Nearly two months after it started innocently, the Cavaliers stopped their NBA-record skid at 26 games Friday night with a 126-119 win in overtime against the Los Angeles Clippers, who did all they could to extend Cleveland's winter misery.

The Cavs, who had become a national joke as the losses piled up, won for the first time since Dec. 18 and just the second time in 38 games. They had to go an extra five minutes to ensure they didn't set the mark for the longest skid in pro sports history.

They'll gladly settle with tying the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the worst streak among the four major sports.

It's one they didn't want to own, and they played like it.

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"They're in there jumping around and having a good time," Cleveland coach Byron Scott said. "I told them to enjoy it but let's not take a big breath and think OK we got a win, great. We have to think that we are supposed to win games."

As the Los Angeles Lakers prepared to defend their NBA championship against the Boston Celtics, their gifted leader confessed he has plagiarized almost everything in his patented basketball portfolio.

"I seriously have stolen all my moves from the greatest players," he admitted.

Watch a highlight reel of Kobe and you will witness Hall of Fame hints of influence sprinkled throughout: the way he freezes defenders and creates space in the mold of Oscar Robertson, or the explosive pull-up jumper he copied from Jerry West, or the post-up shake-and-go he took from Hakeem Olajuwon.

Bryant incorporated the skills of these legends into his game by breaking down their finest moments on film.

It's an obsession that began when Kobe was 10 years old and living with his family in Italy, where his father, Joe "Jelly Bean" Bryant, played pro basketball after an eight-year NBA career. Kobe's grandfather routinely sent over tapes of NBA broadcasts, which had just begun airing on TNT, and the young boy devoured them.

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Bryant sat down recently with ESPN to break down film of West, Robertson, Olajuwon, Elgin Baylor, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, and revealed which part of their games he pilfered.

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Bryant's belief in film study has extended beyond his own locker. After he views halftime clips prepared for him by the Lakers' video staff, he occasionally waves coach Phil Jackson over to discuss a rotation he's identified. He often corrals teammates, fires up the laptop, and shows them precisely how they can carve out easier shots for themselves.

"He mentions stuff to them before it happens," said video coordinator Patrick O'Keefe. "They say, 'How did you know that?' It's because he's studied it. He's better-prepared than anyone."

Congrats to Lakers!

NBA Playoff 2009 Finals Prediction.

NBA Playoff 2009 East/West Finals Prediction.

Just two years into his tenure as general manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey has already left an indelible imprint on the NBA. The 36-year-old is basketball's answer to Oakland A's GM and "Moneyball" protagonist Billy Beane, using elaborate statistical research and technological innovations to help make personnel decisions -- only with an academic background at Northwestern and MIT and an athletic career that ended long before the pros.

After years of first-round disappointments, the Rockets finally broke through in April, knocking off Portland to advance to the second round.

With Houston now battling the Lakers in the conference semifinals, Morey talked about finding bargain players, dealing with an economic recession, riding a statistical revolution and being willing to try new and different things to build a winning team.

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Keri: Teams have made great strides in their analysis with the improvement and increased availability of play-by-play data. Are we seeing a similar trend in basketball?

Morey: The league does gather play-by-play data at the court level, we try to use that as much as possible. We're also tracking everything else under the sun. Public resources, but also our own internal efforts.

Keri: Can you offer an example?

Morey: You can tell how often a player gets a rebound when he's on the floor, versus just that he had eight for the game. You can figure out that eight based on minutes played, but also how many chances he got, how many times the ball was in his area.

Keri: I'll ask you the same question people asked Billy Beane after "Moneyball" came out: Is there a way to talk candidly about the value of a certain player or a certain philosophy, such that it enhances the public's knowledge of the game, but without giving away the real top-secret sauce?

Morey: What we try to do is keep things pretty close to the vest. If something is in the public domain, we're pretty comfortable talking about it. But otherwise we're good about keeping things quiet.

