in in the afternoon..."

Cleveland did so well despite the lack of preparation time that players were petitioning Mike Brown to suspend shootarounds the rest of the way. Fat chance of that, but the circumstances were so dire and his team responded so well that it justifies for Brown that his team is still maturing and learning from all the obstacles they've faced this season. Because of the early holdouts and all the injuries, he feels like his Cavs have been on a roller-coaster they're navigating nicely.

"It's literally something where we don't know until really the last second," Brown told me of his starting lineups these days. "We're going through the (Orlando) game plan and right before we're about to break the huddle, one of my assistants goes, 'hey, Coach, the guys want to know matchups.' That's when Drew knew he was going to start. It's been like that for a while."

• Donyell Marshall played 15 minutes and wound up with nine points and seven rebounds, both season-highs.

"It's only my eighth game of the year, but yeah, definitely my best game. It feels good, especially with the situation of getting in late. I'm just trying to get in rhythm," Marshall said. "It's going to take some time. People think that your first game back you're supposed to come back and hit all kinds of shots, but it's going to take some time. It's coming along slowly."

• I notified Gooden about the Spurs' beard-growing contest, one that pales in comparison to the one-on-one facial hair war the Cavs' forward has had all season with Washington's DeShawn Stevenson.

"Am I starting a trend?," Gooden asked before responding to my question on whether he would prefer to end the competition at the All-Star break, like the guys involved in San Antonio's affair are doing. "I think I'm going to go a lot longer than Valentine's Day, and that's just what I'm saying because I don't want to give DeShawn Stevenson out there any ammunition."

There you have it. DeShawn isn't getting off easily; Gooden is in it for the long haul, perhaps hoping to wind up with his own personal bird's nest.

It wasn't a surprise that Kevin Garnett was going to have to bail out of his All-Star appearance. Leading vote-getter or not, if he had to be held out of his homecoming in Minnesota and that showdown against the Spurs, you knew he wasn't going to suit up in New Orleans. Doc Rivers hinted that K.G. would be held out and campaigned for Ray Allen, the only snub on my version of the Eastern Conference All-Star squad.

It made sense -- one Celtic for another, the team with the league's best record represented by the third member that helped restore one of the league's most recognizable franchises.  The only drawback was that it would've replaced the tallest member of an already out-sized team with a shooting guard. Rivers said  he'd make do.

Instead, less than two hours after Rivers went on record that Garnett would indeed be held out following Boston's win over San Antonio, David Stern appointed Rasheed Wallace, who had gone on record as saying he didn't want to go.

I'd like to be up in arms over Wallace's inclusion on the Eastern Conference squad like a lot of you are. One of my boys, the self-appointed Bishop, rang me as soon as he heard the news, sounding all emotional. "They could've gone with Hedo Turkoglu," he whimpered. "He's tall enough."

I disagreed. For my money, Allen or Wallace, who I understand got a lot of support from Eastern Conference coaches, could be the only choices. Rivers himself told me the Sunday before the votes were due in that  he hadn't paid Wallace's bravado much mind because he knew Sheed didn't mean it. In fact, Rivers kidded that he'd play Wallace about 40 minutes if he was selected to try and tire him for the second half of the season. 

That won't happen, either, but I'll take the NBA's decision with a grain of salt in this instance. There's been no great injustice. Wallace has been the second-best center in the East, just ahead of Cleveland's Zydrunas Ilgauskas, for most of the season. If Charlotte's Emeka Okafor or Milwaukee's Andrew Bogut would've turned it on a little earlier than they did, they might have some beef over not being the commissioner's choice for size reinforcements. Instead, Stern's choice was Wallace, the best big man on a Detroit team that is 37-13, the second-best mark in the conference. To a man, every player who has made it to New Orleans would agree he's an All-Star talent.

