The Cleveland Cavaliers suffered a double blow last night, losing in overtime to the Chicago Bulls 102-93 and losing guard Delonte West for a while with a fractured wrist. The wine and gold took the Bulls to overtime despite LeBron James, who was suffering with a cold, playing horribly, and and missing 13 shots in a row at one point. The amazing thing is he didn’t play well and still ended up with 28 points, 14 rebounds, and 7 assists.
The Cavs are now 30-7 on the season and dropped another road game to a below .500 team. However, the loss of West hurts much more.
West is a glue guy. His importance to the team was never more in question than the entire team going over to him while trainer Max Benton attended to him after his fall underneath the Bulls basket following a collision with the Bulls’ Derrick Rose.
Preliminary reports have West missing two to three weeks of action. The best thing about the injury is that in happened in January, not in April or May. West will be back well before the playoffs start.
The worst part about the injury is that is comes before a critical west coast trip, and a bigger problem is the Cavs don’t really have anyone who can replace their starting shooting guard.
Sasha Pavlovic will likely start in place of West, and he needs to step up in a big way. He has been a huge disappointment so far this season, but Coach Mike Brown likes his defense more than that of Wally Szczerbiak. However, neither player provides the defense nor ball handling that West gives the team.
I would expect Brown will give Tarence Kinsey some time as well as he is reputed to be a plus defending and gives the team more athleticism than either Pavlovic or Szczerbiak provides. Either way, losing West might just be the toughest thing the Cavaliers would have to go through, besides losing James for any length of time.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas is a key member of the team for sure, but in his absence Anderson Varajao has stepped up, and outside of last night, J.J. Hickson has improved his play. Even Lorenzen Wright contributed in the last two games with Ben Wallace down with the flu. Wright is a veteran who provides quality minutes.
Daniel Gibson provides shooting off the bench in the backcourt, but he doesn’t have the size to defend #2 guards. West is also a good enough ball-handler to spell Mo Williams when he is resting. The injury means that LeBron James will have to take on more playmaking responsibilities.
Tonight’s game against New Orleans will be a huge challenge and another one will follow on Monday when the wine and gold take on the Lakers in L.A.
The thing you can bank on with this edition of the Cavaliers is their mental toughness. James, Brown and everyone else on the team will not make any excuses. They will expect to go out there tonight and defeat the Hornets, even without Delonte West.
However, make no mistake. This loss will have a profound effect on this basketball team. But it is better to have these injuries occur now. It may even make the Cavs a better team come playoff time.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 