Yesterday afternoon, at the end of the annual Boston Marathon, two bombs exploded behind the crowd by the finish line.  Three people were killed.  The toll of people who were injured was originally 30, but has been climbing since then to approximately 90 and perhaps more.   Many of the injured victims of the attacks suffered severe grotesque and disabiling injuries.  Lives were changed that will never be the same.

The thoughts of everyone at Stepien Rules goes out to these victims, thier families and friends.   

If you were one of the 19,000 people who attended the Cleveland Cavaliers Fan Appreciation Day last night, after these explosions were reported, or one of the employees and media who showed up to work there, you truly deserve to be appreciated.  Not just by the NBA and the Cavaliers franchise, but by each other.

For many, sports are an escape, something to set aside real problems and issues in the world and enjoy entertainment.   For a local sports team, there's a sense of community, of local civil pride.  We look out for each other, we care about each other, we fight, but we also pick each other off the floor to protect each other from trampling.

Did it cross your mind when you heard about the bombings that you were about to attend a packed sporting event in a giant arena with 19,000 other people?   Did you consider that one of the most reconizable athletes in the world was going to be in the room with you?  That if someone was angry enough, or motivated enough, that something serious could happen?

I don't know.  Maybe it did, maybe it didn't.   Maybe you didn't even know that anything had happened at all until the Cavs took a moment of silence before the game.

Four billion years the sun has risen up over the miles where the river cuts through the city.   Water and winters came and cut the river down through the land down to the lake.   The buildings rose and sprawled and the city filled.

Orange construction barrels dot the landscape from Euclid Avenue as it slowly rises behind the Terminal Tower - which casts it’s enormous eighty year old shadow that pulls down across Public Square.  It’s 8 AM on Monday morning and the morning commute pours in across the broken roads, down into the city on a day which, in all likelihood, is Cleveland Cavalier guard Daniel Gibson’s last night.

I wonder if Gibson can still hear the whispers of his name over the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge as if from the mouths of those giant Guardians of Traffic, echoing around the curved ceilings of the West Side Market, vibrating down into the river.   And the 43 years since his employer was born and the 7 years since he first appeared, fascinated, inspired and found a home are both a speck of time.

2007 and those nights when a grinning rail thin 21 year old point guard from Texas meant everything were the blink of an eye ago.   2007s Eastern Conference Finals Game 4, with a series down to the invincible Pistons 1 games to 2.  Down the street from the shadow of the rising sun were the Gibson made 12 straight shots from the free throw line in the best game of his career, culminating with 2 long range 3 point shots to begin the fourth quarter.

"Did you congratulate Chris yet?"

That was the question Luke Walton asked me on Friday, prior to the Cavaliers matchup with the New York Knicks. 

"No, why, what happened?" I replied.

"My man had a kid last night, big time stuff".

"Wow, nice, congrats on that, Chris," I said, while standing by Walton and Quinn in the corner of the Cavs locker room. 

"Yeah thanks man," Quinn replied. "We're pretty excited".

It was at that point—mid-conversation with Walton and Quinn—I realized the shame it is that Cleveland hasn't had the opportunity to really meet the newest member of the Cavaliers backcourt since his arrival way back on March 20.

What if we saw Quinn handing out celebratory cigars on Public Square this week, for example, and nobody understood why? 

With this in mind—surrounded by the only other relevant storylines including Byron Scott's job status, Dion Waiters' whereabouts and exactly how many points Carmelo Anthony was capable of scoring in four full quarters against the Cavaliers—I decided it was time we make it a point to get to know Quinn a little better.

After firing up my flipcam, Quinn and I talked more about how he's enjoying Cleveland so far, his familiarity with the Cavs long lineage of great point guards like Mark Price and Terrell Brandon, as well as his All-Star teammate Kyrie Irving. 

Below is that conversation.

What I've always found interesting about Quinn's story is the manner by which he rose through the college ranks on his way to becoming an NBA player. I started thinking back through all that after our conversation.

