Pregame

Starting linueps

Cavs: Daniel Gibson, Shannon Brown, Sasha Pavlovic, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Bobcats: Raymond Felton, Jason Richardson, Gerald Wallace, Primoz Brezec, Emeka Okafor

Officials
Jim Clark, Courtney Kirkland, Eric Lewis

–Larry Hughes will be back tonight after missing 11 games with a deep bone bruise in his leg. And he’s promised big things now that he’s no longer going to be playing point guard. More on that story in tomorrow’s paper/online edition.
–Anderson Varejao is not with the team, he’s in Canada getting his visa. LeBron James is also out again.
–This has the makings of a classic, folks. Bobcats and their seven-game losing streak vs. the Cavs and their five-game skid. Boy, and when you look at the starting lineups you have to give the edge to Charlotte.
–The Bobcats average just 91 points a game, they are not good foul shooters, and they are not a good rebounders. Considering the Cavs can’t score right now, this would seem to be an opponent they’d have a chance against, we’ll see.
–The Cavs had their first full-scale practice in two weeks on Friday, we’ll see if Mike Brown was able to fix the offense that ignores Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
–Gerald Wallace is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated players in the league. He’s a good defender who gets steals and bodies up guys like LeBron well. He also can get to the hoop, even though he settles for the jumper, which he’s not good at, too often.
–By the way, nobody here in Charlotte can figure out what the Bobcats got out of giving Anderson Varejao that offer sheet, either.

Halftime — Cavs 51, Bobcats 51

–Cavs have survived the Bobcats shooting 54 percent — mostly from drives and easy post scoring — and giving up 15 points off 11 turnovers. If they clean up either of these areas, they have an excellent chance in the second half.
–Larry Hughes has shown excellent energy and good legs on his way to 12 points. He’s playing off the ball and attacking when he can. Look, it’s not All-Star production but it is better than taking spot-up jumpers…so far.
–Cavs found some success on offense late in the half running a side pick-and-roll with Daniel Gibson and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The Bobcats are really camping down on Z, using double teams and fronting him. Still, getting him involved makes a major difference. He’s 3-of-3 for seven points.
–Once again, the Cavs are not rebounding all that well. I can understand without LeBron that it changes offensive rebound chances, but the Bobcats have eight second-chance points.
–If you missed the highlight of Shannon Brown’s dunk with a minute left in the half, find it somewhere.
–The Bobcats are about the fifth team that I’ve seen that uses that Kanye West Stronger song during their intros. That includes the Cavs. C’mon NBA, how about some original thinking. In general, NBA intros have become very, very lame and that includes the Q, where this year’s version is below their previous standard. Here’s what happens in every arena: There’s a bunch of highlights where the crowd just watches and doesn’t cheer spliced in with players in boring setup shots clowning around or looking mean, then there’s some smoke or fireworks and they announce the names with piped in crowd noise. Not that I could do it better, I’m just saying all of them have gotten boring.

Postgame — Bobcats 96, Cavs 93

Stars
Gerald Wallace, 22 points, seven rebounds, four steals, five blocks
Raymond Felton, 15 points, 11-of-12 at the line in the fourth
Larry Hughes, 22 points
Ira Newble, 14 points, five rebounds

