The Cleveland Cavaliers’ season and any chance they have at pulling off an epic comeback rest squarely on the health of Donovan Mitchell’s sprained left ankle.
The six-time All-Star and face of the franchise aggravated an existing injury Sunday while warming up at halftime of a 129-109 blowout loss to the host Indiana Pacers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Mitchell underwent an MRI on his ankle Monday morning, but the Cavaliers did not disclose details. They later listed him as questionable on the official NBA injury report for Game 5.
Fourth-seeded Indiana leads the series 3-1 and can eliminate the top-seeded Cavaliers in their building on Tuesday night. The Pacers have won all four of their games in Cleveland during the 2024-2025 regular season and playoffs.
“It’s not the where, it’s the how,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Monday after practice in Indianapolis. “We have a very good idea what kind of environment it’s going to be tomorrow with the desperation.
“Maintaining the edge is the challenge. The emotions are high, but you have to maintain an even temperament the best you can.”
No one has been better doing that than Indiana power forward Pascal Siakam and center Myles Turner, whose consistency has been admirable as they have outplayed Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen and NBA Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley.
Siakam and Turner combined for 41 points and 13 rebounds, compared to 12 points and seven boards for their Cleveland counterparts in Game 4. Indiana built a NBA playoff record-tying 41-point halftime lead despite the ejection of rugged reserve Bennedict Mathurin.
“We’re in a situation where, at the end of the day, nobody really cared to see us win,” Siakam said, referring to out-of-market fans. “So when you have that and you have that belief like it’s us against everybody, we are where we are. That’s our team.”
All-Star point guard Darius Garland (left big toe sprain), Mobley (left ankle sprain) and swingman De’Andre Hunter (right thumb sprain) all missed Game 2 — a devastating 120-119 home loss by the Cavaliers — before returning for both contests in Indiana.
Mitchell has been magnificent in averaging 34.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.8 steals in the series, even while dealing with a sore calf, but is going to need much more help to extend Cleveland’s postseason.
The Cavaliers have never won a series after losing the first two games at home.
“This franchise has been down 3-1 before,” Garland said, referring to the 2016 NBA Finals when the LeBron James and Kyrie Irving-led squad beat Golden State three straight times to win Cleveland’s only league championship.
“This group can do it. We’ve got the talent, we’ve got the skill set, the camaraderie is always there. Just play our brand of basketball.”
Through four games, the Pacers have prevented them from doing it, in particular from long distance. The Cavaliers ranked second in the league with a 38.3 3-point percentage in the regular season, but are at 30.2 percent in this series.
Sixth Man of the Year finalist Ty Jerome is at an abysmal 15.4 percent, and Hunter and stretch forward Dean Wade are both shooting 22.2 percent beyond the arc. Making wide-open threes helped Cleveland win 64 times in the regular season, only for the Cavs to fail at it through four games this round.
“They’ve raised their game to another level and we didn’t match it,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We talked about it. We knew it was coming. You try to prepare your guys mentally, but for whatever reason they were at another level.”
–Field Level Media
