Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Boston Celtics: These are the games that Cleveland needs to win

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 4-11. They want to make the playoffs this year. 4-11 is not a good record. Teams with not good records usually don't make the playoffs. Now would be a good time to start not having a not good record. Feel me?

Who? Cleveland Cavaliers (4-11) at Boston Celtics (6-11)

When? 7:30 PM Eastern

Where? TD Garden -- Boston, MA

Where on my eyeballs? Fox Sports Ohio / NBA League Pass

Music?

You might not believe me, but the Cavs actually played pretty well in Wednesday night's 95-84 loss to the Miami Heat. The defense was pretty impressive and held the Heat to a far less efficient night than they are used to. The offense wasn't great, but there were some really dumb turnovers and missed open looks that made it look worse than it really was. Dion Waiters was aggressive, drove to the rack, and went to the free throw line again and again. It was exactly how we want Dion to play. Kyrie Irving wasn't good, but then again, the Heat have one of the best defenses in the league and were undoubtedly game planning to stop Kyrie.

In the Cavaliers' demoralizing blowout loss against the San Antonio Spurs, Andrew Bynum put up some nice numbers. The team did a good job getting him the ball and he scored in a multitude of ways. The Cavs took a step in that regard against the Heat, but there's reason to believe that they are slowly getting more comfortable with Bynum on the court.

So what am I trying to say? In a roundabout way: I think the Cavs are getting better. There have been glimmers of improvement throughout the past couple of weeks, but we haven't seen them all put together in the same game. It doesn't help that they just played the two teams from last year's NBA Finals in back to back games. It's a little bit hard to see that improvement when they're trying to beat the most elite teams. Fortunately, the Boston Celtics are not an elite team.

The Celtics are a scrappy bunch and have put together some decent wins this year under first-year coach Brad Stevens. But don't be fooled -- this team ain't good. Of course, neither are the Cavs...for now. I don't think anybody will argue with the idea that if one of these teams turns their season around and starts to head towards the playoffs, it will be the Cavs. And if that's going to happen, it starts tonight. The Cavs have had a lot of downtime lately and have had a chance to work on various things. Tonight, they get a chance to go at an opponent that isn't awesome. It would be a great time for the Cavs to put forth a complete effort for the first time all season. We haven't seen the Cavs come out and just play a good game on both ends of the floor for a full 48 minutes yet. What better time to do that than tonight?

A word of caution

I am going to warn you guys about something. There have been recent reports about the Cavaliers looking to trade Dion Waiters. I don't doubt that the Cavs are open to trading him, but to what degree they are actively shopping him, we don't know. With the Cavs playing against the Celtics tonight, you can be sure that Bill Simmons will be playing with the trade machine trying to find a way to get Waiters to the Celtics. THESE TRADE IDEAS WILL NOT BE GOOD.

Tough day for the Trade Machine Picasso. Can't figure out how to get the VERY AVAILABLE Dion Waiters to Boston. Need Trade Machine PEDs.

— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) November 28, 2013

I want to spare you the trouble of seeing Simmons' suggestions on twitter and getting angry. It's just not worth it. Simmons is really great at suggesting trades that make no sense, especially when it comes to the Cavs. So don't get worked up when he inevitable suggests that the Cavs give up Waiters and Varejao in exchange for the corpse of Gerald Wallace or something. It's a trap!

Fear the Sword's Fearless Prediction

Cavs win. 96-89. It will probably be pretty boring and stuff, but we'll watch it because why not?