Per ESPN…

The yellow foam hands came flying in from every corner of the lower bowl, sailing onto the court in dozens of frisbee-style arches late in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ dominant victory.

LeBron James was more worried than amused by this unusual display of frustration from the Los Angeles Lakers’ fans — and he got a bit more concerned when at least one water bottle followed the foam.
“The only thing that you hope doesn’t happen is one of the players getting hit or a referee getting hit, especially by a full water bottle,” James said. “When that came on the court, it was coming pretty fast. You don’t want that to happen because it could definitely hurt somebody. Luckily no one got hurt, and that’s a good thing.”

The fans were driven to throw up their hands — not the usual foam No. 1 fingers, but a representation of two puppet hands making the “LA” symbol in a tie-in to Nike’s LeBron-and-Kobe Bryant marketing campaign — by Lamar Odom’s ejection with 4:04 to play. After Bryant received the Lakers’ fifth T with 3:45 left, more hands took flight — along with that water bottle.

“I’ve never seen an L.A. crowd react like this before,” said coach Phil Jackson, whose bench drew a second T after Odom’s ejection for failing to produce a substitute quickly. “I like their enthusiasm. I don’t like their demonstrative manner. … It wasn’t a well-refereed game, it wasn’t a very well-played game, so I think it was a reaction to that.”

Aw, the poor little Laker fans didn’t get their way so they had to throw a tantrum. Waaaaaaaa!

Photo from fOTOGLIF

A game on Christmas has become tradition for the Lakers, but they didn’t seem all that eager to play this year. The Cavs had a 20-point lead with 4:36 to play in the second quarter, and if not for a 15-4 Laker run to close the half, the Cavs would have blown L.A. out of the water. The lead was cut to six with just under 10 minutes to play in the third quarter, but the Cavs built it back up to 14 by the end of the third and eventually won, 102-87.

LeBron posted 26-4-9, but Mo Williams was the difference (28-6-7). Shaq had a quiet 11-7. Kobe had a near triple-double (35-9-8), but shot just 11 of 32 from the field. Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Ron Artest and Andrew Bynum combined for just 34 points and 24 rebounds, as the Lakers shot a woeful 37% from the field. (Credit must be given to the Cavs’ defense.)

It’s just the regular season, but this is something of a statement game for the Cavs. They went into L.A. in a tough situation and came away with a win.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

The conference semifinals are upon us — where does everyone stack up? I’ll also give a brief offseason blueprint for the teams that have been eliminated.

R.I.P.

16. Pistons
Click here for my brief offseason blueprint for the team that traded Chauncey Billups away.

15. Heat
One look at Miami’s salary cap situation reveals that the Shawn Marion-for-Jermaine O’Neal trade pretty much locked in the current roster for another season. Until O’Neal’s salary comes off the books, the Heat won’t have any real cap flexibility to make a signing. Next summer, when Dwyane Wade becomes a free agent, the Heat should have the cap space to re-sign their star and sign another big-name player. For a long time, the rumor was that they were going to go after Carlos Boozer, but the team sees Michael Beasley as the future at power forward, so the team will be looking for a long term upgrade at center, point guard and maybe small forward once they have the freedom to make some moves.

14. Sixers
Elton Brand’s injury threw a wrench into Philly’s plan to contend for a title this season but the truth is that it wasn’t really working out when he was healthy. The Sixers are stuck with Brand and his monster contract now, so they have to hope that he can get back to his All-Star status. Philly’s big decision this offseason is whether or not to re-sign Andre Miller, who is getting a little long in the tooth but is still playing at a high level. If the team sees Lou Williams as the heir apparent, they can let Miller go and roll the dice, but if he’s not, the wise thing to do would be to re-sign Miller to a shorter deal (two years?) and draft his replacement this summer.

13. Hornets
Click here to read my offseason blueprint for the Hornets.

12. Bulls
Chicago struck gold when they won the lottery and landed ROY Derrick Rose with the #1 overall pick. He still has a lot to learn (especially about not turning the ball over in crucial situations), but he’s clearly a “franchise” point guard in a league that is becoming increasingly dependent on its point guards. Ben Gordon will be a free agent, and although the team really leaned on him for its scoring, his (lack of) defense makes him expendable. With the return of Luol Deng and the emergence of John Salmons as a serious scoring threat, the team could move Salmons to off guard to make way for Deng to start at small forward. The rest of the roster — Tyrus Thomas at power forward, Joakim Noah at center, Kirk Hinrich and Brad Miller off the bench — would remain unchanged. They could use some post scoring, but it’s unlikely anyone strong in that area will be available at the mid-level, but you never know. The Bulls head into next season as a favorite to finish in the top four or five in the East.

