The Cleveland Cavaliers announced that All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell will be out for the next three games after receiving a platelet-rich plasma treatment injection to treat a bone bruise in his left knee. Mitchell has missed Cleveland's last two games with the bone bruise, and will now be out when the Cavaliers take on the Celtics, Hawks and Timberwolves.
Being without Mitchell for practically the next week of games isn't ideal, especially as the Cavaliers are in the thick of playoff seeding with the Milwaukee Bucks sitting a half game ahead of them for the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference. But playoff implications aside, Mitchell is so critical to everything the Cavs do on offense. They score 4.8 points more when he's on the court compared to when he sits, and while he's never been known to be a strong defender, his effort on that end of the floor has Cleveland holding opponents to 8.3 fewer points when he's on the floor.
Mitchell leads the Cavs in points and assists per game, and without his 28 points a night, that means more responsibility will fall on the shoulders of Darius Garland, Caris LeVert and the rest of Cleveland's role players. It's a significant loss, but the Cavaliers have some decent depth to withstand this stretch of games without Mitchell, or at the very least be competitive without him.
In the two games he's already missed, Cleveland picked up a win against the Pistons, and fell to the Knicks, and with Mitchell sidelined for two games at the end of February it went 0-2 against the Magic and 76ers. In games Mitchell has missed this season, the Cavs have gone 7-6, so not entirely inspiring numbers, but Cleveland will have to hope it can come away with a couple wins in his absence.
Mitchell missing the next three games also has an impact on the possibility of making All-NBA at the end of the season. With the games he's set to miss this week, it will put him at 16 missed games, the maximum you're allowed to miss to stay eligible for year-end awards. While Mitchell doesn't have contract implications hanging on if he makes All-NBA this season, he's had a season capable of making one of the All-NBA teams, and unless he doesn't miss another game this season, there's a chance he won't be considered for the accolade.
