INDEPENDENCE — The Cavaliers suddenly find themselves back where they were throughout training camp — without Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic.
Varejao, absent from the team until signing a three-year, $17.4 million contract on Dec. 5, will miss at least the next two games and probably more — maybe a lot more; the Cavaliers aren’t saying yet — with a left ankle sprain suffered Sunday in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
X-rays taken Sunday showed no break, and an MRI done Monday in Los Angeles confirmed the initial diagnosis of a sprain. Varejao will fly back to Cleveland this morning and be examined by team doctors this evening before the organization announces how long he is expected to be out.
“We’ll have to make adjustments on the front line and with minutes,” general manager Danny Ferry said. “The difference from earlier in the season (when Varejao was holding out) is now we have Cedric Simmons available and we have Donyell Marshall available. We have the depth to be able to absorb this.”
Varejao, who can opt out of the final year of his contract following the 2008-09 season, suffered the injury late in the third period when he stepped on the foot of Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic, resulting in an ugly twist. The
25-year-old Brazilian missed 17 games with a high ankle sprain in 2004-05, but the Cavaliers are hopeful the latest injury is relegated to the lower ankle, which often isn’t as serious.
Prior to the injury, the 6-foot-10 big man was playing the best basketball of his four-year career while backing up Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Drew Gooden. He will join Pavlovic, who missed all of training camp while also trying to reach a contract agreement with the Cavaliers, on the inactive list. Pavlovic will miss six to eight weeks after spraining his left mid-foot last week against Washington.
“Andy and Sasha are important to us,” Ferry said. “They’ll both help us when they make it back.”
Without Varejao, the Cavaliers will likely have to press Marshall into service. The veteran has resumed dressing for games, but has not seen action since the second game of the season due to a wrist injury.
The Cavaliers (24-19), who have won 12 of their last 15 games, may also be forced to use young big men Dwayne Jones and Simmons when they play in Portland at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Cleveland has already been starting Ira Newble at shooting guard in place of Pavlovic, but Varejao’s injury will affect the team to a much greater extent.
After struggling mightily for more than a month, Pavlovic had finally started to play a little better when he went down, but his injury hasn’t been devastating because the Cavaliers have a number of players who can man his position, including starting point guard Larry Hughes, Newble and backups Daniel Gibson, Damon Jones, Devin Brown and even Shannon Brown.
That’s not the case on the front line, where Varejao was far and away the team’s best big man off the bench. Not only was he averaging career highs of 7.8 points and 8.5 rebounds in 28.5 minutes a night, but the players who will attempt to replace him all come with drawbacks.
Marshall is in his 14th NBA season and already had begun to show signs of serious aging before getting hurt, so his minutes will have to come in small doses.
Dwayne Jones can rebound and always gives his best effort defensively, but he’s foul-prone and virtually no offensive threat. Simmons, who has had ankle problems of his own, is a project who has appeared in just four games.
That doesn’t bode well for Wednesday’s game in Portland, where the Trail Blazers (26-18) are 18-4 this season. Explosive second-year guard Brandon Roy leads the Trail Blazers with a 19.1 scoring average, while young big man LaMarcus Aldridge is putting up 17.2 points and 7.5 rebounds a night.
There is reason for optimism, however. Foremost, the Cavaliers have been playing great basketball and have refused to use injuries as an excuse. In addition, Gooden usually performs better when he’s not worried about his minutes, and he’s going to get a lot of them with Varejao out.
As a side note, Varejao’s injury, if it is fairly serious, could be a major drawback in Cleveland’s attempt to acquire a quality point guard prior to the Feb. 21 trade deadline. Most teams want Gooden or Varejao as part of any deal, but Ferry will be hard-pressed to give either up — unless he also gets a good big man in return, which will be extremely difficult.
Contact Rick Noland at rickn@ohio.net or (330) 721-4061.
 

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