The Cleveland Cavaliers are happy to finally be done with the month of March. They had a miserable record over the course of last month as they were on par with the Brooklyn Nets as far as records go.Early in Friday’s game, Justin Anderson elbowed LeBron James in the back while he was turned and looking toward the play developing. Kyrie Irving saw this happen first hand and decided to retaliate later in the play by shoving the young forward out of bounds.This comes after LeBron was diagnosed with a scratched cornea after being hit in the eye during a game against the Charlotte Hornets. With the Cavaliers in miserable shape, they can ill-afford any more injuries to key players.Uncle Drew was given a flagrant foul for the obvious shove, but after the game, the All-Star point guard did not sound upset about the call or the penalty. In fact, he sounded fed up with some of the hits that his superstar teammate has taken as of late.Kyrie said: “I kind of saw Justin [Anderson] kind of lower his shoulder and knock down [LeBron] and then that kind of took me out of the play and I was like, ‘I hope he doesn’t get the basketball again, otherwise I gotta do something -- I gotta protect my brother.’

“A lot of late hits on Bron, a lot of guys trying to get one over on him. It’s over for that. It’s over for that. Just trying to protect anybody and everybody on my team.”

That flagrant foul was exactly the shot in the rear end that the Cavaliers needed as they tightened up their defence in the first quarter and never looked back. Teams with clear championship aspirations often need those sorts of moments to get locked in.

For the Sixers, it was all but over after that stretch of improved defence. They are resting key players now and are looking ahead toward the draft lottery to find some more help for Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.

Boston once again won to reclaim their spot atop the Eastern Conference standings and sit a half of a game in front of Cleveland with less than 10 games to go in the season. Irving and his teammates will have to learn how to summon that type of defensive fury on demand quickly.

In the playoffs they might not need an enforcer, but they are going to need to be at their best to repeat as champions.