According to the Cavs, Shaq will be getting surgery on the thumb he injured in the Celtics game. This is less than good. Getting Z back now becomes much, much more important for the rest of the regular season. According to Windhorst, the surgery means that Shaq’s regular season is pretty much over.
Hopefully, Shaq would be back in time for a potential playoff series. However this shakes out, this is going to be a major obstacle for the Cavs. Really a bummer because of how well Shaq has been playing lately.
I don’t get it. Windhorst said his hand looked fine, no swelling. Shaq said he would be fine. And now he needs surgery? What a downer.
It is what it is. We can finish with the best record in the East and win the first round, probably second round (depending on matchup) without Shaq … but will clearly need him against Orlando and/or LA. As a reference point, we started the second round against Atlanta on May 5th and the Eastern Conference Finals against Orlando May 20th last year … which would be about 9.5 & 11.5 weeks from Shaq’s surgery date, respectively … both outside of the 6~8 week window being given. Keep the faith, Cavs fans … and hope that Shaq is a fast healer.
fffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
Impossible to keep the faith at this point. Even if he gets back it’s going to be very hard to work him back into the lineup smoothly. 0 chance of beating Orlando and L.A. w/o Shaq playing at a high level.
Glen Davis looks like the chump that he really is at this point. Hopefully Shaq will have a few elbows for him if we see Boston in the playoffs.
Definitely disappointing. At least Shaq won’t have logged a lot of minutes before the playoffs?… It all depends on if he gets back in time to play a few games and establish a rhythm come playoff time, since the Cavs seem to take a few games to adjust to new lineups.
Here’s how I look at it:
This probably guarantees them the one-seed because, lets face it, this team matches up better against just about every team in the league without Shaq. However, they will need Shaq playing at a high level if they are to face Orlano and LA in the playoffs.
The good news is, since its just his thumb, he will be able to stay in shape.
News like this is typically categorized as “bad.”
Colin:
Just because he should stay in shape, doesn’t mean he will. And even if he is in shape it takes time to get back into rhythm on offense. So hopefully he is back before the 2nd round of the playoffs so that round can be used for getting him back to speed
For as much credit as Shaq has gotten this season for “stepping up in the big games”, the stats actually disprove this theory. While most plus/minus or efficiency numbers would be expected to slightly go down in the games against the toughest opponents, Shaq’s go down at quite an alarming rate compared to a similarly utilized starter.
His plus/minus numbers have been dreadful all year thanks to the poor job of the starting unit, but the splits in this case are interesting. Per minutes in 22 games vs teams with .544 win pct or better as of Saturday, he had only a +2.10 plus/minus with a 54.2% true shooting percentage.
Against all other teams (ie the 34 games he played against worse teams), he had a +4.62 plus/minus numbers per 48 minutes played alongside a 58.1% true shooting percentage. Certainly the Cavs have done worse against the better teams in those particular games (+5.95 avg margin vs +8.23 avg margin), but fellow starter Anthony Parker actually has a better plus/minus in the games against more difficult opponents on the season.
So well it hurts to have a starter injured for such a prolonged period, maybe we will be able to actually succeed quite easily without Shaq. The plus/minus numbers show that he really has not made that much of a difference, and the whole big game argument might be incredibly overblown.
I’ll be looking for the Cavs to play better basketball in the coming weeks with tough games against teams like San Antonio, Boston and Chicago where our big rotation of Andy/JJ/Powe/Hickson should still do quite well. The only teams I think that absolutely require having guys like Shaq and Z down low are the Magic and Lakers who hopefully we won’t be playing until at least late May anyway.
Hey, I’m with everyone else. Against the majority of opponents this team is better suited w/o Shaq. It’s just he HAS to come abck in that first round so he can work his way in before Orlando. because, after all, we don’t care about another regular season title but the title at the end of the playoffs, and for that, shaq is a must.
