Cavs Lament Another Lost Opportunity Against Heat

Two NBA teams on wildly divergent trajectories midway through the season crossed paths on Monday night. While the Miami Heat continue their push to catch up with the Boston Celtics for the Eastern Conference lead, the Cleveland Cavaliers remain the NBA's worst team in the standings.

While their first visit to Miami ended in a loss 101-95 back in mid-December, their squad was at full strength and the team managed to keep it competitive to the end. This time the large margin of defeat was yet another indication of how the team has regressed since then. Cavs guard Anthony Parker (pictured, right, guarding LeBron James) didn't want to give excuses, yet the reality of their situation is what it is.

"I think we're looking at as we've come through a very tough time, schedule-wise," he said after the deflating loss to the Heat, their 21st in a row and 24th consecutive road loss. "Then you add the injuries on top of that.

"The schedule turns for us, we're going to have some opportunities and we have a homestand coming up. From here on out we need to focus game to game trying to get wins and get better."

Injuries have cast aside several important players and they've played the most road games of any other team. They went winless in 15 games in January with only four games at home; that stretch included tough opponents on the road like the Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics, and the Orlando Magic.

"That's the NBA," noted Ramon Sessions, who struggled from the field but did contribute seven assists against the Heat. "We can be at any arena on any given night, win or loss. Those are tough teams but its wins that we think we can get no matter who we're playing. We come out every night prepared to win but we just haven't been able to get it so far lately."

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Full story at http://nba.fanhouse.com/2011/02/01/cavs-lament-another-lost-opportunity-against-heat/