Cavalier fans, if you’re not following the Finals, you’re in full baseball mode and are just starting to get into the Tribe. Browns’ season seems painfully distant. But if you’re currently reading cavs.com, you’re still hooked on hoops, and therefore, you’re probably jonesing.

So in lieu of actual Cavaliers basketball, here’s our season recap, two months – plus playoffs – at a time.

The Wine and Gold’s memorable journey began with Training Camp, just under eight months ago, but the season’s framework, took shape before then.

The Cavaliers underwent an off-season facelift – orchestrated by owner Dan Gilbert – that transformed the Cavaliers into the 50-win ballclub that eventually challenged the Pistons’ Eastern Conference supremacy. The season began with a new head coach, a new general manager and brilliant young superstar that wasn’t new, but was definitely improved.

The new-look Cavaliers didn’t much resemble the squad that closed out the turbulent 2003-04 season watching the NBA Playoffs from home for the second straight season. The Cavaliers inked established free agents, Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall and re-signed their starting center, Zydrunas Ilgauskas. In one of their final moves of the summer, Cleveland locked up not only the best shooter in the world, but also the planet’s best-looking man.

The Cavaliers began the season with high expectations and they fulfilled them. Seven months ago a journey that ended on a sun-drenched Sunday in May – with Cleveland one game away from the Conference Finals – began on a rainy Wednesday night in November at Quicken Loans Arena.

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NOVEMBER

The 2005-06 season’s first month mirrored the things Mike Brown’s Men would accomplish all year long. They began the season 1-2 but didn’t drop a home game until after Thanksgiving. And LeBron James served immediate notice: as great as he was in his first two season, that was only a preview of year number three.

Cleveland tipped off the campaign against the Hornets and despite an impressive performance by the future Rookie of the Year, Chris Paul, overwhelmed Byron Scott’s bunch, 109-87. In front of a sold-out crowd on the corner of Huron and Ontario, the Cavaliers opened The Q how they would close it six months later, with a win.

It didn’t take long for the Cavaliers to be brought back to Earth as they faced the World Champion Spurs two days later in San Antonio. Tim Duncan and Co. dropped the Wine and Gold, 102-76, and the Memphis Grizzlies sent them to their second straight defeat the very next night.

It was smooth sailing for the Cavaliers when they returned home – as it would be for most of the season – and after three straight easy wins, weren’t tested again until they traveled to Orlando on November 13. Donyell Marshall hit a three-pointer with less than six seconds to play and Cleveland won it in overtime in the first true thriller of the season, a 108-100 win.

The Cavaliers were rolling through their first month and by the time they beat Boston, 115-93, on the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving, their winning streak had reached eight games.

Cleveland had streaked to the front of the Central Division, and winning streaks were part of a trend for the new-look Cavaliers. But by the end of a month, and after a trip to Indiana for a matchup with Ron Artest and Pacers, the trend of going on streaks would work against the Cavaliers. They dropped their final three games of the month – including their first home loss, an 89-85 heartbreaker to the Timberwolves.

Still, the Cavaliers had a great month of November. They finished their first month, 9-5, and LeBron James was named the Eastern Conference’s Player of the Month after posting 28.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game over the course of the Cavaliers’ first 14 games.

The scary thing – for the rest of the league – was that LeBron was just getting warmed up.

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TOP THREE GAMES - NOVEMBER
vs. New Orleans Hornets	November 2	LeBron James sunk four three-pointers in just over a minute in the second quarter en route to his game-high 31 points and Mike Brown got his first win as a head coach as the Cavaliers won their home opener in front of a sold-out crowd at The Q. Four Cavaliers notched double-figures -- including Donyell Marshall, who netted 18 points in his Cavalier debut -- as Cleveland got their first win of the season before going on the road for three straight.
at Orlando Magic	November 13	The Cavaliers had an easy week at Quicken Loans Arena, but the scrappy Magic gave them all they could handle as the Wine and Gold squandered a 17-point halftime lead only to come back and win the contest in overtime. Donyell Marshall tied the game late in regulation and the Cavaliers -- who had scored only 17 points in the fourth -- went on to notch 20 points in the OT period, led by Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who netted 20 points in the fourth quarter and extra stanza.
at Philadelphia 76ers	November 19	LeBron James and Larry Hughes combined for 73 points and the Cavaliers overcame a 16-point deficit as the Wine and Gold won their seventh straight game, defeating Allen Iverson and the Sixers in Philly. James notched the fifth triple-double of his career -- all wins -- with 36 points, 11 boards and 10 assists. Hughes was just as effective, going 12-for-24 from the floor, including 5-for-6 from beyond the arc. Allen Iverson led the Sixers with 37 points, but it wasn't enough.

