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SoonerShark
5/13/2006, 02:30 PM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12762374/

Cavs’ Hughes won’t play after brother’s death
Guard will remain with grieving family, status also unclear about Game 4

Updated: 12:39 p.m. ET May 13, 2006

CLEVELAND - Cavaliers starting guard Larry Hughes will remain with his grieving family and miss Game 3 against the Detroit Pistons on Saturday following the sudden death of his 20-year-old brother.

Hughes is in St. Louis mourning the loss of his brother, Justin, who died Thursday after a lifelong battle with heart problems. Born with a heart defect, Justin Hughes had a heart transplant in 1997.

Along with his mother, Larry Hughes helped raise his brother, whose wake is scheduled for Monday at about the same time the Cavaliers play the Pistons in Game 4 of their best-of-seven series.

Justin Hughes’ funeral will be held Tuesday morning.

With Hughes out, Flip Murray will start Game 3 — and probably Game 4 — for the Cavaliers. Murray started 25 games during the regular season, filling in while Hughes recovered from two finger operations. The Cavs went 18-7 with Murray as a starter.

“Whatever the situation I’m in, if I’m a starter or coming off the bench, it’s all the same,” Murray said after practice on Friday. “I’m just going to go out there and play.”

The Cavaliers, dominated by Detroit for much of the first two games, need Murray to play better. In the first two games of the series, he scored only five points and went 0-for-11 from the field.

Larry Hughes centered his life around his little brother. He was recruited by several elite college basketball programs while in high school, but chose St. Louis University so he could be near him.

When Justin’s medical bills became overwhelming, Larry Hughes left college after one season for the NBA. He signed with the Cavaliers as a free agent last summer partly because of the nearby Cleveland Clinic.

In 2000, Hughes and his mother, Vanessa, formed The Larry Hughes Foundation to provide financial and emotional support to families of organ donors and recipients.

Being without Hughes is nothing new for the Cavaliers. He missed 45 games during the regular season after undergoing two surgeries on his right middle finger. Hughes is not completely healed and his finger has bothered him during the postseason.

Cleveland went 26-19 while Hughes was sidelined, but if their best defender isn’t available for Games 3 or 4, the Cavaliers’ chances of coming back against the powerful Pistons will be even more remote.

“The only good thing about it is that we played 40-some games without him so we kind of know how to play without him,” LeBron James said. “You hate to lose a defender, great scorer and team leader like that, but we know how to play without him.”

Playing with a pad on his finger, Hughes has scored just 16 points on 8-of-24 shooting against the Pistons. With Detroit’s defensive focus on James, the Pistons are giving some of the other Cavaliers a chance to step up their scoring. So far, none has.

Justin Hughes’ passing has affected the Cavaliers as well as the Pistons, who offered their condolences.

“That’s tough,” Detroit guard Chauncey Billups said. “I know Larry, and I’ve met his brother. They are a great family, and I really feel bad for them. It’s been obvious that Larry hasn’t been Larry in this series, and I know he’s been coming back from the injury and trying to get into a rhythm, but this has to have made things even worse.

“You can’t expect that something like that isn’t going to affect you.”

The odds of the Cavaliers coming back on the Pistons are long, but not impossible.

Since 1969, 10 teams have rallied from an 0-2 hole to win a best-of-seven playoff series. Last season, both Dallas and Washington did it to advance past the first round.

There’s also a chance that the Cavs, who are in second round for the first time since 1993, may only have two games left. Detroit has lost nine of its last 10 road playoff Game 3s, but James knows there’s a possibility of a sweep.

“You hate to think about that, but it is a reality that it might happen,” James said. “But it’s also possible we can come back from 0-2. There a lot of different scenarios. If that (sweep) may happen, which I don’t intend it to, it doesn’t take anything away from this season.

“We’re confident. No one’s head is down about this series.”

SoonerShark
5/13/2006, 02:37 PM
Larry Hughes sounds as if he has always had his priorities in the right place. It is sad that his little brother needed a heart transplant when he was only 11 or 12, but it is a blessing so that he could be with his family nine more years. The fact that this young man's life so affected his older brother's means that his life has endured beyond his physical body. One brother is a tremendous athlete. The other was an inspiration with his nine years with a borrowed heart. The sacrifice by the family whose member donated the transplant can never be minimized, either.