Spotlights on high, the crowd cheering for a solid minute after the game action had ended. Players smiling and joking like never before. Ticker tape and glitter streaming down on everything, including the crowd. They finally did it! The Cleveland Cavaliers...won their ninth game of the season? Follow after the jump for the strangest game I have ever witnessed in an NBA arena.

I'm well aware of the fact that sports are all about regression to the mean. No team is as bad as they look on their worst night, nor as good as they look on their best night - the truth is somewhere in between. It is also certainly true that any team that goes on a streak of any consequence and length - wins or losses - has more than just ability, but also luck, working towards that end.

However, I also can firmly support the belief that a team who manages to win three games in three months probably just is not very good. Tonight, like many other nights during the streak, it was in doubt the entire night as to whether the Cavs were going to put up a W before they went to bed. Luck gave and took all night:

• They were somehow down only one point, 53-52, at halftime despite getting only 8-for-26 shooting from everyone other than Atawn Jamison and JJ Hickson.
• They led by four points with 3:28 left to play and didn't score again until Mo Williams tied the score with six seconds left, and they still needed a block from Hickson just to get the game into overtime.
• They got a three from Jamison to push their overtime lead to four near the end, then needed Randy Foye's ensuing three going in-then-out to avoid a likely double overtime game.

It was definitely awkward at best to see both the crowd and the Cavaliers' players celebrating like they had just won the NBA Finals, but we'll see what happens now. Hickson was an absolute monster and perhaps the light switch has permanently gone off for him. They now get to face a Washington Wizards team that has been as bad on the road as they've been in general, and who knows what happens after that. But for one night, the Cavs got to feel like champions.