Dribbles: Rolling Cavs face off with old friend Mike Brown, Kings

CLEVELAND — Random dribbles ahead of the Cavaliers’ home game vs. the Sacramento Kings.

1. The Cavs are just dominating cats these days. They’ve won five straight, 18 of 22 and I basically forget the rest. Nor do I feel like looking it up.

2. Just know that few teams have been hotter than the Cleveland Cavaliers during January and early February. If you love the NBA, you are paying close attention to the Cavs — no matter which team is your favorite.

3. They’ve just been that good. They are putting a fun product on the court, doing it all as a team, and featuring some exciting individual players, such as All-Star Donovan Mitchell and borderline All-Star Darius Garland. 

4. Yes, I know. I’m stating the obvious here. But it can’t be said enough. When the regular season is 82 games, few things beat a regular season full of fun.

5. Trust me. I’ve seen the other side.

6. In other words, I was also covering the team during the one-year second Mike Brown era. That’s now been a decade ago. Brown was rehired by then-GM Chris Grant to try to get Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters to another level.

7. I thought Brown did an OK job, as always, of getting that young team to overachieve. But who can forget when they lost to a Los Angeles Lakers team at home when the Lakers only had four eligible players at the end? Grant was fired the next day, and Brown after the season.

8. David Griffin became GM, hired David Blatt as coach, and then LeBron James returned. We all know the story from there.

9. I actually started covering the Cavs during the first era of Brown and James, when a very average Cavs team reached the Finals in 2007. James was the reason they went, but Brown’s coaching definitely helped. He now returns as the reigning NBA Coach of the Year and a guy with a pretty good team.

10. That would be the Kings, who somehow got shut out of the All-Star Game, despite having the likes of stars Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox on the roster. The Kings always get the shaft at the expense of the Lakers, it seems.

11. Either way, Brown has done an excellent job making that franchise relevant again. I can tell you he is a wonderful person. He’d certainly love to beat the team that fired him twice, but I assure you, that’s not his focus. Winning a game is all that matters.

12. But good luck against these Cavs (31-16). They’re like few teams in the NBA these days. They’re just flat-out dominant.