Donovan Mitchell ‘better trend’, but Cleveland is not taking any chances

For the fourth consecutive game, Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star running back Donovan Mitchell was on the sidelines with deformation of the right groin. Before his team got revenge on the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday, the Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson he shared why he took the cautious route.

“It’s trending better, but obviously we know our schedule,” Atkinson said. “I know you (the media) don’t like this, but (if this was a) playoff game, he’s playing today. I don’t think we want this thing to hold him back.”

“I have to admit I was part of the push, like, ‘Don’t think about it. We want you healthy for the playoffs. We want you healthy for this run.’ We all kind of collaborated in the conversation and came to this decision. I think it’s a smart decision. I don’t want this nagging to turn into a time of crisis.”

It’s hard to blame Cleveland be extra careful; all you have to consider is the terrible injury luck he’s had all season.

Between Darius Garland’s finger issues, the amount of broken fingers (Keon Ellis and James Harden lately, but Jarrett Allen earlier in the season) and re-aggravations of soft tissue injuries, such as Evan Mobley’s calf that lasted him two different timesthe group was bitten by a snake.

And so, Atkinson and the performance staff take these things seriously and work together to make the best decision for both the player and the team.

“I think we’re done, like any NBA team, right,” Atkinson said. “There’s this collective research and evaluation, and there’s numbers behind all of this, right? There’s in-game performance numbers. We have an elaborate testing lab in our facility. I think we’re on the cutting edge as far as NBA organizations, so we know how important that is. So we’ve put a ton of resources into it, and that’s probably the frustration answer.

“You say, ‘Well, why is this happening?’ I don’t think anyone has figured that out yet, and the game is faster. it is. It’s faster. There is more (acceleration and deceleration), more jumping. We get these numbers, right? It looks us in the face. So let’s just dive in. We talk about breaks, longer, shorter, even with Evan. We’re deep into all of these things, so I can tell you that we’re on it, looking for answers.”

Allen, after a great month as one of the greatest, if not the greatest dominantleague big man in February, sat out the second half against the Pistons with a knee-to-knee injury suffered in the early moments of the third quarter.

Dean Wade is dealing with a nagging ankle sprain, as is Dennis Schroder. These cases, all different but equally frustrating, serve as examples of how every time the Cavs get a body back or multiple players healthy, something else has to go wrong shortly after.

All that is said, with Max Strus is still out of action despite the latest positive update from the Cavs on his progress on Tuesday. He had a Jones fracture in his left foot before training camp, so it’s bone-related, not muscle-related.

Hardly anyone is 100 percent at this time of year; it’s also rare how it happened and how quickly it happened for Cleveland this season. That’s what Atkinson and Co. they’re getting because of how healthy the 2024-25 regular season appears to have been.

The Cavs want to be as healthy as possible for the postseason

So it’s understandable why the Cavs are sacrificing games right now to get ready for the postseason, which is suddenly a month away.

Mitchell has been to the playoffs before and knows how to get his body back on track. He’s an elite-level talent who doesn’t need many runways to get going again, and with just eight days of action, he’s probably for the better. The 29-year-old and Harden have quickly established chemistry with each other, and there’s a big four-day break before Cleveland plays the Boston Celtics; chances are Mitchell will be back for it.

After that, only a few games will really test the wine and gold. We’re only so far from that point in the season where teams in the postseason are simply fighting for the position they’re already in instead of making significant jumps in the standings. They remain in the development phase, looking to identify talent on their rosters for the future.

As Harden said earlierthese games will be like practices for the Cavs, who don’t have much left on the schedule. It will be an opportunity to get reps, learn each other’s preferences and get used to lineup patterns. That’s probably more important to Dennis Schroder, Keon Ellis and himself than it is to Mitchell.