Cavaliers vs. Celtics. January 9th, 2009. We’ve been looking to this date for over a month now. Forget all of these other rinky dink games against the likes of the Bobcats, WIzards, Bulls, etc. Matching up with the NBA Champions on the Quicken Loans floor with 20,000 plus at full throat for their home town team. Lebron and his band of warriors against the big three. The Cavs out to avenge last year’s game seven loss in the Eastern Semifinals. A national ESPN audience. It should be a dandy.

What are we going to be looking for tonight? Well its hard to sit here and breakdown an NBA regular season game, but on the Cavaliers side of the ball, I am very interested to see how many minutes Mike Brown gives to J.J. Hickson in a game of this magnitude and what he exactly does with them. It’s easy for Brown to go with Hickson against inexperienced, weak teams like the Bulls or Bobcats, its quite another throwing him out there against the NBA champs. Without Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Hickson must stay within himself and not make the killer defensive mistakes, because Kevin Garnett and company will exploit his weaknesses if they get even an inch.

The Celtics are known for stifling defense and other than Lebron’s 45 in game seven, the Celtics have made him defer to his teammates. You can bet that will be the case again tonight. In the season opening 90-85 loss in Boston, Lebron was “held” to 22 points, Mo Williams was shaky, and Boobie Gibson was just 2-8 from the field, yet if Lebron hits his free throws (4-8) and the team doesn’t go ice cold from deep (3-15), its a different game at the end.

Boston will be seeing a different Cavaliers team tonight than they did back in late October. Williams has played at an all star level, Anderson Varejao has turned in his best season as a pro and can now be respected on the offensive end as well. Ben Wallace’s minutes are down and his production is up. Delonte West has comfortably stepped into his role as the two guard. The Sasha Pavlovic/Wally Szczerbiak hybrid usually produces a high quality bench performance. Hickson has now made himself a factor, when he didn’t even get off the bench that first night. Gibson is coming off his best game of the season and is looking to break out of his funk.

Defensively, Wallace and Varejao will take turns trying to lock down KG. Garnett wasn’t the problem for the Cavaliers last year, rather it was Paul Pierce. The man they call “The Truth” is one of the most clutch players in the game. What makes Boston so good is when they need a big shot, you know it’s going to be Pierce who takes it, but you still have to keep tabs on KG and Ray Allen. The emergence of Rajon Rondo as a legitimate point guard has taken Boston to a new level this year. His plays spectacular defense, and hasn’t been forcing the action nearly as much on the offensive end. Role players Eddie House, Leon Powe, and Glen “Big Baby” Davis have provided a solid core off the bench, but during this six of eight losing skid they are on, you can see they really miss the veteran savvy of the departed James Posey, who now toils in New Orleans.

ESPN tonight at 8:00 PM EST or get down to the Q for live action. It should be a dandy. It would really be a big confidence booster for the Cavaliers to continue the Celtics slide as they head into the toughest stretch of their season. Six of the next seven games are on the road, with the only home game next Friday against a very good New Orleans club, before heading West to visit the Lakers, Trail Blazers, Jazz, and Warriors.