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Last game against Charlotte, Larry came back from a month long injury. Mike Brown didn’t start him and decided to bring him off the bench and he liked what he saw. Larry Hughes scored 22 points in 30 minutes of play.

The coach indicated he liked bringing Hughes off the bench and he want to explore that for more games.

“I enjoyed having him come off the bench against Charlotte and that’s something we can always explore,” Brown said. “Larry’s a guy that wants to win. I feel if I spoke to him about it and it was best for the team, he’d keep coming off the bench if it is something we feel good about.”

After two days of contact, Lebron James said the finger is feeling good and he sounded confident about playing against the Pacers.

“I’ve been through two contact practices OK. We’ll see what happens.”

“It’s better than it was a week and half ago,” James said. “The pain is going away little by little. It’s not 100 percent at all right now and it probably won’t be until the offseason, and I don’t have an offseason until 2009.”

Lebron said the team didn’t do a good job defensively while he was out which cost the team 6 games.

“Offensively not as much, but defensively we struggled,” he said. “You have mental lapses offensively, but you can’t have those defensively no matter who is playing. We had a couple games where we just didn’t give effort.”

Cavaliers fans might get to welcome Anderson Varejao tomorrow. Fans have mixed feeling about him after the statement he made last week about not wanting to play for Cleveland anymore. It will be interesting to see the fans reaction if he end up playing tomorrow.

Daniel Gibson is doubtful tomorrow because of wisdom tooth.

LeBron James is expected to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ lineup Tuesday, according to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. The forward has missed the last five games with a sprained left index finger.

Anderson Varejao has signed with the Cavaliers and may also return Tuesday. Varejao missed the first month of the season due to a contract dispute.

The Bobcats ended their 7-game skid and the Cavs continued their loosing streak without Lebron.

Hughes played today after being sidelined with a bone bruise in his left leg. He added 22 points off the bench.

Shannon Brown and Daniel Gibson each scored 15 for the Cavaliers, but committed 27 turnovers.

Game Recap | Box Score

In an Interview after practice yesterday, Lebron James issued a statement to the rest of the NBA:

“Teams better get their wins now against us,” James said.
“They’re trying to (beat) us and talk trash about us now because we have guys out. But when we get our guys back, it’s going to be a different story,” James said.

James will miss tonight’s game against the Bobcats.

The Cavaliers have been bothered with injuries early this season. The list include, Larry Hughes (deep bone bruise in his left leg) and Donyell Marshall (sprained right wrist). Also, Eric Snow missed few weeks at the beginning of the season because of a knee surgery.

Larry Hughes will practice today and if everything goes as planned and there are no setbacks, he could start sometime next week.

He’s been suffering from a deep bone bruise in his left knee. The injury was originally sustained November 4 against the Phoenix Suns.

He was shut down on Nov. 16, when it was announced he would miss at least a month. Hughes missed missed 13 consecutive games since the Los Angeles Clippers game on Nov. 11.

“I’m taking what I can stand right now and see how I feel the next day,” he said. “I worked out pretty hard (on Tuesday).
“I’ve been pain free walking. (It’s not pain free) once I get going. It’s a matter of getting my legs under me a little more, (getting) stronger running and jumping and (dealing with the) fatigue factor. I’m ready to get out there and test it more.”

He said it’s been tough watching the Cavs’ five-game losing streak. He thinks he can light a fire under the Cavs when he returns.

“I always want to get back,” he said. “I don’t want to miss any time. I’m close to being 100 percent from the injury. There’s no need to keep waiting. I want to get out there and help the team out. That can give the team a shot of energy.”

Brian Windhorst from the ABJ fills us in.  The Jason Kidd-to-the-Cavs stories are certainly sexy, at least in a basketball sense. And after Kidd’s comments to Sports Illustrated last week, there’s some rationale. There’s his contract issues and the weird headache. All the elements are there, which is why my inbox has been blowing up. But now comes this blog’s trademark…realism.

First of all, after talking to some NBA executives today, the word Nets president Rod Thorn is putting out there is that he’s not interested in trading Kidd right now. Obviously that’s fluid and things would change if Kidd came out and demanded to be traded. That hasn’t happened yet.

Secondly, the Cavs probably don’t have the assets to pull this deal off. The Nets will want a star (which the Cavs don’t have to trade) or a package of young talent (they have some there) instant expiring contracts (which they don’t have enough of) and draft picks (they have next year’s No. 1). It would’ve been interesting if this happened last week, because maybe there could’ve been a sign-and-trade with Anderson Varejao to help.

Anyway, someone will need about $15 million in contracts to make a Kidd trade work under the rules. In addition, the Nets have 14 contracts so doing a 3-for-1 or 4-for-2 deal doesn’t work without them cutting someone. All their expirings next year don’t make sense in a deal because Kidd’s deal expires next year. Plus if the Nets trade him, they’ll want to trade him West. Never say never, but this just isn’t likely.

If you want to start talking about a point guard — and with Varejao now signed, the Cavs are starting to think trades — look at Andre Miller. The Sixers just made a change at the top, firing general manager Billy King, and they are headed nowhere fast this season. King was not crazy about moving Miller, who Danny Ferry really likes, in the past. The Sixers are also in position to have a lot of salary cap space next summer and the Cavs could get them some more by involving Ira Newble and Shannon Brown in a deal.

Source:  Ohio.Com