This really hurts. The timeline allows him to be back for the play-offs and because of his type of game and his desired effect on defense, I’m not worried about how quickly he integrates back into the team. What I am worried about is his weight/overall fitness level. Shaq sitting out two months without doing anything but eating big macs is my #1 fear. Hopefully MB and the trainers will have him running and doing drills during practice. If Shaq stays in shape (or even get in better shap), then he’ll be able to play tough defense and score around the basket with no problem. However, if Shaq does what he has in the past and comes back overweight and winded, then he won’t be able to keep up with Dwight or run the floor to be ready for sets.
Please Shaq just stay in shape!!!!!
There’s too much on the line, and the team is too focused for Shaq to just let this season wittle away. He’s going to be working hard – Shaq has much to prove.
Besides, the giant got sent to the inactive list because of his big thumb… by this “Big Baby Davis.” I’m sure Shaq is fuming that he got hit by a little punk while he was playing so well… intentionally… even more fuel to come back in shape to make sure he dominates the playoffs like he’s supposed to.
On the bright side of things, we get to see the Cavs in full force without a monolith in the center, for a long stretch, for the first time in LBJ’s career. Should be good times.
Look at the cavs schedule for March. It’s easy as hell!!!! We face San Antonio twice and Boston once, other than that the Cavs don’t face any one thats very good. The Cavs will be fine!
I think everyone here knew in the back of their minds that around about playoff time Shaq will go down with some injury. This is probably a preventative measure. Maybe he’s had some other nagging injuries we haven’t known about. The fact of the matter is this: Shaq will be resting until the playoffs which is more than Dwight Howard and some of the other league’s big men can say.
I think having a legitimate shot at a 5th ring — putting him ahead of both Kobe, and his best big-man contemporary (Tim Duncan) — is all the motivation Shaq will need to stay in shape. I’d worry more about that if this had happened very early in the season. He definitely will need at least one playoff series before facing the Magic, though.
B Gease touched on it, but look at the Cavs schedule between now and 3/22 when they get Z back:
vs. Knicks 3/1
@ Nets 3/3
vs. Pistons 3/5
@ Bucks 3/6
vs. Spurs 3/8
@ 76ers 3/12
vs. Celtics 3/14
@ Pistons 3/16
vs. Pacers 3/17
@ Bulls 3/19
vs. Pistons 3/21
Only having 2 sets of back to backs (in bold) in this stretch will help significantly.
Z will re-sign on March 22 and should be back in action, I’d assume, for the 3/24 game @ New Orleans.
As has been pointed out, they got Shaq to match-up with the Lakers and Magic. Cavs have 0 games left against the Lakers and a home game on the second to last game of the year with Orlando when they may have home court locked up by then.
during the game…they gave us a report that shaq thumb was just spained…but know he needs surgery????????
If Shaq is indeed able to return in 8 weeks, the timing isn’t bad. That would be around the start of the second round of the playoffs. So if the Cavs are facing Atlanta or Boston in the second round, they can work him back in slowly during that series. If they’re playing Boston (and it looks more likely every day that Boston will be the 4 seed), they can lean heavily on the same smaller lineup that dusted the C’s Friday and pick their spots with Shaq. And then by the time of the conference finals and a likely Orlando matchup, he’ll have a couple of weeks of game action and practices under his belt and hopefully will be ready to go full tilt.
If you’re worried about how the season started and think the same thing will happen when Shaq comes back from the injury, just remember that the team really didn’t have a training camp, what with most of the players getting the flu and other disruptions. Plus they’ve played with Shaq for two-thirds of the season now, so it won’t be as big an adjustment to get used to playing with him again.
In the 8-week scenario, what would be bad is if Orlando ends up as the 4 seed. Not sure which is worse — Orlando at 4 or Charlotte at 8.
Chance of Orlando getting the #4 seed = 5.191%
Chance of Charlotte getting the #8 seed = 20.436%
http://www.sportsclubstats.com/NBA/Eastern.html
Ack! That 20% figure for Charlotte better start dropping.
Guys, if we are afraid of a below .500 Charlotte team, how in the world do you plan on this team actually beating the good teams? Give me Charlotte in the first round over Orlando in the 2nd anyday of the week.
we will tear charlotte up in the first round. anyone remember when the cavs were 2-0 against the spurs (reg season) and then got swept in the finals? the playoffs are a different beast. We would dominate that series.