–LeBron was the first guy out of the locker room going to the bus, within minutes after the game ended and I don’t blame him. Not having him was not an excuse tonight. Personnel was not an excuse tonight. The Cavs just plain kicked it away.
–Daniel Gibson missing a free throw with 6.6 seconds left that could’ve tied it obviously was big. You’d like the team’s best free-throw shooter to make clutch shots. But that did not decide the game, the Cavs turning the ball over 27 times including three straight times inside two minutes decided it. Sometimes it was Wallace or Jason Richardson making a play, but so many of them were unforced or the product of a terrible decision.
–I know he made some offensive plays, but I just don’t agree with having Shannon Brown on the floor in the stretch run. He just can’t take care of the ball and tonight, neither could Gibson. You have to have a safer ballhandler in there, a guy like Eric Snow or even Damon Jones. Those two combined to play 22 minutes with no turnovers, by the way.
–Also, I don’t understand why Mike Brown took Newble, Devin Brown and Snow off the court in the fourth. They were playing great defense. Things turned around three minutes into the second half when he pulled Sasha Pavlovic for Snow, who changed the defensive tone. The Cavs got the lead back.
–The Bobcats were the second worst free-throw shooting team in the league and they go 14-of-14 in the final minute. So I guess they deserved it, but they turned the ball over 12 times in the second half, shot 31 percent in the second half, and made some really mindless foul mistakes down the stretch. Both of these teams looked very bad in my opinion.
–Drew Gooden and Zydrunas Ilgauskas combined for 16 points on 6-of-15 shooting. They have cooled off and not having LeBron is really hurting them. The open shots just aren’t there.
–Hughes was just 6-of-17 shooting and took some bad jumpers, but he attacked the basket and got to the foul line nine times. He made mistakes, but this was his best game of the season and he hasn’t played in three and a half weeks. There’s something to be said for that. He will be playing the off-guard from now on, we’ll see if this becomes normal.
–Wallace had six turnovers and made a stupid foul on Gibson with six seconds left, but otherwise he had a great game. His block of Z with 1:54 left when the Cavs were ahead by a point was a massive play. He is an underrated player, folks, he’s really good.

Quotes:
Sam Vincent: “When you lose seven in a row, sometimes you make decisions that put you in a position to lose. I thought we did a great job of fighting through that and still coming out with a win.”…Translation: We didn’t really deserve to win but we did.
Raymond Felton: “It was a big win for us.”…I guess when you’ve lost seven straight, any win is big.
Mike Brown: “The guys were a little nervous and skittish, but I’ve got Daniel Gibson, who is a second-year guy and Shannon Brown, who is a second-year guy on the floor.”…Excellent point, coach. So why were they both on the floor at the end?

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.

Pregame

Starting lineups:

Cavs: Daniel Gibson, Shannon Brown, Sasha Pavlovic, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilguaskas
Wizards: Antonio Daniels, DeShawn Stevenson, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Brendan Haywood

Officials:

Joe DeRosa, Tommy Nunez, Jack Nies

–LeBron James isn’t playing, Gilbert Arenas isn’t playing, it’s a Wednesday in December and it’s snowing here in D.C. Not surprisingly, there’s no one here at the Verizon Center.
–Based on my viewpoint, there are three players in the Wizards starting lineup the Cavs cannot guard right now. That’s Daniels, Butler and Jamison. Could be trouble.
–I spoke with Anderson Varejao on the phone a short time ago. It was good to hear his voice, but he won’t be back until next week probably. More in the newspaper tomorrow.
–Cavs need to remember that Z exists and use him instead of just hoisting jumpers like it’s streetball. But then again, the Wizards play streetball. Ugh, lookout.

Halftime — Wizards 53, Cavs 34

–The Cavs are playing like the New York Knicks right now. They are getting outhustled, they are making silly and unforced mistakes, they are playing one-on-one offense, they are not playing like the care on defense. Sure LeBron, Hughes, and others are out, but this is looking like a summer league game. You can understand getting beat with LeBron out, but they keep getting blown out. Not a good statement on the character of the team right now.

Postgame — Wizards 105, Cavs 86

Stars
Caron Butler, 27 points, seven rebounds
Antawn Jamison, 17 points, 12 boards
Nick Young, 17 points

–Boy, those Cavs really took Mike Brown’s comments about coming out and competing to heart, didn’t they? They were down by 28 points a few minutes into the second half.
–Just as I will disregard anything Eddie Jordan says about his defense playing well tonight, I will disregard the Cavs comeback to get it to nine points. Both are heavily circumstantial.
–The locker room was pissed off after the game, which I honestly have not seen much out of the Cavs. Usually even when they lose they are loose, there were some angry people in there. Especially Drew Gooden. Of course, that doesn’t matter if the team doesn’t show it on the court.
–There are times when I just cannot stand watching Shannon Brown. Yes, he makes a great play every now and then, but when he starts trying to juke a defender and then jacks up a jumper over somebody it is just bad basketball. Same goes for Sasha Pavlovic over the last two games.
–Zydrunas Ilgauskas got seven shots tonight, he made five, three of them came when he got offensive rebounds. Unacceptable. The blame goes a lot of places, but partially at the head coach who has to demand the team use its best weapon of the moment. And if he’s facing double teams or whatever, do something about it.
–Anybody who has been reading this blog over the last four years and knows my philosophy about the game knows how I feel about this stat. Cavs: 20 3-point attempts, 14 free throw attempts. Guess who the only player was who drew more than one shooting foul…Z.
–In summer league, I didn’t think Nick Young could play dead. I mean he was terrible. Now, he looks like he’s going to be a player. He’s certainly going to score and he has no fear. Could be a real nice pickup for the Wiz.
–One of the Cavemen from that TV show was here tonight. I loved the commercials, hated the show. He was sitting on the baseline next to the Cavs’ bench, I wonder if Mike Brown did a double take when looking down the bench thinking of someone to put in the second half.
–By the way, Anderson Varejao was on the active roster tonight.

