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DENVER - Cleveland forward Drew Gooden sat out the Cavaliers' game at Denver on Wednesday night, missing his second straight game with a strained right thigh.
Center Zydrunas Ilgauskas started despite a balky left knee. Had he not been able to play, the Cavs would have been without three starters. Guard Larry Hughes is out until March with a broken finger.
Ilgauskas, who skipped the Cavaliers' practice Tuesday in Denver, and Gooden were both game-time decisions.
"Z's fine," Cavs coach Mike Brown said about an hour before tip-off as he held out hope Gooden, too, would be able to play.
Gooden, averaging 11.4 points and 8.7 rebounds, hurt his leg in the third quarter of the Cavaliers' 115-106 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night and sat out Sunday night's game at Portland.
He's day-to-day and might suit up Friday night at Golden State in his hometown of Oakland, Calif.
Forward Donyell Marshall said the Cavs weren't going to change anything with their rash of injuries.
"We still will do what we always want to do," he said. "We have injuries, but we brought in guys in the summer so that we would be able to continue to do those things. That is part of the game. We can still be aggressive and play the way we want to."
Still, they realized it would be more difficult to shake their slump without their top players. They brought a four-game skid into Denver, having dropped their first three games on their six-game Western road swing.
"I don't want to make an excuse," forward LeBron James said. "But the core guys that we had with us at the beginning of the year are not with us right now. We have to fight through it and get better and just keep working hard."
The Cavs also are planning to send 7-foot-2 Lithuanian rookie Martynas Andriuskevicius to the NBDL in the next few days.
"We're talking about sending him down so he can get some game-time experience," Brown said.
Why now and not earlier in the season?
"We wanted him to have a foundation of what we do and what it's like to be in the NBA and the whole nine yards," Brown said. "His body's gotten stronger, he's gotten used to being in the states. Now we feel like he's at a point where he needs some game-time experience just to keep his focus and keep enjoying the process."
Center Zydrunas Ilgauskas started despite a balky left knee. Had he not been able to play, the Cavs would have been without three starters. Guard Larry Hughes is out until March with a broken finger.
Ilgauskas, who skipped the Cavaliers' practice Tuesday in Denver, and Gooden were both game-time decisions.
"Z's fine," Cavs coach Mike Brown said about an hour before tip-off as he held out hope Gooden, too, would be able to play.
Gooden, averaging 11.4 points and 8.7 rebounds, hurt his leg in the third quarter of the Cavaliers' 115-106 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night and sat out Sunday night's game at Portland.
He's day-to-day and might suit up Friday night at Golden State in his hometown of Oakland, Calif.
Forward Donyell Marshall said the Cavs weren't going to change anything with their rash of injuries.
"We still will do what we always want to do," he said. "We have injuries, but we brought in guys in the summer so that we would be able to continue to do those things. That is part of the game. We can still be aggressive and play the way we want to."
Still, they realized it would be more difficult to shake their slump without their top players. They brought a four-game skid into Denver, having dropped their first three games on their six-game Western road swing.
"I don't want to make an excuse," forward LeBron James said. "But the core guys that we had with us at the beginning of the year are not with us right now. We have to fight through it and get better and just keep working hard."
The Cavs also are planning to send 7-foot-2 Lithuanian rookie Martynas Andriuskevicius to the NBDL in the next few days.
"We're talking about sending him down so he can get some game-time experience," Brown said.
Why now and not earlier in the season?
"We wanted him to have a foundation of what we do and what it's like to be in the NBA and the whole nine yards," Brown said. "His body's gotten stronger, he's gotten used to being in the states. Now we feel like he's at a point where he needs some game-time experience just to keep his focus and keep enjoying the process."