The Cleveland Cavaliers cruised their way through the regular season.
They dominated from start to finish, and they had the best record in the Eastern Conference from games 1 through 82.
Of course, that allowed them to get some rest down the stretch.
They took their foot off the gas after securing a spot in the playoffs, and the best players even got some games off.
Unfortunately, that still wasn’t enough to prevent injuries.
Darius Garland, De’Andre Hunter, and Evan Mobley are out with injured toes, thumbs, and ankles, respectively.
And according to a report by Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, Donovan Mitchell is currently dealing with a calf injury as well:
“Mitchell is dealing with a calf injury. He doesn’t want to talk about it. Hate to mention this, but a calf injury knocked Mitchell out of the last two playoff games of the 2024 series vs. Boston. PS: Mitchell said he would play in Game 3 in Indiana,” Fedor wrote.
Mitchell has struggled with injuries in the playoffs multiple times in his career, and that was a concern when the team signed him to a long-term contract extension.
He’s done all the heavy lifting in the first two games of the series, scoring 33 and 48 in Games 1 and 2, respectively.
However, he needed to take 30 shots to do so in Game 1, and while he was more efficient in Game 2, he’s still struggling mightily from beyond the arc.
Andrew Nembhard has done an outstanding job of messing with his rhythm, and he’s gone 2-of-18 from beyond the arc through the first two games of the series.
Mitchell is the team’s leader, and he’s leading by example by playing through injury.
Hopefully, the other banged-up players will follow his lead and also leave it all on the court.
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