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Raise your hand if you expected the Cavaliers to enter the Staples Center and frustrate the Lakers like they were able to do last night. That is right. The team that had been a mild disappointment to many fans thus far this season pulled it all together on Christmas Day for one of the biggest wins in recent franchise history. After being swept by the Lakers in 2008, the Cavaliers made a huge statement by stomping them at home to finish their road trip on a positive note.

The key match-up for the casual fan in this contest was of course, Kobe Bryant against reigning MVP LeBron James. Turned out that once again, the winner of the individual stat showdown did not relate to the eventual victor as James played like a mere mortal last night. He finished with only 26 points and nine assists, but his seven turnovers were a direct cause of playing against the best defense in the NBA. Despite being the leading scorer, it took Bryant 32 shots to reach his 35 points to go along with nine rebounds and eight assists.

For those able to watch the entirety of this game, it was quite a tremendous end to the Friday holiday. The Lakers looked ready to destroy the Cavaliers for another consecutive time by taking a 6-0 run. It was certainly early, but the pessimistic Northeast Ohio sports fan in me could already sense a long evening of basketball watching. Suddenly however, the Cavs found a spark and managed to reconquer the lead. The home team would never recover.

Up 44-25 after a jumper by Zydrunas Ilgauskas in the second quarter, the Cavaliers dominated throughout in their finest performance of the season. Los Angeles had a mini-run at the end of the first half and the beginning of the third, and even pulled within three. But as soon as that started to scare Cavs Nation, Mo Williams proved his worth in gold by bringing the team back with his efficient scoring effort. Cleveland maintained a lead of at least 11 points throughout the final 21 minutes of the game.

Before the game, I highlighted three keys to victory in yesterday’s preview. In order to win any game against the elite teams in the NBA these are going to be the main points to watch and they certainly were an indicator of the big victory last night. LA absolutely dominated Cleveland in ’08, but things are looking up now as the Cavaliers now have sole possession of the third best record in the NBA.

1. Limit LA in the Paint – Led by the terrifying trio of Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom last season, the NBA Champions out-scored Cleveland 104-52 in the paint last season. They absolutely dominated the scoring in that region as well as controlled the glass. Essentially, both contests a year ago were about as close as the game last night because the Cavaliers were able to control momentum with their interior production.

Entering the game, the Cavs led the league by allowing only 34.9 points in the paint per game. Shaquille O’Neal will do that to any team he plays for and last night, he stepped up big time. Working alongside Zydrunas Ilgauskas in the Twin Towers formation early and often, the length of the road team frustrated the heavily favored Lakers. In the end, Cleveland out-scored LA 46-38 in the paint despite allowing 14 offensive rebounds.

Cleveland controlled the tempo by absolutely shutting down the trio of tall scorers for the best team in the NBA. Soon-to-be All-Star Pau Gasol finished with 11 points on 4-11 shooting while the combo of Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom finished with a combined 10 points in 53 minutes played. Any time you dominate their big men, you are going to have a chance to win and a tip goes out to Coach Mike Brown for finally figuring out how to stop this opponent.

2. Keep Even at the Line– In the eight losses, opponents scored four points more at the free throw line than the Cavaliers, while the team was just about even in all of their 22 victories. Tonight, the big story for many newspapers by the end was the frustration level for the home team and their coach Phil Jackson. Despite this eventual lede concept, the Cavs actually had 12 first half fouls compared to only three for LA, and the Lakers entered the game as the least foul-prone team in the NBA.

A messy and often-stopped fourth quarter exponentially increased the number of foul calls but in the end, Cleveland still committed 24 fouls against 21 for LA. Ron Artest saw the door early because of his six fouls, mostly against LeBron James while recently married Lamar Odom’s two technical fouls had him ejected for the second time this season as well. Both teams and head coaches had reason to blame the officials at various times during the action, a sign of how the officials were actually balanced when looking at the big picture.

Cleveland had three more free throw attempts than Los Angeles, and finished with 19 free throw points as opposed to 20 for the Lakers. Mark this one up as one of the lesser talked about story lines of the season, as many times the Cavs have had trouble regaining momentum in games because of their disadvantage at the line. In the big moments last night however, the team was able to frustrate the host Lakers and eventually pulled out on top with a big enough lead to win.

3. Steady Guard Production – Could I have scripted this key to victory any better? Entering the game, the Cavaliers had a 39-7 or .848 winning percentage when Mo Williams scored 20 points or more. Since the team acquired the guard from the Milwaukee Bucks, they were just 59-21 in all of their other games. Matching up against scrappy 35-year-old Derek Fisher, it was going to be huge for Mo to step up and make some clutch shots last night.

Did he ever, as he finished with a team-high 28 points on only 13 shots, picking up the slack whenever LeBron and the rest of the offense stalled against the tough Lakers D. Oddly enough, the 28 points were the exact same that Mo scored on the road against Orlando earlier this season, proving that he is now starring in the big-time contests for the Cavs. The team shot only 7-for-18 at the three point line despite Mo’s monster performance, but LA shot only 5-for-18 from behind the line as well.

One of the odd stats of the night was that Mo Williams and LeBron James combined to scored 54 points on 32 shots overall. Sound familiar? That is because Kobe Bryant, despite one apparent cheap shot at Mo, finished with only 35 points on his 32 shots. Couple that with the fact the Lakers entered the fourth quarter with only three bench points, and it was a sign for disaster last night at the Staples Center. Excellent performance last night by everyone involved from Cleveland, and a Merry day-after Christmas to all of the coaches, players and their families. You all deserved it last night and welcome back home.