The Cavaliers are in major trouble.
Not only did Cleveland get obliterated by the Pacers en route to Indiana taking a 3-1 series lead in their Eastern Conference Semifinal Series, but Donovan Mitchell also left the game at halftime with an injury and did not return.
“He’ll get an MRI tomorrow,” said Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson. “I mean, no idea [of his status]. Obviously he couldn’t go in the second half, so we’ll see what the MRI says.”
Mitchell seems to have suffered the injury in the most unsuspecting of ways. It appeared to have come while he was warming up during halftime and suddenly went down while holding his ankle. Either that, or the star was testing if he could go after sustaining an injury earlier and realize he couldn’t.
Mitchell had 12 points in 20 minutes as the Cavaliers trailed by an unbelievable 41-point margin at halftime before ultimately falling 129-109.
Injuries have been persistent for Cleveland in this series, as Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter have all already missed time with injuries.
With other guys on the mend, and Mitchell being the star of the team that he is, he scored 40-plus points in consecutive games — 43 points in Game 3 and 48 in Game 2.
Now, potentially having to play Game 5 without that type of production, the Cavaliers could be in some serious trouble.
Cleveland posted an Eastern Conference-best 64-18 record in the regular season but has seemingly met its match with the Pacers.
Indiana stole the first two games in Cleveland before the Cavaliers staved off a potential 3-0 deficit in Game 3 by walloping the Pacers 126-104.
But with the chance to even the series, Cleveland showed no fight Sunday and now faces the improbable task of coming back from a 3-1 deficit.
Game 5 will tip off at 7 p.m. in Cleveland on Tuesday.
