By Shams Charania, Joe Vardon and Jason Lloyd
Cleveland Cavaliers starting forward Evan Mobley is likely to miss extended time due to injury again, this time due to a sprained left ankle he suffered in Tuesday's improbable win over the Boston Celtics, multiple league sources told The Athletic with.
Mobley will have to wait for an official timeline until the significant swelling goes down, but one source said “it will take some time” and another said he will be “out for a while.”
Mobley suffered the injury during a successful dunk with 5:29 left in the third quarter of the Cavs' 105-104 victory over the Celtics, in which they erased a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit. Mobley's teammate Sam Merrill committed a foul after Mobley twisted his ankle so the Cavs could remove him from the game, and he was escorted back to the locker room. Mobley left Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on crutches and was ruled out for the team's game Wednesday night in Atlanta.
Mobley, an All-NBA defenseman who is averaging 15.6 points and 10.2 rebounds this season, missed six weeks from mid-December to late January because of minor knee surgery. His replacement in Tuesday's win, Dean Wade, scored 20 of his 23 points in Cleveland's furious fourth-quarter comeback.
The Cavs are also playing this week without starters Donovan Mitchell (left knee) and Max Strus (right knee), who along with Mobley make up three-fifths of their usual starting lineup.
Cleveland enters tonight's game half a game behind Milwaukee for second place in the East.
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(Photo: Ken Blaze / USA Today)