11. Jazz
Click here to see my offseason blueprint for the Jazz.

10. Blazers
Portland’s performance against the Rockets was a bit of a disappointment. The Blazers had a nice season, but they lacked the toughness to get by Ron Artest and Co. The entire core is under contract next year, but Portland will be one of the few teams with significant cap space this summer. If team owner Paul Allen wants to build a winner, now’s the time to do it. He has two young stars in Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge that won’t see significant pay raises until the 2011-12 season, so the team can make a serious splash in free agency this summer or next. The team’s biggest need appears to be at point guard, where Steve Blake has just been adequate, though don’t rule out the addition of a talented big man like Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire.

9. Spurs
Click here for my offseason blueprint for the Spurs.

STILL ALIVE

8. Hawks
7. Mavs
6. Celtics
The Hawks might make things interesting in their series with the Cavs since they play really well at home, but the team’s road playoff struggles make them a long shot to put LeBron’s title hopes in serious jeopardy. They have the athletes, but they need to play near-perfect basketball to push the Cavs to seven games.

Meanwhile, the big question in the Orlando/Boston series is whether or not the C’s will be worn out after their epic series with the Bulls. Dwight Howard is going to cause fits down low and if Kendrick Perkins gets into early foul trouble, the Celtics won’t have an answer for him. Both teams are missing a key player (Kevin Garnett for the C’s, Jameer Nelson for the Magic), so it’s a fairly even series, though Orlando should have the edge since they have home court.

The Mavs are already down 0-1 after dropping Game 1 to the Nuggets, who appear to be on a roll.

ROAD BLOCKS (FOR THE LAKERS/CAVS)

5. Magic
4. Rockets
3. Nuggets
I don’t have a lot of confidence in Orlando’s chances of slowing down LeBron and Co. if they are able to get past the Celtics. Meanwhile, in the West, the Rockets and Nuggets look capable of pushing the Lakers to six or seven games if L.A. doesn’t bring its A-game. I’d expect Kobe to be extremely focused after Ron Artest said that he (and LeBron) weren’t as good as Brandon Roy.

DESTINED FOR THE FINALS

2. Cavs
1. Lakers
Given their (lack of) competition, I think the Cavs are the surer bet to make the Finals, but if the seemingly inevitable Lakers/Cavs matchup happens, I still give L.A. the edge due to their advantage during the two season meetings and Kobe’s stronger supporting cast.

- Brooks of SPORTSbyBROOKS describes his experience at the Lakers/Cavs game on Monday night.

- Will Leitch of DEADSPIN gives his thoughts about the fact that his favorite NFL team — the Arizona Cardinals — has made the Super Bowl.

- How did Rod Marinelli get back at the Detroit press? PRO FOOTBALL TALK has the answer.

- Former dope dealer Kirk Radomski says that he has no doubt that Roger Clemens is “delusional.” DEADSPIN has the details.

Unfortunately, the best matchup of the night didn’t live up to its billing. The Cavs went through an offensive drought in the third quarter (helped by some solid defense from the Lakers) to give L.A. a lead that was pushed to 18 points in the middle of the final period. The Cavs made a late surge, but ultimately fell, 105-88.

The Lakers won this game in the paint, with good games from Pau Gasol (22 points) and Andrew Bynum (14 points), who shot a combined 17-of-23 from the field. Defensively, the Lakers did a nice job on LeBron, who hit just 9-of-28 from the field and was held to 23 points. Kobe didn’t have a great night scoring the ball (20 points on 9-of-22 shooting), but he might have been bothered by his ring finger, which he dislocated early in the game. He did share the ball well, posting 12 assists in the win.

The Cavs still have trouble scoring if LeBron doesn’t have a great game. They brought Mo Williams in to relieve some of the pressure, but he had five turnovers and shot 6-of-16 from the field. As a team, the Cavs shot 43% from the field while allowing the Lakers to shoot better than 52%. You aren’t going to win too many games with that big of a disparity.

On a side note, I like the look of J.J. Hickson (11 points, 4 rebounds). At 20 years old, he has a bright future ahead of him and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the Cavs starting power forward in a year or two. He’s athletic and has some good moves both facing the basket and posting up. He also made several nice defensive plays in the paint. He looks like a keeper.