LI product Green trying to soak it all in from LeBron

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio - Danny Green knows only winning. At three stages of his basketball career, the North Babylon product has never been on a losing team.

At St. Mary's in Manhasset, he won three CHSAA titles. At North Carolina, he won the NCAA championship last season as a senior and finished his career with more wins (123) than any other Tar Heel in the program's rich history.

And then he stepped into the NBA with the Cavaliers, who will bring an NBA-best 40-11 record into Saturday night's home game against the Knicks.

"I guess I've been lucky," Green said with a grin.

The versatile 6-6 forward, a second-round pick by Cleveland in last June's draft, has gone from fringe rookie to a rotation player with the injury losses of Mo Williams and Delonte West. He is averaging a modest 2.5 points in 5.2 minutes per game in 13 appearances this season, but he played a career-high 15 minutes in Thursday's 102-86 win over the Heat and had five points and two rebounds.

He's come a long way since earlier in the season, when he was one of LeBron James' main backup dancers during the Cavaliers' notorious pregame rituals. At Friday's practice here at the Cleveland Clinic Courts, Green and James competed in a shooting drill and withstood relentless - and loud - trash talk throughout.

"You have no choice but to get better," Green said. "Playing against him every day, watching the game and how they see the game. Every little thing I'm watching and learning, trying to be a sponge. That's my job this year, to be a sponge.''