I actually followed Quinn's collegiate career pretty closely, and when he arrived at Notre Dame in 2002 he joined a team led by a sophomore point guard named Chris Thomas.

The Cavs are engaged in an internal battle against time to finish out the season before the season finishes them.   Over the last two weeks, they’ve clawed their way from total collapse mode to win two games in a row, one against an actual good team and one against a team even further from contention.  They got screwed by referees in Indiana and witnessed the emergence of the NBA’s next great big man in Detroit.

Last night the Cleveland Cavaliers waged war with the surging New York Knicks and strong NBA MVP Candidate Carmelo Anthony.  Anyone who wanted to attend the game fought traffic compounded by the Cleveland Indians playing about 200 yards away at newly renamed Brogressive Field, where Nick Swisher’s game winning single edged the White Sox and airplane gestures rounding first base sent jet fuel fire into the otherwise crisp Cleveland air.

Inside Quicken Loans Arena, on the bench, the players still throw up the reverse high five, the coaches still draw up plays and Kyrie Irving continues to electrify on offense, wrapping passes around Knicks, igniting scoring runs with feathery jump shots.  Inside Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland basketball fans and Kyrie Irving have sent a message through his comeback that they are ready to play for and cheer for a competitive basketball team that could give the Knicks, a team primed for a deep playoff run, an actual game. 

Last night, despite yet another strong effort from Tristan Thompson, and a slew of Irving plays that seemed to defy all known facts and laws of physics and gravity there was again not enough effort to overcome the deficit of talent that faced them.  The Knicks are what a team priming itself for the playoff looks like.  The Cavs are what a team ambling to the end of a season towards a top five lottery pick looks like.  One team will be defined by the NBA playoffs, another team will be defined by which pick it takes in the lottery.

It seemed that there was a point in the second quarter when Friday night’s game was decided when the Knicks extended a ten point lead on a 13 point run driven by Carmelo Anthony (who drew faint “M-V-P chants at one point during the game) and the explosive shooting of Knick shooting guard J.R. Smith, who finished 13 for 16 from the floor.  Here, in a season where the Cavaliers have set the historical mark of 20 point losses by somehow losing 4 games after managing a 20 point lead, the manta of keeping the game within 10 points at the end of quarters has become a sad standard by which to measure games, and down 14, the Cavaliers would never recover.

At Quicken Loans Arena, there will come a time, not long from now, when it will be unthinkable to for Tristan Thompson to receive absolutely no help whatsoever offensively in the paint, where Tyler Zeller and Maureese Speights, perhaps still fatigued after being outmuscled by the Detroit Pistons frontcourt, combined for zero points on 0-6 shooting last night.    This frontcourt, outside of Thompson, has been humbled two games in a row.   Even with the addition of the often injured starting center Varejao, this is not what a playoff ready frontcourt looks like.

Tomorrow, the now 24-55 Cavaliers face the 32-47 Sixers in Philadelphia where head coach Doug Collins is truly embattled at the end of a disastrous conclusion to the season, a true disaster rather than the pain of a rebuild that should end soon.  You know that this game should be about Philadelphia native Dion Waiters return from the personal reasons that stalled his comeback from knee problems that kept him sidelined until the Detroit game.  You know that this team is aware, with just three games left in this season, that the core players, the organization and its head coach must see an urgency to move into the next stage of rebuilding, out of the draft lottery, beyond the regular season, to connect the wintery crisp April air into summer nights.

The Cleveland Cavaliers could use some additional help defending the basket.

That was my prevailing thought throughout the evening as Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond combined for 52 points in the Pistons win over the Cavs on Wednesday.

This became abundantly clear when the young Twin Towers from Detroit stepped onto the court, too, hours before a Hack-a-Drummond strategy was employed.

Along the way, though, other questions entered my mind.

Would Anderson Varejao fill this gaping need for defensive support up front? Is it unfair to judge a team’s defensive progress without a component of said team who accounts for its highest annual salary? 

Should the collective group be better anyway? Should I even care about any of this right now?

