<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Cavaliers have gained a reputation among some NBA scouts as being a team that is soft in the middle - a team that does not do enough to confront opposing players driving to the basket. Perhaps this is why one of the loudest ovations during Sunday's 96-95 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers at The Q occurred late in the third quarter - when Lakers guard Smush Parker drove to the hoop and was clobbered by 7-3 Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. It was a clean, hard foul, one that critics say is not done enough. Parker, looking stunned at what his former teammate had done, picked himself up and made one of two free throws. Cavaliers coach Mike Brown liked what he saw. "I am not going to say that we should be going out to hurt anyone," he said, "but I know that as a head coach, we can do more of that. "We can get better in that area." In recent weeks, numerous opposing players - from burly power forwards to 175-pound point guards - have regularly treated the middle of the Cavaliers' defense as if it was a freeway to scoring. It has become a rare sight to see anyone knocked off his feet. "I agree that we have got to do more of this," Ilgauskas said. "LeBron [James] is getting hit all the time. "You just can't go out and head-hunt, because you can't forget about playing basketball, but there are certain times in a game when you have to take a stand." Ilgauskas was fouled as hard as any Cavalier when Detroit's Rasheed Wallace hammered him in a recent game at Auburn Hills, Mich. Five stitches were needed to close a wound in Ilgauskas' head. </div> Source