Credit Rivers for saying he'd bend over backwards to work with a smaller lineup in order to get his guy the recognition he deserves, but the league wanted to ensure the Eastern Conference wasn't at a competitive disadvantage. I can respect that. This situation doesn't merit outrage. If Caron Butler's hip keeps him out of the festivities, then I'd be upset if Allen didn't get the call. Orlando's Turkoglu would be next in line after that.

You notice how no one openly wondered whether the Heat were making the right move by trading Shaquille O'Neal for Shawn Marion? There's no need to ask a question you already know the answer to.

Pulling no puches with the truth, this has less to do with adding a Matrix than it does subtracting a Diesel.

At this stage of his career, it's only worth paying O'Neal his $20 million-per-year salary if he can be your closer. He's no longer the type of player you build around. In the next few months, the Heat need to figure out whether Marion is someone they're comfortable shelling that type of money out to keep. His first impression was great, but excuse me if I don't instantly endorse him joining Bill Parcells on the poster for a brighter tomorrow for a city that's had to sit through the Marlins' annual fire sales, the Dolphins' implosion and O'Neal stalling like an '85 Dodge Diplomat.

Marion instantly picked up his new squad's energy level, finishing with 15 points, 14 rebounds and four assists while feeling out his new teammates, but it's still too early to come to the conclusion that this is the perfect tag-team partner for Wade. Bottomline, is he the player who is going to keep Wade from bolting when his own deal is up in 2010?

That's the next step in Miami's resurrection, equally as important as keeping O'Neal's contract from becoming the anchor that sunk the franchise. Is it worth letting Marion unpack permanently?

Deciding now would be like committing yourself to a lifetime of water because that's the first thing you come across following a stroll through the desert. The Heat don't have a lot of time to make up their minds, because if Marion decides he is going to claim his $17.8 million option to stay on through next season, it would make the most sense to start working on an extension, but that decision doesn't have to be made after his first game, which many overzealous Heat supporters are already doing.

Pat Riley jumped the gun in declaring his new tandem the new-school version of Jordan and Pippen. Things may work out that way, but the pairing could also wind up as ill-conceived as the alley-oop pass Wade try to throw Marion in the final minute of Sunday afternoon's loss, a play that would've cut the Heat's deficit to 100-96 but instead sailed harmlessly out of bounds, sealing their fate.

If this is going to work, both need to improve from the perimeter, but most important is probably that their personalities and egos mesh. Both have been fairly laid back in my experiences with them, but at the same time, it's worth pointing out that Marion has always coveted a starring role and Wade has always had O'Neal's shadow to work under. Shaq's veteran influence and his willingness to let Wade shine helped things work as smoothly as they did, but there's no guarantee that this new partnership of guys trying to come up would have similar continuity.

On the plus side, if Flash/Matrix does reign in South Florida, one major beneficiary could be Dorell Wright. Wright's best performances in his three-plus years as a pro have come in games where the tempo is accelerated and it stands to reason that Miami will transition into a run-and-gun squad since Mark Blount would be the only center guaranteed a spot on the roster. In the Heat's three highest-scoring performances of the season, not surprisingly against Phoenix, Golden State and Orlando on a night it was feeling frisky, Wright posted averages of 16.3 points, 12 rebounds and 2.3 blocks on. Best of all, he had no turnovers.

He looked good starting alongside Marion and Blount in the Heat frontcourt on Sunday, netting 15 points and seven boards while again failing to commit a turnover. In fact, he did little that could be considered stupid outside of a few unnecessary fouls, which reminds me that  Shaq once called the then-teenager a can't miss-star back when he was drafted out of high school in 2004, wowed by his basketball instincts. Wright, now  22, is clearly a player excels when he doesn't have to think out there and could put up big numbers over the next few months entering a summer in which he'll be a restricted free agent. Considering how close he and Wade are, his emergence could be another important factor in keeping Wade tied to Miami, undoubtedly Pat Riley's chief objective regardless of whether or not he returns for another season on the bench or moves upstairs permanently.

The Heat won't be making the playoffs, but at least they're worth watching again.  What happens the next few months could affect their franchise for the next decade.