CLEVELAND -- Iman Shumpert and his easily-distinguishable flattop were being given the postgame walk-off interview treatment on Wednesday when LeBron James and Tristan Thompson popped up behind him and pretended to fix their own hair as they preened for the camera. Shumpert cracked up, Thompson blew kisses at the camera and the three of them ran off the court together, with James tossing his headband into the crowd just before reaching the tunnel as a souvenir for a lucky fan.
It was the type of scene that occurred with regularity during James' stint in Miami. Yes, the meat and potatoes during his four years with the Heat were the four trips to the Finals, the two championships, the two MVP trophies and the 27-game win streak. But the dessert, the lighthearted evidence that the Heat were actually a special team and not just some lifeless basketball juggernaut cobbled together, were those epic video bombs that made you think, "Hey, that looks like fun."
The scene hit home, of course, because Miami was the Cavs' opponent on the night and became their latest conquest. Cleveland's 113-93 rout of a victory was its 14th in its past 15 games.
The domination on the court and the revelry that followed provided a stark contrast to where James and the Cavs were the last time they played Miami about six weeks ago on Christmas Day.
That game, a 101-91 loss by the Cavs, seemed to encapsulate everything that was going wrong with James' return to Cleveland at the time.
There James was on the court, yukking it up with his old Miami comrades while his connections to his new Cavs seemed more perfunctory than positive. There was the Cavs' roster with a massive hole in the middle after Anderson Varejao went down with a season-ending Achilles tear just before the Miami game, and a bench led by the mercurial Dion Waiters who, as up-and-down as he could be, was still the best substitute available to them. There was the doubt creeping in that maybe this thing wouldn't be coming together quite so easily -- if ever -- with James admitting the Cavs were playing "nowhere near championship ball."
But Wednesday was different. Not just different because the James/Miami reunion storyline had already become stale. Not just different because the Heat had Dwyane Wade sidelined with a hamstring injury while Hassan Whiteside was now filling it up to the tune of 17 points and 14 rebounds. Not just different because the Cavs now have an emerging big man of their own patrolling the paint in Timofey Mozgov, who had 20 points and seven rebounds of his own, and an improved bench with Shumpert joining Thompson, Shawn Marion and Matthew Dellavedova to form a core four off the pine.
It was different because there's belief in Cleveland right now. And not just belief, but joy, too.
James, Shumpert and Thompson's on-court antics only continued in the postgame locker room when James blasted Lupe Fiasco's "Deliver" and he and his teammates -- the ones whom he seems to have tangible bonds with these days -- broke out into an impromptu dance party, jamming to the tune and shouting the song's "the pizza man don't come here no more" hook when it played.
"I think it's a combination of everything, but more importantly, it's the team," James said when asked to explain what has changed for the Cavs during their resurgence. "We all care about the team. We all care about each other at this point. We're still growing, obviously, but it's fun basketball when everyone feels in rhythm. And when the ball is moving, it's popping from one side to the other, everyone feels in rhythm and that's very important for our success."
The Cavs will close out the unofficial first half of their season Thursday in Chicago, the last game before the All-Star break. It will be a chance to shut out all the noise of the first half -- the James/Kyrie Irving disagreement, the Waiters national anthem fiasco, the Varejao injury, the James/Wade powwow in Miami, the David Blatt hot seat, the James two-week hiatus, the Kevin Love "max player" and "fit out" controversies -- and put it behind them.
James didn't even need the All-Star break to put the past behind him, showing he could make a major step on Wednesday and separate the emotions from the game when facing the Heat.
"Obviously, what we're trying to do here -- we have the opportunity to get better and better and better," James said. "We didn't want to waste an opportunity and it starts with me. I didn't want to do that."
After most of the Cavs had cleared out of the locker room and made their way to the bus to catch the flight to Chicago, Mario Chalmers came in to shoot the breeze with James, who was still getting dressed at his locker.
The music was still bumping and a big smile flashed across James' face as Chalmers came into view.
They chatted briefly before James had to hurry up to catch his teammates for the trip to Chicago.
There is still a way to embrace the past while chasing the future.
