CLEVELAND, Ohio — The New York Knicks won’t be the only team shorthanded for the latest national TV showdown between a pair of Eastern Conference rivals at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Sunday night.
Sources tell cleveland.com that Cavs guards Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert will both be unavailable. Mitchell, listed as questionable, will miss his second straight game because of knee soreness while LeVert is still recovering from a sprained elbow suffered in Cleveland’s double overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night.
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Mitchell and LeVert did not participate in the team’s walkthrough at the arena ahead of Sunday’s game.
With Mitchell sidelined once again, the Cavs will temporarily re-insert Isaac Okoro into the starting lineup, sources say.
Sunday is the third — and final — regular season meeting between the two teams that battled in the first round of the playoffs last season, with the Knicks winning the series 4-1. For much of the year, it seemed like they were on a playoff collision course once again. But the Cavs have risen to the East’s second seed while the Knicks continue to deal with a rash of injuries that has them in the fourth spot.
Trade acquisition O.G. Anunoby remains inactive because of an elbow issue. All-Star power forward Julius Randle is still out with a shoulder injury. Center Mitchell Robinson, who physically overwhelmed Cleveland’s frontcourt in April, hasn’t played since Dec. 8 due to an injured ankle.
Both teams being depleted takes a little steam out of the matchup.
LeVert, Cleveland’s fifth-leading scorer, has been undergoing treatment since late Thursday night, after a hard foul from behind on Chicago big man Nikola Vucevic that led to a painful clash of elbows in the fourth quarter of the 132-123 setback. His absence over the weekend led to rotational shuffling, including more playing time for sharpshooter Sam Merrill, who had received back-to-back DNPs before a 25-minute run that led to a 12-point, 4-triple performance.
In 48 games this season, LeVert is averaging 14.1 points, 4.7 assists and 3.8 rebounds.
Sunday will be Mitchell’s 13th missed game, putting him four away from the 65-game threshold to be eligible for end-of-season awards. In 47 games, Cleveland’s All-Star is averaging 28.0 points, 6.2 assists and 5.4 rebounds while shooting 47.2% from the field and 37.1% from 3-point range.
The Cavs are 39-20 this season.
