Cavs Don't Know Who They Are

'We're Still Trying to Find An Identity'

There are many memorable images from Monday night in Philadelphia, where the Cleveland Cavaliers wrapped up the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference -- and home-court advantage over the Washington Wizards in the first round -- with the help of a controversial foul call in the final second.

The 76ers angrily reemerged from their locker room, tucking their jerseys back in, to watch Cavaliers guard Devin Brown hit two free throws with 0.2 of a second remaining. LeBron James leaped from his three-point stance, lifting his index finger and rushing to embrace Brown. Philadelphia point guard Andre Miller punted the basketball while the Cavaliers gleefully bounced off the court to celebrate a 91-90 victory.

But a scene that is often overlooked is from the third quarter, when Cavaliers guard Sasha Pavlovic suffered a severely sprained ankle and had to leave in a wheelchair. That injury seemed to sum up this difficult hangover season for the defending Eastern Conference champions and explains why James was so relieved to escape with a win.

"We were due for a break," James said afterward.

The Cavaliers (45-37) haven't had much go in their favor this season, resulting in the team winning five fewer games than a year ago and dropping two seeds in the standings.

James became the first player in franchise history to lead the league in the scoring at 30 points per game, but that accomplishment doesn't make up for a sputtering season dominated by a revolving door of injuries and a trade-deadline deal that has Cleveland stuck in neutral as it prepares to host the Wizards in Game 1 tomorrow afternoon.

"It's been a unique situation because I never been through anything like that," said center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, a 10th-year veteran and the longest-tenured Cavalier. "We just have no consistency. We're still trying to find an identity for ourselves."

The season began with Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao involved in contract disputes: Pavlovic missed training camp and Varejao didn't sign until early December. Then, rotation players Larry Hughes, Donyell Marshall, Pavlovic, Varejao and Daniel Gibson were all forced to miss 13 or more games each because of injuries.

Cavaliers General Manager Danny Ferry attempted to shake up a stagnant stretch by dealing Hughes, Drew Gooden, Marshall and Ira Newble in a monster, three-team trade with Chicago and Seattle that yielded Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West and Joe Smith.

The trade was supposed to move the Cavaliers closer to championship contention and provide some much-needed help for James, who often is portrayed as the one-man show who single-handedly led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals last season.

The results have been lukewarm at best, with the Cavaliers finishing the season 15-13 and Coach Mike Brown constantly shuffling his lineups to figure out what works. Brown has used 21 starting lineups this season, including nine since the trade, which sacrificed two regular starters. It hasn't helped that Ilgauskas, Wallace and Gibson missed time with injuries. Pavlovic is out for the next two to three weeks.

"I'm not trying to kid anybody. It's tough having the new bodies you have when have your starting lineup gets changed on top of that, and then you add injuries," Brown said.