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Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Ilgauskas' injured foot should be healed soon
By George M. Thomas
Beacon Journal sports writer
POSTED: 07:30 a.m. EST, Dec 17, 2008
INDEPENDENCE: Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas can laugh about his ankle injury now, but each time something happens with his left foot, the big man gets a bit scared.
Ilgauskas, who won't play tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves, is hoping that he will be able to play Friday night against the Denver Nuggets.
He plans to get in contact drills Wednesday, practice Thursday and play Friday.
''Obviously I hope he gets back sooner than later, but if he misses Denver, even if he misses Oklahoma City [on Sunday], we have to figure out a way,'' Cavs coach Mike Brown said.
Ilgauskas said he knew that he had a pretty good sprain when he landed on the foot of former Cavaliers forward Donyell Marshall, who now plays with the Philadelphia 76ers, last week. The ankle tightened up immediately. It was similar to the injury he had in the playoffs three years ago.
He had thoughts of playing through it, but thought better of it.
''I have to be careful because this is the foot that's been constructed and everything else,'' Ilgauskas said. ''So I don't want to come back when there's still a lot of pain or stiffness because it will change my running mechanics and that can affect my ball handling and everything else.''
Although Ilgauskas has been out a week, he has been able to find some humor in the injury, an injury that he said didn't have to be.
''If it were anyone else but Donyell, I probably would have extended my arm and not jumped,'' Ilgauskas joked. ''Bad things happen when you jump. That's why I usually stay grounded.''
He also found some humor in the ways that the doctors in Philadelphia reacted to the X-rays of his foot.
''The doctors in Philly, when they saw the X-rays with all the screws, they were like 'What happened here? It's amazing you're still playing,' '' Ilgauskas said with a smile. ''Then I was in the locker room and he came back with three more doctors.''
Although he can joke about it, he's realistic about his situation.
''It's only going to be a week [Wednesday]. . . . I'm not expecting miracles; it's going to be sore and stiff for a while,'' he said.
On the road
The Cavs have a 7-4 record on the road this season, having lost their most recent one to the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. They don't view the loss as a huge one, though.
''I would say that [Atlanta] was more of four [games] in a fifth night. We're missing two of our better players,'' guard Mo Williams said, referring to Ilgauskas and Daniel Gibson being injured. ''We fought and put ourselves in a definite position to win, and that's all it was.''
LeBron James agreed: ''They made a couple more plays than we did. We gave all the effort we could ask for. We played our butts off in that game. They just made a couple more shots down the stretch. Missing two of our key guys definitely hurt us.''
With the Cavs facing the Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder in the next five days, Brown has practiced with variations of lineups to help lessen the impact of those losses, he said.
For Williams, any problems that the team has can be solved rather easily.
''We continue to do what we're doing. Get these guys — Z and Gib — healthy as soon as possible,'' he said. ''Keep having those rookies, young guys and Lorenzen [Wright] when they get a chance, step up while Z is out. It's nothing to panic [about]. We're 20-4.''
Ever the realist, James said the Cavs definitely missed their teammates.
''It was just a bump in the road. We didn't expect to go 79-3 for the rest of the season,'' James said.
Ex-coach moves up
Former Cavs assistant coach Kenny Natt got his shot to be the coach of an NBA team when the Sacramento Kings fired Reggie Theus.
Natt's team won their first game — against the Los Angeles Lakers. Theus was the sixth NBA coach to be fired this season.
Brown said that while ecstatic for his former assistant, that trend isn't necessarily good for the league.
''I believe in continuity, [but] it's tough for me to be able to speak on each situation because you don't know what's going on in practice. You don't know what's going on in the locker room,'' he said. ''Who knows? They all could be justified in some way, shape or form. To have that many firings, speaking just in general, is not that good.''
George M. Thomas can be reached at sportswriterabj@sbcglobal.net Read the cavs blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/cavs/
INDEPENDENCE: Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas can laugh about his ankle injury now, but each time something happens with his left foot, the big man gets a bit scared.
Ilgauskas, who won't play tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves, is hoping that he will be able to play Friday night against the Denver Nuggets.
He plans to get in contact drills Wednesday, practice Thursday and play Friday.
''Obviously I hope he gets back sooner than later, but if he misses Denver, even if he misses Oklahoma City [on Sunday], we have to figure out a way,'' Cavs coach Mike Brown said.
Ilgauskas said he knew that he had a pretty good sprain when he landed on the foot of former Cavaliers forward Donyell Marshall, who now plays with the Philadelphia 76ers, last week. The ankle tightened up immediately. It was similar to the injury he had in the playoffs three years ago.
He had thoughts of playing through it, but thought better of it.
''I have to be careful because this is the foot that's been constructed and everything else,'' Ilgauskas said. ''So I don't want to come back when there's still a lot of pain or stiffness because it will change my running mechanics and that can affect my ball handling and everything else.''
Although Ilgauskas has been out a week, he has been able to find some humor in the injury, an injury that he said didn't have to be.
''If it were anyone else but Donyell, I probably would have extended my arm and not jumped,'' Ilgauskas joked. ''Bad things happen when you jump. That's why I usually stay grounded.''
He also found some humor in the ways that the doctors in Philadelphia reacted to the X-rays of his foot.
''The doctors in Philly, when they saw the X-rays with all the screws, they were like 'What happened here? It's amazing you're still playing,' '' Ilgauskas said with a smile. ''Then I was in the locker room and he came back with three more doctors.''
Although he can joke about it, he's realistic about his situation.
''It's only going to be a week [Wednesday]. . . . I'm not expecting miracles; it's going to be sore and stiff for a while,'' he said.
On the road
The Cavs have a 7-4 record on the road this season, having lost their most recent one to the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. They don't view the loss as a huge one, though.
''I would say that [Atlanta] was more of four [games] in a fifth night. We're missing two of our better players,'' guard Mo Williams said, referring to Ilgauskas and Daniel Gibson being injured. ''We fought and put ourselves in a definite position to win, and that's all it was.''
LeBron James agreed: ''They made a couple more plays than we did. We gave all the effort we could ask for. We played our butts off in that game. They just made a couple more shots down the stretch. Missing two of our key guys definitely hurt us.''
With the Cavs facing the Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder in the next five days, Brown has practiced with variations of lineups to help lessen the impact of those losses, he said.
For Williams, any problems that the team has can be solved rather easily.
''We continue to do what we're doing. Get these guys — Z and Gib — healthy as soon as possible,'' he said. ''Keep having those rookies, young guys and Lorenzen [Wright] when they get a chance, step up while Z is out. It's nothing to panic [about]. We're 20-4.''
Ever the realist, James said the Cavs definitely missed their teammates.
''It was just a bump in the road. We didn't expect to go 79-3 for the rest of the season,'' James said.
Ex-coach moves up
Former Cavs assistant coach Kenny Natt got his shot to be the coach of an NBA team when the Sacramento Kings fired Reggie Theus.
Natt's team won their first game — against the Los Angeles Lakers. Theus was the sixth NBA coach to be fired this season.
Brown said that while ecstatic for his former assistant, that trend isn't necessarily good for the league.
''I believe in continuity, [but] it's tough for me to be able to speak on each situation because you don't know what's going on in practice. You don't know what's going on in the locker room,'' he said. ''Who knows? They all could be justified in some way, shape or form. To have that many firings, speaking just in general, is not that good.''
George M. Thomas can be reached at sportswriterabj@sbcglobal.net Read the cavs blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/cavs/
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