Jan 07 2009
CAVALIERS STRUGGLING WITHOUT VETERAN CENTER
While most people believe King James is the backbone to Cleveland’s unmatched and undefeated record at home winning all 17 games at the Q, the loss of veteran center Zydrunas Ilgauskas proves otherwise. An MRI taken on Friday showed that Big Z chipped his right talus bone and unfortunately will miss a month of action. Fortunately for us Cavs fans who know how much reliance we can put on Anderson “Wild Thing” Varejao, there’s not much need to worry…at least not yet. The Cavs have gone 1-2 in their last 3 games, including an away loss to our arch enemies in Washington and a disappointing loss in Miami on the King’s birthday (12/30) where Dwayne Wade’s double-double lifted the Heat passed Cleveland. This week isn’t going to get any easier either without Big Z when Gerald Wallace and Company visit the Q tonight and needless to say, the big game against the Celtics being aired on ESPN Friday. But let’s take this one game at a time and talk about a couple matchups that we’ll see tonight. Varejao will have his work cut out for him as he’ll go up against the red hot 6 feet 10 inch National Champion from UConn, Emeka Okafor who has tallied 4 double-doulbes in his last 5 games including an incredible 13 point, 17 rebound, 3 block game and win against defending World Champion Boston Celtics. There no doubt in my mind Varejao is going to come into this game with the same energy and downright inspirational play he has been bringing to the court for the Cavaliers every game so far this season. The big matchup in tonight’s game will certainly be Gerald Wallace against Lebron - and with Wallace putting up numbers like he did against the Celtics (23 points, 8/8 from the line, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals) I wouldn’t say this is going to be one of the easier games Cleveland will play this season with the kind of momentum Charlotte is bringing to the Q.