Quotes

Drew Gooden: “Being the caliber of team we are, even having this many injuries, losing this many games in a row is unacceptable.”
Z: “We’re not cherishing our possessions and we’re playing a lot of one-on-one and it makes it very easy to play us.”

Also, Thanks everyone for the well wishes while I was out sick. I’ve been dealing with illness and been limping around with foot tendinitis recently. So if you see me in the airport, please understand why I’m moving so slowly on the people movers.

The Cavs have matched the contract offer to Anderson Varejao. He will be with the Cavs in a couple of days. After this ordeal there is a bunch of postmortem that will be done. Some are calling Anderson Varejao and his agent, Dan Fegan, the winner. Some are calling Danny Ferry the winner. As someone who covered this as close as anyone and someone who spent an hour talking to Fegan and about an hour talking to Ferry yesterday, I don’t think anyone can claim victory. One thing I am darn sure about is anyone calling either side having pulled “a masterstroke” is way off in my opinion. It is simply too soon to know.

About a year and a half ago I was outside the Cavs locker room after a victory at Quicken Loans Arena. People were celebrating a victory, Mike Brown was holding his press conference, and there was a lot of activity but I was focused on something else. I saw Mr. Fegan standing outside the locker room, waiting. At the time, he didn’t represent any Cavs, or so I thought. Moments later I found out that Andy had fired Herb Rudoy and hired Fegan. From that moment I knew this contract would be a battle. Not just because Fegan is known as being so demanding and unrelenting, but because I knew way back then that it was going to be tough to put a value on Varejao.

I cannot quote anyone and I am not going to go into heavy details, but I’ve heard what I believe is about 70-80 percent of the story from both sides now. One of the big issues as to why this took so long was communication. I am not kidding you when I tell you the two sides spent months asking each other for a proposal and each refused to give it. One thing I have learned about Ferry over his dealing with Drew Gooden, Sasha Pavlovic and now Varejao is that he can be extremely rigid. Once he makes an offer or sets a parameter, he doesn’t like to move. One might even call him hard headed. Here’s what I know about Fegan, he doesn’t like to compromise and he is obsessed with winning, which is what he spent yesterday trying to convince the media that he did. I guess he sold a few people on it. There is no doubt that these two men being involved caused the delay as much as anything else. But they are also proving to be very good at their jobs.

For the contract itself, the Cavs did the same thing they did with Gooden and Pavlovic. They refused to get locked into a long deal that would be hard to trade. They didn’t. They would have been glad to sign Varejao to a five-year contract at their number. Andy didn’t want to be locked into that number, which is fine. Andy wanted to be an unrestricted free agent as soon as possible, which is fine.

He will be a free agent in two years and he very well might end up coming out ahead because maybe at that time he will sign the $9-$10 million per season deal he wanted. Maybe Fegan will look smart and collect the massive fee and respect, too. But maybe Andy injures his shoulder again. Maybe he continues to average six points and six rebounds. Maybe the Cavs make a trade that marginalizes his role on the team. He is accepting risk and the third year of that contract is not guaranteed, no matter what you read elsewhere. Which means that he is leaving $8.5 million on the table than if he’d signed the deal with the Cavs. Maybe it’ll work out, maybe it won’t.

So do yourself a favor, don’t paint yourself into a corner by taking a strong position on this outcome.

Brian Windhorst has left the Cavs’ road trip due to illness so there will be no in-game blog today. Like many, Brian is day-to-day.