Cleveland Cavaliers vs Miami Heat: Keep The Margin Under 10 = Moral Victory

There are no moral victories in sports.

But that may be all the Cavaliers can hope for tonight. 

Tonight Cleveland visits a Miami team gunning for an NBA-record-tying 10th straight win by at least 10 points. 

The Heat are hitting on all cylinders and could not have asked for a better match-up to get them into the record books. Less than two weeks ago, Miami traveled to Cleveland for LeBron James' homecoming and throttled the Cavs by 28 points while James (and his 38 points) sat out the fourth quarter.

In hindsight, that Dec. 2nd game and more importantly, how the Cavaliers failed to compete in the second half, seems to have sent them into a tailspin. They've lost eight in a row, sport the league's lowest team-leading scorer (Daniel Gibson, 13.2), and at times appear to have quit on Head Coach Byron Scott. 

For all of the Heat's early season struggles, it has shown a propensity for disposing of inferior teams, going 14-2 against teams currently under .500. They know they'll get every team's best shot, but not every team's best shot is good enough.

So here's your mission Cleveland: Keep it in the ballpark; keep the game competitive;

and play with some fight.