Keri: You talked at length to Michael Lewis about Shane Battier, a player you acquired because his contributions exceeded the obvious stats. Who else on the roster fits that mold, and how are their contributions best measured?

Morey: Any time a player's value is in large part tied up in the defensive side of the ball, he's going to be underrated. Chuck Hayes is an extreme example. You couldn't understand why he's in the league if you just looked at the standard box score stats. If you just looked at points, rebounds and assists, you'd think we all need our heads examined.

Keri: What makes Hayes so good defensively? Is it defending multiple positions? Defensive rebounding? Something else?

Morey: Not to give a smart-ass answer, but yes. He does all of those things well. He can … well he can come close to guarding 1 through 5. To guard the 5, you need particular strength, and he has that. It would be a little tougher for him to guard a 1. But against 2-3-4-5, he's one of the best. He has a unique combination of lateral quickness, strength and speed all wrapped up in a great defensive mind. Because he's so limited in other ways, much more so than Shane, he wouldn't be an NBA player if those things weren't true.

Keri: Since we're talking about defense -- Dikembe Mutombo, Hall of Famer?

Morey: Surefire Hall of Famer. His play already warrants it. He provided a unique aspect on the defensive end, where he got the glamour stats like blocked shots. But he also discouraged high-percentage shots for other teams. For sure he's one of the top-five players in the game of all time in that area. Add in his off-the-court contributions as well, which are extraordinary -- maybe the most significant of any active player. Add to that his ability to play late into his career, which is astonishing, add to that his impact in the locker room, his mentoring and leading by example. We gush about him, but it's all genuine. The impact he's made is almost hard to compare. It's almost a little intimidating to try and live up to some of the standards he has set.

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DETROIT -- The Detroit Pistons made plenty of enemies while winning titles and throwing blows two decades ago. Chuck Daly, though, was universally admired for his class and coaching acumen.

"I never understood how a great man and nice guy coached the Bad Boys," Charles Barkley said.

Daly died Saturday morning at 78 in Jupiter, Fla., with his family by his side, the Pistons said. The team announced in March he was being treated for pancreatic cancer.

The Hall of Fame coach led the Dream Team to the Olympic gold medal in 1992 after winning back-to-back NBA championships in Detroit.

Daly was renowned for his ability to create harmony out of diverse personalities at all levels of the game, whether they were Ivy Leaguers at Pennsylvania, Dream Teamers Michael Jordan and Barkley, or Pistons as dissimilar as Dennis Rodman and Joe Dumars.

NBA commissioner David Stern said the "void left by his death will never be filled."

"Chuck did much more than coach basketball games," he said in a statement. "He positively impacted everyone he met, both personally and professionally, and his love of people and the game of basketball helped develop the next generation of coaches."

Daly had a golden touch at the Barcelona Games with the likes of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Jordan, using a different lineup every game.

Daly also made the right moves for the Pistons, who were notorious for their physical play with Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn leading the fight, Rodman making headlines and Hall of Fame guards Isiah Thomas and Dumars lifting the team to titles in 1989 and 1990.

"He did an unbelievable job of taking a bunch of different personalities and molding them into a team," Mahorn said.

Far from being intimidated by the Pistons' Bad Boys image, Daly saw the upside of it.

"I've also had players who did not care," he said a decade later. "I'd rather have a challenging team."

Former Piston John Salley gave Daly the nickname Daddy Rich for his impeccably tailored suits. The National Basketball Coaches' Association created pins with the initials "CD" that many coaches and broadcasters are wearing as it dedicates this postseason to Daly. The organization also established the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be given annually.

Despite his success, Daly wasn't part of a Coach of the Year presentation until he handed the trophy to then-Detroit coach Rick Carlisle in 2002.

Daly is survived by his wife, Terry, daughter Cydney and grandchildren Sebrina and Connor.

The funeral is Wednesday in Tequesta, Fla., at St. Jude Catholic Church. Visitation is Tuesday in nearby Jupiter at Aycock Funeral Home.