CLEVELAND, Ohio -- When the basket seemed as enormous as an ocean, when C.J. Miles sank a season-high 33 points Saturday in Brooklyn, the family of a young woman who died in Dallas cheered.

They were happy for each of the eight 3-pointers Miles sank, a mark that tied a franchise record. They were excited to see Miles on the mountaintop of what has been an up-and-down existence, thus far, in Cleveland.

And they nodded in understanding when Miles credited, above all, his Cavaliers teammates for the screens that freed him up for open looks at the basket against the Nets. Deflecting the praise is typical Miles behavior.

"With C.J.'s 33 points, we were thrilled, but want you to know that he is so much more than a VIP to us," Babette Antoniak wrote in an email Sunday. "He is a soft-spoken, modest man with a big heart and unfailing good sense. As he seems to be powering forward with the Cavaliers, we had to give you a different look at our personal hero -- both in and out of sports."

Antoniak is the grandmother of Maggie Wilson. Wilson, 22, was the girlfriend of Miles' close friend, who died Sept. 2 in Dallas when a car struck her as she was attempting to fill her gas tank after her car ran out of gas on a busy expressway. Wilson's roommate, Candice Anderson, was critically injured in the accident, but survived.

Miles heard about the accident from another mutual friend, and ran down the busy freeway to get to his friend, Chris, who was lying on the ground in the fetal position, sobbing, he said.

"It was a rough time, man," said Miles, who is from Dallas. "Because I was with him every step of the way. He's like my brother, so she was like my sister."

Antoniak didn't meet Miles until Wilson's funeral. By then, she'd already heard that Miles had covered hotel costs for Wilson's family as they traveled in from San Antonio. She'd heard that Miles refused to leave his good friend's side -- staying up all night with him for about two weeks -- while he worked through the grief. And when she met him, she found a thoughtful, sensitive man who offered comfort and a listening ear to family and friends.

"He was so comfortable, gentle and kind that we couldn't forget that," Antoniak said by phone from her home in Tennessee on Monday. "He was such a good listener."

The accident, naturally, affected Miles as he arrived in Cleveland for his first training camp in October. His transition to the Cavaliers was rocky, and he not only fell out of the starting lineup, but lost a place in the rotation.

The only free agent to sign with the Cavaliers in the off-season didn't question his decision to come to Cleveland, however.

"I never doubted that I was in the right place, because I was getting opportunities," Miles said. "Which is what you want as a player -- the opportunity to do the things you do well. I just didn't capitalize on it. I knew it was about me working and working to get back into a rhythm, so when I got a chance, again just to be ready to grab that thing by the horns."

Miles said he worked out twice a day in an attempt to regain his shooting touch, coming back to the gym for extra shooting sessions with coaches. When he earned a start Dec. 11 against the L.A. Lakers after rookie Dion Waiters was injured, he capitalized by scoring 28 points.

He scored 28 points again the next night against Indiana, and then had the 33-point outburst against Brooklyn, when his silky shot was off the mark only four of the 15 times he aimed it at the basket. Cavaliers coach Byron Scott sees a veteran guard who finally is becoming comfortable with the offense, regaining confidence and overcoming

"He gets a chance to be in an offense where he's moving and not standing," Scott said. "He gets a chance to handle the ball more, to be a little bit more creative in a motion-type offense. And I think that serves him well. He is one of our best guys in terms of set-ups and coming off screens. Besides Kyrie (Irving), nobody cuts as hard as he does. I think that's helped him, once he really started getting the understanding of what he needed to do offensively. And it's started to come, he's not thinking. He just reacts right now to the defense, and had some big games for us."

The family of a young woman who died in Dallas has been keeping track of Miles since meeting him a few months ago, and they're happy to see it.

And ones ...: Cavaliers center Anderson Varejao participated in about 50 percent of Monday's practice, Scott said, and reported his bruised right knee felt better but was still not pain-free. Varejao has missed six games with the injury. . . . Forward Tristan Thompson practiced Monday without his protective mask, which he has sported since suffering a broken nose Nov. 18. . . . Guard Daniel Gibson did not practice Monday as he continues to work through the NBA's concussion protocol. . . . The Cavaliers recalled Samardo Samuels from the Canton Charge on Monday. . . . Irving is on the cover of ESPN The Magazine's newest issue.