"In the midst of an eight-game losing streak, teams learn to find improvement in the little things.

In the Cavaliers' case, Tuesday brought a spirited practice. They were having fun, coach Byron Scott said. No one was hanging their heads at the consecutive losses that have come by an average of 20 points.

They studied film. They dissected what they are doing wrong in surrendering 47.9-percent shooting to opponents, fourth-worst in the NBA.

And they prepared for a rematch against a Miami Heat team Wednesday that was the turning point in magnifying all that has gone wrong with Cleveland this season. Since that game two weeks ago, the Cavaliers have lost seven straight, a grand total of eight. The Heat have won eight in a row, for a total of nine.

The Cavaliers have played a week with two new starters in Antawn Jamison and Daniel Gibson, have seen the starting unit improve, but the bench rotation suffer. Based on the previous performance of a reserve crew that included both Jamison and Gibson, the Cavaliers still lead the NBA in bench scoring with 43 points per game.

"We knew we'd have our ups and downs," Mo Williams said. "You try to minimize those downs as much as possible, or shorten the stretches of them. But you're going to have your periods with a young team. We knew that. But at the same it's definitely frustrating and you don't like the feeling. Nobody likes to lose. But if you can always see the big picture, you've got to stay with it and stay positive."

How to improve the defense and how to jumpstart the bench are the focus for now. Defense, they believe, will come with effort.

The bench, however, might take a little more tinkering. "I'm going to experiment with some things and see if that helps," Scott said. The experimentation likely will include mixing more of the core starters with the bench rotation so that there is less of a full changeover with the second unit. "