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DECEMBER

Despite James’ brilliance, the Cavaliers road woes continued. They ended their three-game sojourn through the Western Conference with a 102-97 win over the Kings, but came home to drop a 109-100 decision to the Nets and, despite LeBron’s massive 52-point effort against the Bucks, were sent packing from Milwaukee the next night.

Things went from bad to worse as the Cavaliers followed the weekend loss to Milwaukee with an uninspired 100-94 home loss to the Hawks. But Mike Brown’s squad proved that it’s always darkest before dawn, and Team Streak bounced back with a vengeance.

The Cavaliers proceeded to win their next six including big wins over Denver, Miami, Indiana and the Bulls, twice. LeBron led the Wine and Gold in scoring in every game but one (Drew Gooden notched 21 against the Pacers.) The Cavaliers looked dominant at times and it wasn’t until they made a trip to the Garden State that they were cooled off.

The Nets, who had given the Cavaliers problems throughout the LeBron James Era, did so once again. The Cavaliers six-game streak was ended two days after Christmas and the Cavaliers went into the final game of 2005 with a 17-10 record, prepared to face the heavyweight Pistons for the first time all season.

The game was never that close and Cleveland used a 33-point second quarter to drop the Eastern Conference Champs, 97-84, before a sold-out New Year’s Eve crowd at The Q. LeBron notched 30 points and Z added 18 points and 11 boards as the Cavaliers dropped the Pistons for the final time in the regular season.

The Cavaliers headed into the new calendar year with confidence. They had strung together winning streaks and staved off and survived losing streaks. They had beat the Heat and throttled the Pistons. And at 18-10, there was a feeling brewing that a special season was in the works.

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TOP THREE GAMES - DECEMBER
vs. Miami Heat	December 17	The Cavaliers snapped out of their early December funk and LeBron James cemented their status as Eastern Conference contenders with a massive 41-point effort in a big 115-107 win over the Miami Heat at Quicken Loans Arena. It was the 13th time in the 2005-06 season that LeBron had topped the 30-point plateau and the young King added 10 dimes for good measure. LBJ notched 16 points in the fourth quarter as Shaquille O'Neal and Udonis Haslem helped whittle a Cavaliers' 23-point lead to eight before succumbing to Cleveland's late charge.
at Chicago Bulls	December 22	Chicago led by ten points late in the third period in the Windy City, but Damon Jones caught fire from that point on and the Cavaliers, who ran with the Bulls for three periods, ran past them in the fourth. Cleveland went on a late 16-0 run and topped the Bulls for their fourth straight win, 108-100 at the United Center as LeBron scored a game-high 37 points and Jones hit four of his five treys in the decisive fourth quarter. LeBron also handled most of the point guard duties down the stretch as Cleveland notched a big Central Division win.
vs. Detroit Pistons	December 31	The Cavaliers led the Eastern Conference Champs by 14 points at halftime and never looked back as the Wine and Gold wrapped up the calendar year in style with a decisive 97-84 win over the Pistons in a matinee at The Q. Chauncey Billups and Tayshaun Prince went a combined 4-for-23 from the floor and LeBron James once again reached the 30-point mark. Zydrunas Ilgauskas doubled-up as did Drew Gooden, who posted 12 points and a team-high 13 boards in the victory.

2005-06 Recaps: November - December | January - February | March - April | Playoffs Round 1 | Playoffs Round 2