BOSTON -- Mike Brown isn't much for hyperbole. Nor is he one to look ahead.

So before last Friday's much-awaited game between his Cavaliers and the defending champion Celtics in Boston, Brown refused to join the circus that seems to so often engulf his team.

"That's not my nature," Brown said.

But how, one reporter asked, do you separate the passion to win and the need to stay calm?

"For me, you don't try to fight it. People are people, they will feel what they want to feel," Brown acknowledged. "I'm not saying it's not a big game. I'm saying it's a big game because it's our next."

By Brown's calculations, the Cavaliers' next big game would be Thursday's against the struggling Suns in Phoenix (10:30 p.m. ET, TNT). And while some would question whether Brown truly believes that some games aren't bigger than others, his pragmatic approach with his players and toward the game itself have served him and the Cavaliers quite well in his four seasons as head coach. Especially this year.

After escaping Los Angeles with an 87-83 win over the Clippers on Tuesday, the Cavs became the second team this season to reach the 50-win plateau, pulling them even in a race for home-court advantage in the playoffs with the L.A. Lakers. Before Wednesday night's NBA schedule, the Cavs and the Lakers each had a 50-13 record.

It marks just the sixth time in the Cavaliers' 39-year history that they've won 50 or more games, and three of those seasons have come with Brown manning the clipboard. In 2007, they shocked the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals in six games before being swept in The Finals by the San Antonio Spurs.

Despite his success this season, Brown has shown a willingness to adapt. While the Cavs have won 50 of their first 63 games thanks to a mixture of LeBron James' individual brilliance and their suffocating defense, Brown has added a new wrinkle to the Cavs: offensive fluidity.

For Brown's first three seasons, it was defense first with LeBron barreling to the hoop or dishing to a teammate with a less-than-reliable jumper. When the offense broke down, the Cavs didn't have many options other than LeBron, one of the game's best at creating his own looks.

As much as playing, tough, hard-nosed defense could get the Cavs deep into the postseason, brown and the Cavs' front office realized that they needed to be able to score on a consistent basis to have a true shot a winning a title.

Step 1 was designing an offense with flow. Step 2 was getting some personnel who could score and take some of the pressure off of James.

For the first step, Brown turned to assistant John Kuester. Much like Doc Rivers in Boston has a defensive guru in Tom Thibodeau, Brown has Kuester, who is in his second year as a Cavs assistant. This summer Kuester coached the Cavs' summer league team and, in doing so, tweaked some of the offense in the process.

"I watched some of the things he did in summer league and I started thinking about it, about how I might define a new role," Brown told the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. "Then I started to get excited about it and now I am thankful I did it."

Cleveland took the second step on Aug. 13 when they acquired guard Mo Williams from Milwaukee as a part of an 11-player, three-team trade. Williams has rewarded the Cavs' confidence in him, scoring a career-high 18 points per game, shooting (.934) from the free-throw line and grabbing his first All-Star berth.

With Williams or Delonte West bringing the ball up the court, the Cavs are able to free James from ball-handling duties. From there, the Cavs have a number of options. Williams and West can run high pick-and-rolls with Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who sets a mean screen and has become much more proficient with his mid-range jumper. They can run James off screens. They can plant him in the post. Or, of course, when all else fails, they can give him the ball and get out of the way.

James has adapted as well. Instead of always rumbling, head down, ball tucked under his arm like a tailback to the hoop, he's finding teammates on the perimeter. As a matter of fact, the Cavs have become so adept at finding perimeter shots that, as of Monday, they led the NBA in 3-point field goal percentage. Even the Cavs' players were taken by surprise.

"I didn't realize that," Wally Szczerbiak told the Plain-Dealer. "Obviously we've got a lot of guys who can put the ball in the basket. That was Danny Ferry's plan -- to surround LeBron with good 3-point shooters and good overall shooting -- and good players all around."

Couple this offensive improvement with a still-stout defense, and you have a team that's not only better than the 2007 Finals team but is a team with a legitimate shot of winning it all.

Brown, of course, probably isn't thinking that far down the road. Phoenix is next.