Cleveland Cavaliers star guard Donovan Mitchell recently spoke on the devastating injuries to two of the team’s best players in Darius Garland and Evan Mobley.
Garland is dealing with a fractured jaw and is expected to be evaluated again in four weeks. Meanwhile, Mobley needs to have knee surgery and will be sidelined for six to eight weeks.
Mitchell offered some perspective.
“For us as a group, we got to find a way to just — together,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing. We got to do this together.”
He named Caris LeVert, Max Strus, Craig Porter Jr., Georges Niang, Sam Merrill, Dean Wade and Isaac Okoro as players who are ready to step up.
“I’m not going to make it seem like we’re down in the dumps. … We got guys now that are ready to go and step up and that’s why we made the moves we made. … We got Vert, Max, Craig, Georges, Sam, Dean, Isaac, the list goes on and on,” he said. “We’ve got to do it by committee.”
Mitchell continued, addressing Garland’s situation.
Mitchell spoke about Mobley.
“Man, what he brings to our group, we’ve seen it with his absence through this stretch…talked to both of those guys, tell them to keep their heads locked in…biggest thing for us is just to do it together,” Mitchell said.
He also touched on his expectations for Porter moving forward.
The Cavaliers — who own the ninth-best record in the Eastern Conference at the moment at 13-12 — are playing far from their best basketball at the moment. The team is riding a three-game losing streak.
It’s worth noting, however, that Cleveland’s three losses during the streak have all come against great competition. First, the Cavaliers lost to the Orlando Magic — who own the No. 4 seed in the conference — back on Dec. 11. Then, Cleveland lost two games against the Boston Celtics, who have the top record in the Eastern Conference and the league at 19-5.
Mitchell performed well in both of the team’s games against the Celtics, but his contributions weren’t enough for the Cavaliers to come away with a win in either showing.
In the Dec. 12 matchup, Mitchell finished with 29 points, six rebounds and three assists while shooting 11-of-22 from the field and 5-of-13 from behind the 3-point arc. In the Dec. 14 matchup, he ended up with 31 points, eight rebounds and six assists in 40 minutes of playing time.
Fortunately for the Cavaliers, they have a very winnable game on the horizon. Cleveland will host Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. The Hawks have really struggled to string together wins of late, as the team has won just three of its last 10 games. However, Atlanta did pick up a victory in its most recent game against the Toronto Raptors on Friday.
It’ll be interesting to see if Porter will get an uptick in minutes now that Garland will be sidelined for the foreseeable future. The rookie has appeared in 14 games with the Cavaliers so far this season and is averaging 7.2 points, 1.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.
