Fans provide secret sauce for Cavaliers home domination | Jeff Schudel

Dec. 3—The Cavaliers are an unimpressive 5-7 on the road. Get them in the friendly confines of Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, though, and they transform into a Beast in the East.

The Cavs are 10-1 at home heading into their game with the Knicks on Dec. 4 at Madison Square Garden. The only time they've lost at home this season was when the Minnesota Timberwolves beat them, 129-124, on Nov. 13, and that happened two nights after playing four games in six nights on a swing through California.

"I think it's the fans," for sure," Coach J.B. Bickerstaff said before the Cavs beat the Orlando Magic on Dec. 2 for their 10th home win of the season. "Our guys have a synergy with this building and they ride that momentum and ride the wave of our fans.

"It gives them a boost of confidence. When that confidence is going, you're making shots. For us, it starts with our defense. That's where we feel it most. Our crowd is really engaged in watching us get stops and watching us make the effort plays and watching us do the gritty blue-collar things. That revs our crowd up."

The game Nov. 30 with Philadelphia was a perfect example of what Bickerstaff was saying. The Cavaliers demolished the 76ers, 113-85, while hitting 60.8 percent of their shots (45 of 74) including 15 of 29 (51.7 percent) 3-point attempts. Conversely, the Sixers were 6 of 26 (23.1 percent) on 3s. The Cavs dominated the boards with 40 rebounds compared to 30 for Philadelphia, and they did that while their best rebounder, Jarrett Allen, was sidelined with a hip injury. The Cavs had more assists — 28-19 — and more steals — 10 compared to seven for the Sixers.

—LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers make their only visit to the FieldHouse this season on Dec. 6. The Lakers are 9-12 and in 12th place in the NBA West, but they are playing better over the last two weeks than they were when the Cavaliers beat them, 114-100, in Los Angeles on Nov. 6, to drop them to 2-7. The Lakers have won seven of their last 10 games. They beat the Bucks, 133-129, in Milwaukee on Dec. 2. The Cavs lost to the Bucks twice in Milwaukee last month.

—I conducted an informal Twitter survey recently asking followers to name their favorite active athlete and favorite retired athlete. The survey noted that the active athlete could be injured presently or idle if his/her sport is out of season.

Following are some of the results:

Sheila from Montgomery, Alabama, chose Tiger Woods as her favorite active athlete and former Ohio State/Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George as her favorite retired star.

@Cornpopper12 chose a pair of Guardians/ Indians — Joe Ramirez as the active athlete and Sam McDowell as the retired one.

Browns running back Nick Chubb was named several times as the favorite active athlete. Alex Jackson named Chubb. His favorite retired athlete was Eric Turner, the late Browns safety who passed away from stomach cancer at age 32 in 2000.

Mike from Warren chose Chubb as his favorite active star and golfing great Jack Nicklaus as his favorite retired athlete.

I chose Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid as my favorite active player and Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre as my favorite retired player.

McDavid is mesmerizing with the puck on his stick; he leads the NHL in scoring with 19 goals and 24 assists for 43 points. Favre has allegedly gotten involved in some shady business in his home state of Mississippi since retiring, but that doesn't diminish how electrifying he was as a player for the Packers and later the Jets and Vikings, at least not in my opinion.

I didn't know that

... until I read my Snapple bottle cap.

Snails can sleep for up to three years. ... It takes the interaction of 72 muscles to produce human speech. ... Cotton can catch fire with enough super glue applied. ... A day on Venus lasts longer than a year on Venus. ... An octopus has nine brains and three hearts. ... The longest alphabet in the world is Khmer used in Cambodia. It contains 74 letters.