For a team that is already banged up, battered, and bruised, the Cleveland Cavaliers seemingly cannot catch a break. In the Cavs' 105-104 win over the Boston Celtics, where the team was without Donovan Mitchell (knee), Max Strus (knee), and Ty Jerome (ankle), they lost another key contributor, Evan Mobley, to an injury. The Athletic reported Wednesday that an official timeline won't be known until swelling goes down, “but one source said ‘it will be some time' and another said he ‘will be out awhile.'”
With less than six minutes to go in the third quarter, Mobley awkwardly landed on the court after driving home an uncontested slam dunk off of a Darius Garland dime. During the landing, Mobley immediately grabbed his lower leg as he collapsed, clearly showing he was in discomfort.
Regardless, Mobley attempted to jog back down the court before heading to the bench after the Cavs intentionally fouled to interrupt the play. Eventually, Mobley limped back to the locker room with a trainer. Soon after, the team announced that he sustained a left ankle sprain and would not return.
When asked by ClutchPoints post-game about the severity of Mobley's injury, all that head coach J.B. Bickerstaff could confirm was that Mobley seemed to have sprained his ankle during that dunk.
Bickerstaff did say that he wasn't sure of the severity of the injury at the time nor if Mobley would require X-rays to further evaluate the severity of a possible sprain. Unfortunately, this latest report appears to confirm that Mobley's ankle injury was as bad as it looked. Cleveland's star young big man was spotted exiting the arena on crutches and avoiding putting any serious pressure on his swollen left ankle.
Evan Mobley injury woes
For Mobley, who has averaged 15.9 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.6 blocks in his third NBA season, this will be the second injury this season that forced him to miss serious time. Earlier in the year, Mobley was sidelined for nearly two months after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery and it threw a wrench in the young big man's development plans.
Sure, while the Cavs have Jarrett Allen, Dean Wade, Georges Niang, and Damian Jones they can lean on if Mobley were to miss time, Cleveland without their star big man is just another unexpected wrench in things.
Based on the severity of the sprain, Mobley could be out as few as 3-4 weeks or as much as 6-8 weeks, which would have him back on the court as early as when the Cavs face the Charlotte Hornets or Utah Jazz, as late as when Cleveland hosts the Memphis Grizzlies or the very beginning of the Eastern Conference Playoffs.
Ideally, Mobley not missing much time would be the preferred outcome, but there's a chance he might not return until the Cavs begin their playoff push
While Mobley's recovery history is on par with that of Wolverine, having him miss so much time with so few regular season games remaining could cause more harm than good for the Cavs.
Mobley is the reason why Cleveland is so dynamic on defense most nights. Having him miss time after missing nearly two months this season is robbing him of valuable on-court reps and keeping Mobley and the Cavs from reaching their full potential on either end of the court.
Hopefully, he's back sooner rather than later, but if Mobley is unable to return until the playoffs, it could spell disaster for Cleveland since there will be rust he has to shake off in matchups where the games matter most.
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