Cavaliers down another big man as Varejao’s knee swells up

Anderson Varejao has been fantastic this young season for Cleveland — 14 points a game on 65.8 percent shooting, plus 15 rebounds a game. He has grabbed 25 percent of the available rebounds when he has been on the floor the first four games (that is Dennis Rodman like). He has been playing like an All-Star.

So Cleveland is really going to miss him Wednesday night, and maybe longer.

Varejao banged knees in the Cavs Monday night win over the Clippers, and while his knee hurt he played through it. Then after the game it swelled up and come the Cavs game Wednesday against the Warriors, he could not go.

Neither could rookie Tyler Zeller, who is going to be out for a while after getting a broken cheekbone and a concussion in the same game.

That’s two rotation big men on a Cavs team that isn’t exactly deep. Coach Byron Scott is not thrilled.

“Tyler was playing great. We know how Andy was playing, unbelievable. You lose not only two of your best players, you lose your size as well,” Scott said before his team faced the Warriors. “Again, we just got other guys who are going to come in and try to pick up the slack for what both those guys brought to the table.”

The guys asked to step up were Samardo Samuels at forward and Tristan Thompson, both of whom started. They will get a lot more run until Varejao and Zeller are back.