Blown out? A nine point differential? Yup, it was a blowout, not including a late Knicks run in the final five minutes of the game. The Cavs led 40-21 at the end of the first quarter, 63-40 at the half, 77-58 at the third quarter mark and led by as much as nineteen with six minutes in the game and seats emptying quickly until the Knicks went on one of their too little, too late frenetic paces of steals and three point shots being drained before they ran out of game clock. This game was never in doubt.

What is in doubt, however has been the status for next season and into the future for the Cavs’ still-young superstar, James. As usual when the Cavs come to town, the conversation veers from the game itself to the more important question-and-answer game of “Will He or Won’t He” starring LeBron James. While this magical player continues to dominate every game he plays in, the buzz going around this arena remains about whether the Cleveland superstar, playing with an expiring contract, will opt to leave his Ohio roots and decide to play out the rest of his career under the bright lights of Broadway.

At halftime, Yankees pitcher, C.C. Sabathia, here along with several of his championship teammates to bask in the warm embrace of Knicks fans dying to cheer for a winner, ventured the opinion that James would indeed, take his next act to New York.

“I’ve told him there’s no better place to be a winner than in New York,” said the former Cleveland Indian hurler who got to know James as a high profile athlete in that town. “If I’m a betting man, I would say he will be here in New York next year.”

James scored 19 of his 33 points in the first quarter as this game became a huge snoozefest through three and a half quarters. His performance could only make Knicks fans swoon and sigh in a wishful manner.

James came to play on the night the Garden crowd was feted not only with the presence of baseball champions who play to the north of the arena, somewhere up in the Bronx, but with celebrities from many walks of life. Ah, to be young and rich and an admired athlete in the city that never sleeps.

“I got an opportunity to say congratulations to C.C. (Sabathia), A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez), Robinson Cano, and Joba Chamberlain,” said James after the game. “Obviously, it was an unbelievable season for those guys and they deserved it.”

James smiled at the thought of being a champion in a city like New York and an arena with the history of Madison Square Garden.

“There is a lot of tradition in this building,” he said. “A lot of great players have been through this building that have laid down a lot of statistical things as individuals and as teams. It is a great building. To be a part of that and be able to play the game of basketball at a high level is great.”

You could almost sense the sighing and wishful thinking may be a two-way street, with James imagining himself as a star in the Big Apple.

“It is a humbling experience for myself,” said James. “You grow up in a city like Akron, Ohio. It is a really, really small city. For me, as a kid, you always wish and dream to be on the NBA level. Now that I am here playing for my hometown team and then be able to go on the road to showcase my talent to people who appreciate the way I play the game of basketball at a high level is humbling. I thank the New York fans. It is great that they really respect the way I play the game of basketball.”

“It’s the atmosphere, here,” he continued. “A lot of stars in the building. It’s humbling to know that you have guys like the Yankees come out and J. Z. You see some of the Giants out here and John Legend and Chris Rock. You almost feel like you’re a performer sitting on the stage and they’re watching you perform.”

You can just tell this kid can imagine himself on the biggest stage of all, lighting up the old arena in a way it hasn’t been lit since Patrick Ewing’s heyday, maybe even further back to the Knicks championship teams of 1970 and 1973.

“When I was a kid, I visualized playing for all the NBA teams,” James said. “There’s a lot of great individual NBA players that I would love to play alongside of and try to contend for an NBA championship. At the end of the day, a max contract doesn’t really matter to me. It’s all about winning. When that day comes next summer, I want to put myself  in a position where I want to win. If I feel a team is capable of winning, I’ll make my decision like that.”

That has to make Knicks fans sink a little, hearing that winning is James’ sole objective in determining where he’s going to play next year. Winning hasn’t exactly been part of the Knicks tradition over the past 36 years or so. That 1973 championship was the franchise’s last.

The Cavaliers are in an interesting position as far as LeBron’s future is concerned. Many of their players, including James, Shaquille O’Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, have expiring contracts this year so the feeling is this particular Cavs team won’t have the same look next year, either.

Cavs guard Daniel Gibson had an interesting take on the Cavaliers’ position, given the fact so many of the Cavs’ players have expiring contracts. I asked him if the team’s approach to this season has a little more urgency to it because of the potential of having this team ripped apart after this season.

“I never thought about it until you just asked me,” Gibson said. “We approach it as, right now, he’s still a Cav so we’re not thinking about next year. For us, we need to take care of business right now. Nobody knows what’s going to happen next year in this league. Every year you play basketball, you play for the ultimate goal. The fact that he’s potentially leaving next year, I don’t think any of us are thinking about it.”

Ilgauskas took an interesting position.

“I can see coming to New York to play if you’re leaving a team to play for the Yankees, already a winning organization,” said the seven-footer they call Z. “But, coming to New York to play for a struggling team like the Knicks? I’d rather stay in Cleveland where I know I have a chance to win.”

Somehow, I don’t think the Knicks will be trying to sign Ilgauskas anytime soon.