Do you think Nerlens Noel has seen the redevelopment plans for the Flats project yet? He seems like a guy who’d enjoy Cleveland, right?

Those questions were broken up, however, by welcomed distractions highlighted by Tristan Thompson and Kyrie Irving.

Thompson's ability to now pull his defender out 8-10 feet away from the basket and score off the one-to-two dribble attack move is one of my favorite things to watch.

He’s becoming more and more confident scoring around the rim with each game, and his unrivaled work ethic continues to pay dividends.

So while the Cavaliers couldn’t defend the Pistons bigs up front, the Pistons bigs couldn’t defend Thompson either.

Nineteen points for Thompson and he's now averaging 18.2 points and 12 rebounds in the last four games since publicly voicing his support for Byron Scott.

Irving had his moments as well on Wednesday.

The electric finish to tie the game in the fourth quarter has become routine. He looked tired throughout the evening, didn’t play his best game and still finished with 27.

But when you are a player considered among the top dozen in the league, you can be off your game and nearly get 30.

Dion Waiters came back against the Pistons, too.

Logging 15 minutes in his return from injury, Waiters shot 12 times and finished with 11. It was good to have him back and I’m not sure the Cavaliers would’ve lost against the Pacers had Waiters been available.

I was thinking about that too, for some reason, before wanting to see Waiters finish the game.

Coach Scott said afterwards that Dion was on a 15-minute time limit, though, and I suppose that makes sense this late in a meaningless game coming off an injury to your No. 4 pick. 

The Hack-a-Drummond strategy, though, is something I haven't been able to wrap my arms around. Pun intended by the way, in the event you noticed.

This are my questions surrounding the move:

Does employing this strategy send a message to your team that you have no faith in them defensively at all?Does employing this plan as long as the Cavaliers did only lead to the type of fouls that Thompson was whistled for late? Or does it simply send a message to Drummond, instead, that 34 percent from the stripe is unacceptable? 

Is it an example of how Coach Scott is pulling out all the stops, trying to win in any way possible? Or is this type of strategy going to get whoever it was talking about his job inside that Cavs locker room back talking again?

Does it matter?

How many more games are left?

Four? Got it.

So let’s just get through these last four games.

Next season the Cavaliers are going to the playoffs anyway. Only question remaining on that is the seed.

Free throw attempts from the April 9, 2013 Cavaliers/Pacers game in Indiana:

IND – 46 / CLE- 15

The league owes the Cavaliers, the players, the fans and Cleveland a game.  There was no winning this one.  The Indiana Pacers took 46 free throws last night.  This was more free throws than were taken by both teams in any other game that was played last night.  It is almost impossible to imagine how a team with a 31 free throw disparity, many of which were taken during the dismantling of a 20 point fourth quarter lead.   For your consideration, here’s a list of the other games that were played last night and the number of free throws taken:

OKC -18 / UTA- 14

MIL-14 / MIA-10

WAS-30 / NYK- 14

PHL-20 / BKL-23

PHX-19 / HOU-24

CHA-18 / MEM-20

TOR-24 / CHI-20

NOH-18 / LAL-22

MIN-20 / GSW-22

After a three minute stretch of play that saw a 20 point Cavaliers lead cut to 9 points, Cavaliers head coach Byron Scott reinserted Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson with approximately 6 minutes and 30 seconds remaining in the 4^th quarter and that 9 point lead.  Should Byron Scott have reinserted his starters sooner?  Is his dogmatic approach to fourth quarter lineup changes the problem that has keyed the four 20 point comebacks that have sunk the Cavaliers this season?  Could he have called time outs sooner in the run to drag out what was happening?  Was the failure of the offensive system to blame for the loss or was a failure of effort to slow or stop the Pacers transition offense?  It didn’t matter.  The game was taken from Byron Scott and from the team.

