Hughes out for Game 4

The news came down last night….Larry Hughes will most likely miss Game 4 tonight.

This is bound to provoke two different immediate emotions.

The first one is excitement, especially from people who have been fearful of Hughes’ attempting to hit too many jumpshots, despite continual failure. His 3-17 performance in Game 5 of the Jersey series was nightmarish, and things have not been much better for LH since then.

The second emotion is fear. There’s bound to be a lot of scared Cleveland fans thinking about how we can survive while trimming our depth down one person. Who starts now, and can we keep up with a bench player in a starting role? Will it be Eric Snow or Daniel Gibson starting tonight? Will Hughes be back for Game 5?

As for the first emotion, I’m a little bit in that camp. Not too much though. Hughes does bring a lot to the table, but he’s been slumping lately. Every pro goes through periods like this, and usually a night off can snap them back into form. Granted, the Conference Finals are not the most ideal time to take this time off, but it is what it is. So I will get optimistic and say that I hope he’s back for Game 5 and he’s hungry enough to step up his game.

Now, I’d like to remind fans who are scared of what happened last year in the series against Detroit;

The Pistons jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the series, and we weren’t even close. The Cavs lost by 27 points in Game 1, and were trailing by 22 points in the second half of Game 2 before a late rally ended the game with a 6-point loss.

Then Hughes’ little brother died unexpectedly. He left the team immediately to be with his family and he missed three games. The Cavaliers won all three games.

This is not mentioned to invoke painful memories of the Hughes’ family loss, nor is it to wish for LH to sit out more games. This reminder of last year is to point out the obvious….we can win without Larry Hughes on the court.

So if you’re in any doubt about tonight, relax. Larry will be there cheering on the guys, and we can (and will) win without him in the uni.

If you’re going to The Q tonight, get LOUD. Hell, wherever you are tonight, get loud. A win pulls us even with the Pistons and gives us momentum. Rise up!