Knicks fans will have to hope when next July comes along, and LeBron is sitting on his porch in Akron, Ohio pondering his next career move, he’ll think about what he can accomplish in an offense devised by Knick coach, Mike D’Antoni, a man most NBA players would take a discount in pay to play for because of his wide-open offensive schemes.

At this point, as we watch the Knicks record fall to 1-5, it’s about the only thing they have left to dream about.

Follow Scott Mandel at www.sportsreporters.com or twitter

Ht: 5-10 Wt: 130

DOB: July 11, 1990 In: Odense, Denmark

Tennis Inspirations: “Yeah, Martina Hingis, one of my role models, growing up I was always looking at her game. And I was trying to play like her.”

First Tennis Memory: “Playing with my mom and dad and brother in a small town. And they didn’t want to play with me [smiles] because I was so bad, so I was standing against the wall just hitting for three, four hours every day. One day I beat them and that was so good.”

Favorite Movies: “Titanic, I have so many, Lord Of The Rings, National Treasure, White Chicks, Wedding Crashers. A lot, I have a lot.”

Last Book Read: “The Girl Who Played With A Fire, the writer is Dee Larsen.”

Favorite TV Shows: “Orange County, Grey’s Anatomy.”

Musical Tastes: “All different kinds, I like Mariah Carey.”

Pre-Match Feeling: “Just relaxed, you know, I like to read a book before. Just to think about anything, just clear my mind.”

Current Car: “No, I don’t have one.”

Favorite Meal: “Tacos [smiles].”

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: “Cookies.”

Greatest Sports Moment: “Winning New Haven and winning my first WTA and winning junior Wimbledon.”

Most Painful Moment: “I’m trying to think…I don’t know.”

Favorite Tournaments: “All the Grand Slams. I really like the US Open and I like Wimbledon a lot. I have good memories playing Wimbledon – winning juniors there – so I like going back. And I like the grass and the atmosphere.”

Closest WTA Friends: “Sorana Cirstea, the Polish ones.”

Funniest Players Encountered: “Vince Spadea. I met him at an exhibition in Liverpool and he was just hilarious.”

Toughest Competitors: “I don’t know if there is one that I fear the most. (Toughest to play?) They can all be tough. I just go out and play my best against all opponents.”

Favorite Players To Watch: “I like watching Federer play.”

Funny Tennis Memory: “I think you have to see this point. Chakvetadze, she hits a shot, she gets an easy overhead. The opponent is standing far behind the baseline and not even going for the shot. She hit the overhead – she mis-hit it. And she goes for the backhand and she hits it in. She won the point anyways.”

Embarrassing Tennis Memory: “That’s a tough one. I don’t know. I lost love and one in doubles in French Open (to Sugiyama/Srebotnik). I didn’t think that was fun.”

Last Vacation: “After Wimbledon I went to Copenhagen for a few days my birthday.”

Favorite Sports Outside Tennis: “I like soccer and basketball.”

Best You Ever Felt On Court: “I think my first final in Stockholm last summer. I felt like every ball was just sitting there and then taking the trophy and winning, that was great.”

Personality Qualities Most Admired: “Honesty, polite, nice, smart.”

Just after getting his act together and finding his way back into the Nets rotation, Williams goes and gets himself in hot water after allegedly throwing a computer monitor and damaging other electronic equipment during a dispute at a cell phone store in Colorado. Damages were estimated at between $1,200 and $1,300.

The rumor now is that the team will be seeking anger management classes for the troubled youngster.

Pretty funny considering the fact that I’ve seen Yi Jianlian show more emotion while in a silent film than Williams has shown most of the season.

Rather than be firm with the kid, he gets a slap on the wrist, two-game suspension and even more coddling from the organization.

“Sean feels horrible. He feels horrible first for letting down the team, letting down his teammates. He feels horrible for making a poor decision. He’s sincerely heartbroken. He feels very, very bad.”—Coach Lawrence Frank told the Associated Press, after meeting with suspended F Sean Williams Wednesday.

You see that? What? This is an article and your incapable of seeing what I’m doing? Well, I’m playing the world’s smallest violin for Williams right now.

He’s heart-broken? He feels very, very bad? For what? Getting caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing in the first place?

Are we at the point in our society where we still have to make excuses for these guys? Charles Barkley had it right when he said these guys aren’t role models and my entire argument has nothing to do with what little kids think of what Williams did, but the fact that he let his teammates down when they needed him the most.

Great job Sean, keep it up. I smell something in your future and it’s not an All-Star appearance. It’s most likely an episode of Pros vs Joes.

However, the Nets, for some reason, still have faith in the kid and are willing to work through these problems.

For what reason, I have no idea.

“He’s got a great heart and he’s made some poor decisions,” Frank told the Associated Press. “But if you were to sit down like we did today and talk to him, he’s a very engaging person and he’s just made some mistakes and he has to take responsibility for them and we just move from there.”

I know exactly where the team should move at this point; somewhere else.