Donovan Mitchell Injury: What We Know About the Cavs Guard's Knee Issue

While he hasn't played in the biggest markets over the years, no one can question Donovan Mitchell's star power. The guard's résumé largely speaks for itself: He's a five-time All-Star, earned a place on the 2022-23 All-NBA Second Team and is averaging 28 points per contest this season.

With that in mind, let's say you were going to tune into Tuesday night's nationally televised Boston Celtics-Cleveland Cavaliers game hoping to watch Mitchell strut his stuff. If that's the case, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

The Cavs' guard is sidelined, and he's going to miss at least a few contests. Here's what we know so far about the Mitchell injury situation.

Why Isn't Mitchell Playing?

Over an NBA season, most players are going to pick up some bumps and bruises. Mitchell, for all his talent, isn't exempt from that reality.

Ahead of the Cavs' March 1 game against the Pistons, the guard appeared on the official NBA injury report with knee soreness. That designation carried over to Sunday, when Mitchell also sat out against the Knicks.

But on Monday we received a bit more clarity around the lingering issue.

"Donovan Mitchell received a Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) injection today at the Cleveland Clinic Sports Medicine center to treat a left knee bone bruise that sidelined him for the Cavaliers previous two games," a team statement said on X (formerly Twitter).

The rest of the post focused on a potential return, which we'll discuss momentarily.

When Can Mitchell Return?

While some injury reports can be ambiguous, Cleveland's statement did give some details about Mitchell's trajectory. That said, things still aren't set in stone.

"Mitchell will be listed as OUT for the next three games (March 5 vs. Boston, March 6 at Atlanta, and March 8 vs. Minnesota)," the tweet continued. "His status will be re-evaluated over the weekend and will be updated as appropriate."

While that's not necessarily the most satisfying news, it does give a reasonably clear picture of what the immediate future holds. Mitchell probably won't be out for the long term, but there's no need to rush him back before he's feeling better. Avoiding a lingering problem, after all, is more important than winning a few games in the next week.

Cavs Will Want to Be Patient, Even If It's Tough

It goes without saying that there's never a good time to lose your top player to injury. Cleveland, however, is going to be without Mitchell for a tricky stretch of games.

As the club's statement noted, the guard will definitely miss meetings with the Celtics, Hawks and Timberwolves. The first and last game of that stretch is against each conference's top dog. Winning those matchups would be tough, even with Mitchell's average of 28 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.2 assists per outing. Without him, things become even more challenging.

If there's a silver lining to the situation, though, it's that the Cavs have done good work for much of this season. While you don't want to accept sliding down the standings, their 39-21 record does provide some buffer. That places the club five games ahead of the Miami Heat, who sit in the first play-in spot.

It's also worth noting that Cleveland has a manageable game against the Nets after facing Minnesota, which is followed immediately by a visit from the Suns. Perhaps Mitchell sits out the former outing and aims to return during the tougher game of the back-to-back set.

Can you accept losing a few games in the standings if that allows Mitchell to rest, recover and be at his best for the home stretch? Yes, but the key is getting the star guard back in a reasonable amount of time. If he's out for a while or comes back without being 100 percent over his bone bruise, things could get a bit more complicated.

Will the Cavs be able to thread that needle and let him recover without losing too much ground? At this point, only time will tell.