Brown: Cavs struggling to compete

WASHINGTON: The Cleveland Cavaliers' poor start to the season is due to injuries, contract squabbles and, at times, "a failure to compete", according to coach Mike Brown.

The defending Eastern Conference champions, without injured triple All-Star LeBron James, lost their fifth straight game on Wednesday, a 105-86 setback to the Washington Wizards, which dropped their record to 9-11.

Cleveland, playing a Wizards squad without injured All-Star guard Gilbert Arenas, trailed by 19 points at the intermission, but Brown refused to blame his team's form simply on injuries to James, guard Larry Hughes and forward Donyell Marshall.

"Stuff happens in the NBA," Brown told reporters. "We're not the only team out there missing multiple guys. We have to figure out a way to win. And we have not done that yet."

James has missed the last four games with a finger sprain, but the Cavaliers' woes began well before their attacking inspiration was forced onto the sidelines.

"We're maybe a little hung over from last year," said Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the two-time NBA All-Star from Lithuania.

"We had a short summer, a miserable preseason and then November was probably one of the toughest months on our schedule."

The Cavaliers should get a boost soon when Brazilian forward Anderson Varejao, a key player in last year's run to the finals, returns following a contract dispute.

Cleveland won its first Eastern Conference title last year but was swept in four straight games by the San Antonio Spurs in the championship round.

"We had such a long season last year and it's kind of getting to us now," said Cavaliers guard Sasha Pavlovic, a five-year NBA veteran from Serbia. "We just have to fight through it."

"We know how good we are. We're going to come back. We know it."

Agencies

(China Daily 12/07/2007 page24)