On the series of plays which followed this lineup change, Tristan Thompson was repeatedly manhandled in the post and in the paint without referee attention.  At the same time, the Pacers continued their parade to the free throw line, cutting the lead by driving to the rim and drawing a series of phantom fouls, the most pronounced of which was a call against Cavalier Shaun Livingston involving Pacer George Hill, wherein Livingston was called for a foul on a Hill layup without ever touching either Hill or the ball.  Hill, and former Mr. Basketball Indiana Tyler Zeller, who had a magnificent game, were both fouled out of the game in the fourth quarter.

Then, with the game in the balance and 29 seconds remaining, Kyrie Irving took the ball with the Cavaliers down by 2 points.  He drove to the hoop and was met with 16 seconds left in the game by Pacer Jeff Pendergraph, who was still moving into position such that the heel of his right foot, while moving, was clearly above the restricted area arc.  Irving drew contact, drew a shooting foul, then banked a shot which should put Irving on the line with the game tied.  The officiating crew, who actually appeared to take the time to conduct a video replay of the play, somehow concluded that Irving had committed a charge, awarding the ball and essentially, the game, to the Indiana Pacers.

Any honest description of the Cavaliers Pacers game of April 9, 2013 must begin by explaining that the officiating of the game throughout the contest and specifically in the final stretch was terrible.    It spoiled a solid honest effort by the Cavaliers on the road against a good playoff team.  It influenced everything that occurred during the last 9 minutes of the game, when the Pacers made the run that would win the game.

Because until that stretch happened, the Cavaliers were rolling with effort, power, dominance and confidence.  This was a different team than the lethargic one that was crushed by the Brooklyn Nets at home just a week before.  A 20 point lead and lockdown defense against a legitimate playoff contender type team.  All of which was compounded by the return of Kyrie Irving’s shooting stroke.  In an honest moment, this was what all cylinders could look like.   But honest moments will remain on hold until tonight against the Pistons and back in Cleveland.

"Now you guys love us again right?" – Tristan Thompson, postgame.

Oh, you said the season’s over?  These games don’t mean anything?  Nobody told  Tristan Thompson, who once again turned into a fucking wrecking ball.  Crashing boards, exploding defenders, demanding respect with energy that bled out onto the court in buckets, winning a second game in a row and driving the highest sections of the Quicken Loans Arena, where there is no talk of “tanking”, into complete and utter madness.   It is not over.  There is still work left to do.

While All Star Kyrie Irving, rookie Dion Waiters, veteran Anderson Varejao and even rookie Tyler Zeller have all missed games this year due to injuries, some of real significance, Thompson has not missed a game through 76 and has spent that time working in the laboratory of the painted area transforming himself into a monster that punishes defenses.

Another 15 points another 16 rebounds, including 8 of the hard fought clawing aggressive offensive kind.  Tristan Thompson elevated the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 91-85 win over the Orlando Magic.  And while these were not the 2009 HgH-aided Orlando Magic, it was another NBA win, and a sign of tangible progress in a season of high highs and some of the lowest of lows.  

There is this from last night: Kyrie Irving has now made only 12 of his last 51 shot attempts.  Omri Casspi and Kevin Jones are somehow rotation players again.  CJ Miles who, after a breathtakingly horrible first month, has been a bargain as a valuable bench player, had his face caved in by Orlando Magician Nikola Vicevic early in this game.  Vucevic, who spent most of the game dominating Tyler Zeller in the paint, went full on Wilt Chaimberlain for 21 points and 21 rebounds.   A coaching decision was made by the Cavaliers so that Vucevic, who was dominating, never faced a double team.  The Cavaliers transition offense was a complete clusterfuck of disorganization that portended a preseason scrimmage more than Game 76. 

But Shaun Livingston’s career is in full on Lazarus mode.   It was Livingston's driving and shooting that keyed a scoring run that overcame a six point third quarter Orlando lead in this game that led to the win.  Wayne Ellington is a credible backup shooting guard and made critical shots.  There can be a place on this team for the buttery shooting of big man Maureese Speights.   There are signs of a something finally forming.

And less than a week removed from the horror of horrors against the Nets and losing streak that there is a message from the new leader and spinal column of the new Cavaliers, Mr. Thompson:

There are six games left in this Cleveland Cavaliers season.  They can be what we want them to be.   Shitcan the lottery talk for those six games.   These games, soak them in now; there’s a long ass summer between now and next season.

