Ladies and Gentlemen: Your Liberator

With the news of the suspension of Wizards forward Darius Songalia for tonight’s game already hitting news circles, the news just got a little worse for the Wizards as Cavaliers guard Sasha Pavlovic may be ready to play tonight.

The news of Songalia’s suspension is definitely the big news of this afternoon regarding this series. But upon reading Brian Windhorst’s take on the suspension, I came upon this little gem hidden at the end,

“Also, at shootaround, it seemed like there was an excellent chance Sasha Pavlovic would get minutes tonight. I expect a tighter leash on Wally Szczerbiak.”

That’s right, fans of the Whhhhiiiiizzzarrrrrrrddds, be afraid. Be very afraid. Sasha Pavlovic is back. Yeah, you know the guy….the shooting guard who averaged 7.4 ppg, 1.6 apg, shot 36.2% from the field and a whopping 29.8% from three-point range. Yep, the guy with the 7.28 PER this season is back. He’s coming back just in time to save the Cavaliers’ season and to deliver the kill shot that will end the Wizards’ season. Game. Set. Match.

/sarcasm off

Sasha Pavlovic was one of the worst players in the NBA this season. The guy who will never live down the now infamous line, “Coach, my offense is my defense”, couldn’t play either one very well this year. His season started off with a not-as-ugly-as-Varejao’s holdout, but when his deal was finalized just as the season was tipping off, there were high hopes for the Montenegrin Mercenary (madeup nickname), but injuries and….well, who knows else was wrong, derailed his season. His minutes were slashed as his effectiveness plummeted.

So, what can the Cavaliers hope to get out Sasha? Good question. The Cavaliers have had a history of unlikely heroes stepping up in big playoff games, whether it be Damon Jones (vs Washington), Donyell Marshall (vs Washington), Daniel Gibson (vs Detroit), etc. So maybe tonight that will be Pavlovic’s role. It’s hard to imagine he could be much more inefficient than Wally Szczerbiak was in Game 5, so hey, I’m all for trying something new in this series. But this still begs the question…..what’s wrong with Damon Jones, and when can we see him lighting it up from outside again?