Newest addition to Cavs ready to work

CLEVELAND: Familiarity worked to Cedric Jackson's advantage.

It was speculated that the Cavs might sign a veteran point guard to fill in while Mo Williams and Delonte West are out with injuries, but the Cavs signed Jackson, who played for coach Gary Waters at Cleveland State and was with the Erie BayHawks, the Cavs' NBA D-League affiliate.

The Cavs believe Jackson has the talent — he is averaging 14.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 7.6 assists per game — but it doesn't hurt that the BayHawks run an offense similar to the Cavs'.

The BayHawks' coaching staff spent the training camp in Cleveland and coach Mike Brown said there's a lot of common ground. For Jackson, it represents a foot in the door.

''I'm ready to do whatever I need to do, and I'm truly blessed for this opportunity,'' he said.

That might be the case, but Jackson's play in the past five games indicates that he has some skill that might get him to the next level professionally. During that span, he's averaged 27 points, five rebounds and nine assists.

''I've just been trying to be aggressive and that opportunity widened it up for me to get to the hole, and then when they closed it up, I made nice passes to get other guys wide-open shots,'' Jackson said.

Brown confessed he hasn't seen a lot of Jackson, even on tape. But Brown liked what he did see, calling Jackson athletic, tough and fearless.

Jackson doesn't expect to get a lot of playing time, but he plans to make the most of the chances he gets. For him, it's just a matter of looking to what Sundiata Gaines of the Utah Jazz accomplished during his first 10-day stint. Gaines made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that beat the Cavs during their recent road trip.

According to a report out of Utah, the Jazz are now expected to sign Gaines for the rest of the season.

But it's advice that he got from Waters on Friday night that might be the most valuable. ''The first thing he said was 'Work hard because it's not over yet.' And I'm ready to do that,'' Jackson said.

Moon update

Forward Jamario Moon is close to returning. He has been out since Jan. 6 with an abdominal strain.

Recently, Moon said that he expected to be back Monday, but it doesn't look like that will happen.

Thunderstruck

In his past two games against the Oklahoma City Thunder, LeBron James has scored 75 points. . . .Going into Saturday's game, the Cavs had beaten the Thunder four consecutive games at Quicken Loans Arena.