Cavaliers’ West breaks finger on shooting hand

INDEPENDENCE (AP) — First, Mo Williams. Then, Delonte West.

With the speed in which Cleveland starting point guards are dropping with injuries these days, it’s no wonder Daniel Gibson was a little skittish after practice.

“I need to stay away from those two guys,” Gibson said.

The Cavaliers’ backcourt woes worsened Friday when the team learned that West broke his left ring finger in Thursday night’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers. West’s injury to his shooting hand came in his first start since replacing Williams, who could miss up to six weeks for the Eastern Conference leaders after spraining his left shoulder in a game Tuesday against Toronto.

West will miss tonight’s game against Oklahoma City, but the Cavs do not yet know how long he will be sidelined. Doctors need a few days for the swelling to go down before they can complete their evaluation.

West fractured his finger while scrambling after a loose ball in the fourth quarter of the Cavs’ victory — their second over the defending NBA champions in less than a month.

Gibson, whose minutes had been cut lately, will take over point guard duties until West returns. Gibson normally runs the point for Cleveland’s scout team.

“The last couple weeks, I’ve been hoping to catch some minutes and it looks like now I got my wish,” Gibson said. “I just want to go out there and have fun. That’s going to be my biggest thing, just enjoy the moment. You get these opportunities and when they come you just want to take advantage of them.”

Gibson’s time had waned mostly because of his shaky defense and Brown’s preference to have bigger guards on the floor. Despite his defensive limitations, Gibson leads the league in 3-point accuracy (48 percent) and has averaged 5.6 points in 37 games off the bench.

Cavs coach Mike Brown said general manager Danny Ferry and his staff were talking about signing another point guard. In the meantime, Gibson will get help from LeBron James and Anthony Parker.

“We may have to do it by committee,” said Brown, who said there are other factors to consider. “One, is how long is he [West] going to be out for? The second one is, knock on wood, what if Gib goes down? Nobody thought that Delonte would go down in the game after Mo.

“We have capable ballhandlers.”

Gibson’s objectives are to take care of the ball, run Cleveland’s offense and not force shots.