And just like that, in one night, with a 97-91 victory over the Celtics, the nightmare ended.

And if your throat burns with the heat of a thousand suns this morning because your night ended screaming the lyrics to “Born to Run” into a karaoke machine in a bar that looks like a prison cafeteria, and if you had one of the best nights of your life, manhandling craft beers on West 25^th, into high fives of simultaneous relief, disbelief and pure elation with friends, thank Tristan Thompson.

Over the course of months the Tristan Thompson of this season has transformed himself into a Charles Oakley presence.  Last night he physically and mentally broke the Celtics defense, grappling for 17 rebounds and pouring a career high 29 points into the basket on the road against a playoff team.   He overcame a poor offensive night by All Star Kyrie Irving.  He was the stopper that they needed him to be.

No excuses.  No complaints.  Thompson took responsibility. Thompson called a professional head coach facing questions about his coaching future a “father figure”.  Thompson backed it up; put the weight of the losing streak and the task of ending it on his own shoulders. 

You want to see what a man looks like, you look at Tristan Thompson.   Tristan Thompson is what the Cavaliers of the last decade of actively trying to win a championship lacked.  Not just a second superstar, but a man willing to take responsibility, with the genuine desire and passion to grow his game,  with the maturity to stand up for his teammates and coach and team against adversity.  Tristan Thompson the human being has not just the ability but as important the will to be cornerstone of the franchise.  

Tristan Thompson wears the jersey that will not be burnt.

Two years and a six hour car ride through congested Connecticut and New York traffic, over the bridge and down into the heart of Newark, where, four picks into an NBA Draft, his name sucked the air out of a giant arena, this seemed to be an impossibility.   No one can blame you for your questions, your doubts and your insecurities when losing streaks and injuries have so consistently obfuscated the long term goals.   But that day in Newark was miles and miles away and like the ten game losing streak from which last night was born, laid to rest.

It was like watching a Browns game.  There were expectations.  Kyrie Irving’s return in a matchup of premier point guards, Byron Scott coaching against his former Eastern Conference Champion team, a chance for some revenge on Brook Lopez.  Former Cavs head coach Mike Fratello on the sidelines calling the game for the Nets YES network, probably fresh off a visit to his favorite Cleveland pizzeria Crostatas.  But unlike the margarita pie at Crostatas, and more like a cold afternoon at Cleveland Browns Stadium, last night there was letdown.  Historic letdown.

Sometimes there’s a comfort in reaching a low point.   That’s the good news ten games into this losing streak.   And if it hasn’t already, when that low point comes hopefully it’s going to come with that comfort.  Granted, they could stay at that low low point for a long goddamn time, but at least it’s probably not going to get any worse than this.

Because, on the other hand, what’s happening to this team right now is fucking horrifying.   On a night that was supposed to honor the team’s mascot, Moondog, 74 games into the season, coming into the game with the weight of a 9 game losing streak, down to the Brooklyn Nets by 30 at halftime, it was absolutely 0 defensive effort.  At one point Nets point guard Deron Williams literally Gangham Style danced his way through a non-defense all the way to the rim for his first slam dunk of the season.  And this effort was WITH both 2011 first round draft picks playing in the game, including Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving. 

There’s a big picture out there about more lottery picks and not getting stuck in the middle of the pack, but it’s becoming harder and harder to see, mainly because the myopic view is so striking and so difficult to watch.   There’s a ridiculous amount of discipline required to avoid blasting the franchise for doing more to motivate players, to coach players and to accumulate talent.   That may be effort more wisely used by anyone who stuck it out to watch the pointless second half of this game turning the channel to watch the Tribe or finding out what time Chuck Ragan goes on tonight at the Grog Shop.

If you are still watching games at this point, it’s because you probably understand that it’s a long process and being in the middle of it is like being halfway though a drain pipe filled with shit smelling foulness I don’t even want to imagine.  You knew when you got into the drain pipe that it was going to be five football fields, so really all you can do is vomit and move on.

