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A left knee bone bruise had kept All-NBA Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard Donovan Mitchell on the shelf for the Eastern Conference's third seed for seven contests. He made what looks to be a premature comeback on Wednesday. On Saturday, during a 117-103 loss to the sub-.500 Houston Rockets, he scored a scant 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line in 26 minutes. He also contributed three rebounds, two assists (against two turnovers) and a steal.
The 6'3" Louisville product struggled to recapture the shotmaking or movement that have made him a five-time All-Star. In 49 bouts this season, the 27-year-old has been averaging 27.4 points on .468/.373/.862 shooting splits, 6.1 dimes and 5.3 rebounds for the 42-25 Cavaliers. Per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, he is now slated to miss more time with the bone bruise.
Mitchell seemed to indicate that his knee will not knee surgery, and he's looking to return healthy before the end of the 2023-24 regular season. "The one thing we don't have time for is rest but that's what you need is rest," Mitchell noted. "Sit my ass down and take the proper approach because at the end of the day it's April [and the playoffs] that we are getting ready for."
"Tried to hide it as much as I can," Mitchell said of playing through the injury last week. "But it's pretty blatant and obvious. It sucks. I'm pissed off. But I trust these guys. Gonna go out there and do their thing. I will get right. And then be ready to go... I'm a very eager person. I want to be out there. I have no doubt I will be fine. Everybody else believes the same thing. It's not a concern from that standpoint. It's more me fighting my own battle."
A key Mitchell costar, unfortunately for Cleveland, also will be unavailable for much of the home stretch of the team's season. Starting power forward Evan Mobley has missed his team's last six matchups due to a left ankle sprain, and is expected to remain shelved for a while. Their ailments could come back to cost the Cavaliers sooner rather than later.
Cleveland is currently just two games and 2.5 games, respectively, over the fourth-seeded New York Knicks and the fifth-seeded Orlando Magic. Remaining star players Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen will need to take on more of the scoring and rebounding burden with the other two members of the Cavaliers' top four players sidelined, should the franchise hope to preserve its homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
About the writer
Alex Kirschenbaum is a Newsweek reporter covering sports and entertainment content based in Los Angeles. He has in-depth knowledge of all ... Read more