Last month, Zydrunas Ilgauskas missed a few games with an injured ankle. Cleveland dropped one of its three games without Z (at Atlanta), but Ilgauskas came back so quickly that any long-term worries about the Cavs' front court stayed out of central consciousness.Now, Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports Z will be out roughly a month with a bone chip in the ankle. As before, the immediate concerns are muted thanks to a stellar team performance (this one a 25-point win over Chicago in which LeBron James only takes eight shots). But over the course of 17 or so games, Z will be missed. No question Anderson Varejao is better than your average third big man, and he should compete well nightly (as he did Friday).
J.J. Hickson, a completely untested rookie, will get into the rotation. Lorenzen Wright might earn some minutes, too; that's a worrisome proposition because Wright hasn't been a legit NBA rotation player in at least two years; the Hawks, who desperately needed big help, wouldn't let Wright off the bench last season. Behind Ben Wallace (a defense role player in the strictest sense of the world) and Varejao, Cleveland's got nothing but question marks.
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