Cavs believe injection will get Mitchell back to full strength
“You’re always obviously concerned, but we’re confident these next steps will be the steps that are necessary [to get him healthy],” Bickerstaff said before Tuesday night’s 105-104 win against the league-leading Boston Celtics. “It was one of those things where he was trying to play through it, but he just was hampered and you could see he couldn’t explode, he couldn’t move in certain directions because of the pain and how it was limited.
“I’m not a doctor, but from everything that I’m hearing, the time, the rest and the process should give him back to full strength.”
Mitchell received the injection Monday and will miss at least three games, starting Tuesday night and carrying over to Atlanta on Wednesday and Minnesota on Friday. His return then will be based on how his knee recovers and how quickly he regains the explosion.
“I don’t like to overstep my bounds, but at the end of the third game or three games, they’ll reevaluate him and then we’ll make a decision from there,” Bickerstaff said. “Again, I am hopeful. I do not expect this to be a long break. But we will always do what’s best by our guys to make sure they’re healthy.”
Cleveland also was missing Max Strus (knee) Tuesday and then watched forward Evan Mobley fall awkwardly after a dunk late in the third quarter and exit with a sprained left ankle. Mobley walked back to the bench with a heavy limp, eventually went back to the locker room and was ruled out for the game a short time later.
Mitchell, meanwhile, is amid an All-NBA-caliber season in his second year in Cleveland, averaging 28 points, 5.4 rebounds and a career-high 6.2 assists. But this injury puts him at risk of being ineligible to make an All-NBA team; after Friday, he already will have missed 16 games, just two from falling below the required 65-game threshold needed to receive the league’s top awards, including MVP and All-NBA.
Mitchell had put himself in the conversation for both after leading Cleveland to an 18-2 record across a two-month stretch, most of it without the injured Darius Garland and Mobley. But since the All-Star break, the Cavaliers have gone 4-4 and 2-3 with Mitchell sidelined (he also missed games Friday and Sunday before the injection).
Bickerstaff, however, believes the team’s expectations for how it should play remain the same regardless of Mitchell’s status.
“For us, it never changes,” he said. “Guys should always try to be the best version of themselves. We don’t ask anybody to be any different. But I think it’s a confidence thing and it’s a booster if every single night, no matter who’s on the floor, you get the opportunity to be the best version of yourself.
“We don’t put guys in boxes and hold guys back. We want everybody to be free, be confident and go out and play their best basketball.”