CLEVELAND — As the Cavaliers stagger to the finish of another miserable season, the schedule makers are compounding their problems with a flurry of games at the end.
Tuesday's game against the Charlotte Bobcats began a frantic stretch of seven games in nine days. As a result, the Cavs will have just one more practice the rest of the season, but it won't come until April 21.
Veterans such as Antawn Jamison have stressed the importance of rest all season, but that will become crucial in the next week. The Cavs play the second of a back-to-back on Wednesday night, when they host the Indiana Pacers and will take Thursday off before playing three games in three nights.
The stretch concludes next week with another back-to-back on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Asked if trainer Max Benton gave the players any advice on surviving so many games, Donald Sloan said: "Pretty much after every game, go see him. He'll try his best to get us ready for the next one."
Despite the flurry of games and all the injuries to the backcourt, the team has resisted the idea of recalling forward Luke Harangody from the Development League. The Charge already lost leading scorer Alan Anderson to the Toronto Raptors, making Harangody their new leading scorer. The Charge begin the playoffs on Friday, and since they're affiliated with the Cavaliers, the team didn't want to cripple the playoff chances of the Charge and coach Alex Jensen when Harangody wasn't going to be a big contributor to the Cavs down the stretch.
"We thought about (recalling Harangody), but the main thing was the perimeter guys," coach Byron Scott said. "Our perimeter guys were going down like flies. I thought Luke was having a good time down there and winning and going to the playoffs, so we didn't want to take that away from Alex."
Still, the amount of upcoming games could force Scott to juggle some minutes around. He said before Tuesday's game, for example, he expects Semih Erden to get at least one more chance to play significant minutes. Erden will be a free agent this season and has played sparingly since the start of March.
Spider man
Sloan said he has only missed two games in his life because of injuries. He missed one game in the D-League when he had a sprained ankle and the team had already clinched the playoffs and one game in his junior year of high school when he was bitten by a spider.
Sloan initially ignored the soreness and swelling and tried to play through it, then eventually went to a doctor, who wrote a prescription for the bite and sent him on his way.
His leg grew infected and swelled to twice its normal size. Sloan had to have his thigh cut open and the puss squeezed out, which forced him to miss only one game. He still has a scar in the shape of a circle just above his left knee from the bite.
"I'm kind of old school," Sloan said. "I just throw dirt on it and keep playing."
Olympic talk
Anderson Varejao remains adamant in his desire to play for Brazil in this summer's Olympics, even though he has suffered injuries to his shoulder and ankle while playing internationally in recent years.
©2012 the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio) Visit the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio) at www.ohio.com Distributed by MCT Information Services
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