Most of the players on the team must have the self-awareness to understand that they are not part of the larger goals of the franchise.  Maybe even Byron Scott suspects that when and if the corner turns, he’s not staying on the train, that he’ll be replaced with someone with a better winning percentage, just so the organization can flip this ugly page in history.

Can’t blame the fans for being pissed off because the team didn’t meet what were very modest expectations, can’t blame the front office for following though with the plan they started two or three years ago.  Who’s left?  Luke Walton for not being talented enough? 

Who’s going to take the shitstorm of criticism for this losing streak now that JJ Hickson isn’t around?  Byron Scott, fair or unfair.  My guess is that he knew that when he signed up.   It’s not enough to develop Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson.  He has to keep himself and this group of players that know they may have no future with the franchise motivated enough to not lose 11 games in a row.  That’s a tough job and it’s Friday night against the Celtics in Boston.

All firing Byron Scott would do now is send the false message to Cavaliers fans that the organization was actually trying to win games in 2012-13 with the roster assembled.

This is what I reminded myself as Twitter erupted with cries for Scott's job last night following an uninspired loss to the Brooklyn Nets.

Winning this year specifically, however, was never the primary objective during this phase of the process.

Kyrie Irving was supposed to get better this season. Tristan Thompson was expected to develop as well and we were going to find out what we had with Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller.

I resigned myself to these simple truths before the season ever began. The wins I was willing to accept as a welcomed diversion to losing while the Cavs tanked their way to another lottery.

The last tank-filled season of draft positioning that we’d hopefully endure as fans for the next decade.

Kyrie Irving has emerged as an All-Star in 2013. Tristan Thompson has out-performed the expectations that most had for him. Dion Waiters has averaged 14 points and earned rookie of the month honors for his progress made through February.

This much is enough for me in year two of the Kyrie Irving Era. 

I do realize the collective product is increasingly terrible and I know the Cavaliers are the worst defensive unit in the NBA at the moment. I also listened to a pregame press conference spent discussing aspects of a spider zone that eventually helped Brooklyn shoot 70-percent in the first half last night too.

So there is no way I blame any Cavs fan who is actually still paying attention at this point and believes that the coach should be fired for the product they are being forced to watch.

I actually left the Q with six minutes remaining myself because the pain I felt in my eyes was so fierce I feared the possibility of future blindness. 

In saying as much, though, the Cavaliers are still best served by allowing themselves to find out what Scott’s capable of doing when equipped with a reputable NBA roster and an organizational goal of winning basketball games.

He has not coached in that environment since arriving in Cleveland.

Phil Jackson could’ve assembled a staff that included John Wooden and Red Auerbach and not coached this Cavaliers roster into the 2013 playoffs. Not without Anderson Varejao for 50-plus games and Kyrie Irving for as much time as he’s missed.

Not without an NBA-caliber bench to support their young core that the Cavaliers didn’t stumble upon until after probing the Memphis Grizzlies with Jon Leuer’s contract in an attempt to acquire future draft picks.

The same Jon Leuer that was also once acquired to provide NBA-caliber depth off the Cavaliers bench for Kyrie Irving and company.

But while winning this year has never been part of the rebuild, winning next year is.

If the Cavaliers look like this one month into the 2013-14 campaign, I’ll gladly join the let’s-run-him-out-of-town-parade. In the meantime, though, we've endured too much losing over the last three years for all that suffering to be in vain.

Scott has helped point guards like Chris Paul develop into Hall of Famers. I want to see what he can do with his continued development of our guy.

I want to see if he can turn out the defensive effort he has during his tenures with the New Jersey Nets and New Orleans Hornets after the Cavaliers employ a collection of players who are interested in defending.

We haven’t actually determined that yet. 

Next season will include a different set of marching orders with a different set of goals. Let's find out what this team looks like then with the continuity that a healthy lineup of improving players provides.

Until then, just let this season die peacefully and prepare for the draft.