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Ohio Lottery Winning Time: Where The Wild Thing Is

There was a time earlier in his career that Cavalier fans – and, to an extent, then-head coach Mike Brown – would hold their breath when Anderson Varejao lined up a jumpshot.

It’s always been – and still is – an unorthodox jumper, with his right elbow cocked at a 45-degree angle. It takes Andy an extra half-second to unload it and the shot has a slight backspin when he does. But in the words of Shawn Marion – he of the odd-but-effective jumper: ‘As long as it goes in.’

When Varejao first arrived in Cleveland, he was asked to hustle, bring energy, hit the floor, hit the boards and score in an absolute emergency – preferable without using that funky jumper.

But we’ve come a long way, baby. And on Monday night, in a game the Cavaliers had to have, that Varejao jumper might have been the difference between the Orlando Magic making a run and the Wine and Gold extending their edge and putting the contest away.

On Monday night, the Cavs came out all business against the Magic – leading by 10 after one quarter and by 18 at intermission. But they came out of the halftime locker room a little flat. Orlando’s Mo Harkless scored on a dunk early in the period to cut Cleveland’s 18-point edge to just a dozen. But Andy proceeded to drill three straight jumpers (as the Magic missed a pair three-point attempts on the other end ) and the Cavs quickly re-established their big lead.

Orlando didn’t get closer than 18 the rest of the way.

After the game, LeBron acknowledged Andy’s contribution to the win.

“We have to clean up the start of quarters,” maintained James. “The start of the third quarter, we had a lull, but Andy bailed us out – hitting three straight jumpshots.”

Varejao didn’t always have the confidence to shoot that jumper. Like his career on both ends of the floor, it’s been a steady work in progress.

”It goes way back to Byron Scott, who was the one always in my ear telling me: ‘Shoot the ball, shoot the ball,’” recalled Varejao. “And then I started to shoot a little bit more. Coach Blatt tells me to shoot the ball, too. And (my teammates) keep passing to me. It’s a good thing when you’re open and someone passes you the ball when you see he really meant to pass you the ball, it wasn’t just because he had to. It gives you the confidence to shoot the ball.”

Andy’s been hitting a lot of his shots this year – nearly 60 percent of them, in fact. At .592 from the floor, the Wild Thing ranks 7th in the NBA in field goal percentage. He ranks second in the Eastern Conference, trailing only Toronto’s Jonas Valanciunas.

Over the course of his 11-year career, Varejao is a .514 shooter from the floor and has shot over 50 percent in seven of those 11 seasons. His .514 career mark is good for 8th place among the Cavs all-time leaders. (Mark West sits atop the list at .553.) It’s just one of the all-time career lists that Andy continues to ascend through. He’s current third in offensive rebounds, fourth in total rebounds, fifth in defensive rebounds, eighth in blocks and ninth in games played.

With 11 seasons in the books, even as the Cavaliers’ most tenured member of the team, Varejao continues to improve his game – and that includes breaking out that jumper when the opportunity arises. But these days, fans don’t gasp when Andy shoots the ball. They cheer when he sinks the shot.