INDEPENDENCE — The Cavaliers lost a point guard in Game 5. The Celtics relocated one.
Cleveland, down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, will be without Daniel “Boobie” Gibson in Game 6 tonight at 8 at Quicken Loans Arena.
The second-year guard ran into teammate Anderson Varejao while trying to track down a loose ball with 10:59 left in the Cavaliers’ 96-89 Game 5 loss and left with what was initially called a bruised left shoulder.
However, an MRI Thursday at the Cleveland Clinic revealed Gibson has a separated shoulder. He’s expected to be out one to two weeks — or he’s done for the season if the Cavaliers lose tonight.
“To have him go down is tough,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. “We’ve just got to keep finding a way.”
Added small forward LeBron James: “We’re a veteran ballclub. We should be able to bounce back.”
Without Gibson, Brown will have some interesting decisions to make as to who plays behind starters Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak. He could stick solely with Sasha Pavlovic, who has seen spot duty in the series, he could play James in the backcourt or he could dust off Devin Brown or Damon Jones.
“It could be either one of those,” Mike Brown said of Devin Brown and Jones. “Or I just might give extended minutes to the guys who are already playing.”
Gibson was scoreless in five minutes of action in Game 5, but played an instrumental role in Cleveland’s 88-77 victory in Game 4, when he scored 14 points off the bench, including eight in the decisive fourth quarter.
Though he averaged just 5.6 points on .391 shooting in the series (9-of-23) and struggled at the defensive end, Gibson’s scoring ability concerned Boston coach Doc Rivers to the point where he said he was going to turn to seldom-used Eddie House in Game 5 because he didn’t feel veteran Sam Cassell could keep up with the University of Texas product.
It turned out to be a moot point not only because Gibson got hurt, but also because Celtics starting point guard Rajon Rondo caught fire. Rondo finished Game 5 with 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting, 13 assists, two blocks and just one turnover.
“He was definitely the ‘X’ factor,” James said.
The Celtics trailed by 14 with less than four minutes to go in the second quarter, but Rondo made back-to-back 3-pointers to spark what eventually turned into a 42-16 run. The University of Kentucky product was 1-of-3 from beyond the arc coming into the game and had shot just .395 from the field overall (15-of-38).
“That’s something defensively that we wanted to give up,” James said of Rondo’s second-quarter threes. “I’ve been coming over to help and (was willing) to give up a three by Rondo. He hadn’t made too many in this series.”
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net. 

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.