Our economy is based on LeBron James

You can't blame the poor, miserable souls of Cleveland and their NBA team from overlooking last night's game against the Boston Celtics.

Naturally, with LeBron James' first return to town scheduled for Thursday night, you can understand why the locals are gathering the pitch forks and flaming torches.

Sure the Celtics (13-4) waxed the Cavaliers (7-10) 106-87 last night at Quicken Loans Arena but nobody cares about that. How will they react to LeBron, that's all anybody is talking about.

So it goes with a franchise that was kicked to the curb by its homegrown superstar. Even in the Eastern Conference, Cleveland will struggle to make the playoffs, they just don't have that much above average (if any) talent.

Rajon Rondo led the Celts with 23 points and 12 assists. Two other Cs had double-doubles: Glen Davis 17 points, 11 rebounds off the bench and Kevin Garnett 11 points, 10 rebounds, who shook off a major scare when he stepped on Paul Pierce's foot and twisted his right ankle.

Marquis Daniels had his best game of the season with 16 points, Ray Allen added 12 points and Pierce had 11 points.

Anderson Varejao, Sideshow Bob's bastard son, led the Cavs with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Daniel Gibson (16 points) and Ramon Sessions (14 points) had big games off the bench for Cleveland which is now strictly a jump shooting team, always a recipe for mediocrity. Mo Williams and Anthony Parker both notched 13 points.

Things started out well for the Cavs as they jumped out to a 12-4 lead but Boston immediately responded and only trailed 23-21 after one quarter. At halftime, the Green were up 56-45 so you knew which way this one was going.

Cleveland is so bad that they couldn't even take advantage of the Celtics in the second half like most other teams. Boston won the third quarter (24-20) and fourth quarter (26-22), drive home safely Cavs fans.

Boston shot 50.6% to Cleveland's 39.0%. The Cavs made five more free throws (18-13) but the Celts had four more rebounds (49-45) and most importantly 10 more assists (29-19). Would you believe me if I told you that Boston outscored Cleveland 60-26 in the paint? True story.

The Celts return to Boston tonight to host the Portland Trailblazers at the TD Garden, who lost last night in Philly so they'll be smarting from losing to such a terrible team.