The Cleveland Cavaliers have won eight in a row and the dramatic turn of events isn’t directly related to the play of all star forward LeBron James.

Late last month, things weren’t looking good for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Picked by most pundits to be an elite force in the Eastern Conference, the Cavs entered March playing respectable, but hardly inspiring, ball. At 33–25, and with an offense that often struggled despite the efforts of James, Cleveland seemed much closer to an Indiana Pacer-style meltdown than a Dallas Mavericklike surge. To make matters worse, in a loss at Dallas on March 1, starting point guard Daniel Gibson sprained a toe, an injury that would sideline him for at least two weeks.

Gibson, a rookie taken in the second round, was hardly anyone’s idea of the next Steve Nash, but he had been a step up from veteran incumbents Eric Snow and Damon Jones, both of whom have played as if they are well past their expiration dates.

Coach Mike Brown made a bold move. He shifted starting shooting guard Larry Hughes to the point and the results have been stunning. The Cavaliers won eight in a row, and the offense is the major reason. With Hughes at the point, Cleveland has upped its total points per game to 103.5 from 96.8. Cleveland already has one of the league’s top defenses (they are fourth in Defensive Efficiency, points allowed per 100 possessions) — if their offense is in high gear, Bulls and Pistons fans may need to stop looking ahead toward rekindling an old rivalry in the playoffs.

The move is a boon for Hughes, whom I’ve always considered slightly miscast as a shooting guard. He’s listed at 6-foot-5-inches and 185 pounds, which makes him somewhat vulnerable to being posted up by bigger shooting guards. And more important, he doesn’t shoot that well. He’s a career 41.3% shooter and, even worse, only 29.2 from behind the arc. That’s not quite enough to lay off him and play defense five on four as teams routinely do against the Cavs when Snow, who has posted shooting percentages of 38.2%, 40.9% and 40.1% in the last three seasons, is in the lineup. But with the pair on the floor together, it’s no wonder that James attracts a lot of company. Hughes’s all around game has improved since the move. He’s averaging 6.1 assists per game (up from a season average of 3.6) and typically guarded by smaller players, he’s rebounding more (5.8 from 3.9). The shift has improved his shooting for the most part, but Hughes is still prone to brickfests such as his Starks-esque 2–17 against Utah on Saturday.

Moving Hughes to the point has had the added benefit of creating playing time for Sasha Pavlovic. The Yugoslavian swingman isn’t going to make anyone forget about Kobe Bryant, but he’s provided a league average offense, a major step up. In March, he’s shooting 43.4% from the floor and 38.5% from behind the arc, just enough to deflect some attention away from James. And King James is enjoying the situation: He’s having his best month of the year averaging 32.4 ppg on 52.7% shooting and 39% from behind the arc. Still, it’s not all about that guy from the cool Nike ads, when back spasms made James a late scratch against Sacramento last week, the rest of the team stepped up and dropped 124 on the Sacramento Kings, matching their highest output of the season.

The Cavaliers streak hasn’t come entirely at the expense of the league’s dregs; they’ve beaten Detroit, Toronto, and Houston, during the run. This week their new offense will get a major test when they host the Mavericks tomorrow, and on Friday they play the Knicks at Quicken Loans Arena, a name that makes you beg the Knicks never to sell the naming rights to Madison Square Garden). The rest of the schedule looks light, save for a game each against their primary conference rivals, Chicago, Miami, and Detroit.

While the Cavalier offense is vastly improved, I’m somewhat skeptical that they can sustain all of the improvement. Hughes has a secondary weakness; he doesn’t take care of the basketball. His turnover numbers were high for a shooting guard, and during the streak, some teams have pressured him into six turnovers a game.

This shouldn’t prove a big problem down the stretch as teams devote most of their efforts to honing their own games, but in the playoffs, the Cavs could prove vulnerable to teams that can pressure the opposing perimeter players (both Chicago and Detroit excel at this). In other words, the installation of Hughes has improved the Cavaliers at the point and made them a much more potent offensive team, but an eight-game winning streak notwithstanding — I don’t think it’s enough yet to make them the favorite to come out of the Eastern Conference.

mjohnson@nysun.com