CLEVELAND (NBA.com exclusive) --  You can talk all you want about Cleveland's nine 3-pointers in the second half.

You can talk about how Shaquille O'Neal had his best game as a Cavalier, how the Cavs overcame a huge first-half deficit, how they refused to surrender in gaining a 102-90 victory Tuesday over a Washington team with high hopes.

And all of that was indeed impressive.

But when it comes to the Cavs, everything begins and ends with plain old tenacious defense.

Sounds simple, but the Cavs' ability to shut down their opponent is a big reason why they finished with the best overall record last year -- and why they expect to challenge for a title this season.

Just ask LeBron James.

"The defensive end is where we make our mark," said the Cavs star. "It's where we've always made our mark, and it's where we will continue to make our mark."

Or as Cavs coach Mike Brown said, "We have to be the aggressors defensively. We have to enforce our will."

That's pretty much what happened Tuesday, as the Cavs turned an 18-point second-quarter deficit into a 12-point victory. They allowed 54 points in the first half compared to just 36 in the second.

They watched helplessly as the Wizards came out on fire, knocking down 55 percent of their shots in the first quarter, but just 39 percent (27-for-69) for the game.

Of course, that wasn't the only way in which the Cavs enforced their will. On offense, they repeatedly fed the ball to the enforcer of all enforcers, letting O'Neal station himself in the low post and go to work.

"It's great to have a guy like that, where you just throw that bad boy down there and say, 'Hey, go get us something,' " Brown said. "That was fun to watch."

It was also pretty darn effective, as O'Neal bullied his way to 21 points, eight rebounds and a funky dance on the bench when the game was in hand.

Perhaps more impressive was the fact that, for the first time all season, the Cavs were really clicking. For the first time all season, they seemed to grasp each other's roles -- or at least, appeared to be getting close. And for the first time all season, they received the type of all-around play from the bench that they've been expecting.

Daniel Gibson (14 points, 4-for-5 treys) helped shoot the Cavs out of a pickle. Delonte West (four assists, two steals) locked down on defense. Jamario Moon provided an endless supply of energy and buried a big 3-pointer of his own.

Basically, no one made a case for Sixth Man of the Year, but almost everyone added a little something worth noticing.

"It was several different guys," Brown said. "Jamario kept himself ready and did a good job for us. I thought Gibson did a solid job, not only shooting the basketball, but defensively in making his guy work."

The starters weren't too shabby themselves. James led the way with 27 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and Mo Williams scored 15. Also, Anderson Varejao contributed an underrated 10 points and 10 boards.

Meanwhile, the revamped Wizards came into this season believing they are true contenders in the Eastern Conference, offering support to that notion by winning their opener in Dallas. They were sharp for most of Tuesday, too -- riding the hot hands of Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas (22 points apiece) to make it look like this just might turn into 48 minutes of garbage time.

But things started to fall apart in the third, when the ball stopped moving and the offense turned into a jumbled mess of bad passes and forced jumpers.

"I think when we play how we want to play, execute, trust each other, we're pretty good," said Wizards coach Flip Saunders, whose team fell to 2-2. "When we don't do that, when we start trying to do too much, we get stagnant. ... We had 12 assists (compared to 25 for Cleveland), and that's not how we want to play."

The Cavs have won three straight after dropping their first two (which, by the way, was the first time in league history that happened to a team that won 65 or more games the previous year).

"We beat ourselves in the first two games," O'Neal insisted.

But Tuesday was different.

"The ball was moving, guys were passing and guys were hitting their shots," O'Neal said. "We are getting better."