{"id":565135,"date":"2026-01-28T00:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/565135\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T00:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:31:16","slug":"cavs-expected-to-avoid-western-conference-star-in-upcoming-roadtrip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/565135\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs expected to avoid Western Conference star in upcoming roadtrip"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>\u2018 good basketball will be put to the test as they\u2019re set to be without Evan Mobley (calf) for anywhere between one to three weeks<\/a>. Additionally, they\u2019re set to embark on a five-game, week-and-a-half Western Conference roadtrip starting on Friday against the shorthanded Phoenix Suns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Suns are expected to be without Devin Booker<\/a>. He injured his ankle in a game last week against the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>. The injury isn\u2019t serious, but it is expected to sideline him for Friday\u2019s game. The injury update the team announced on Sunday said he would be reevaluated in a week with a right ankle sprain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Anything bought from the links helps support Fear the Sword. You can also shop all of Homage\u2019s Cavs gear HERE<\/a>. The link to the Donovan Mitchell NBA Jam shirt is HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Phoenix has been one of the best stories in the league this season. Former Cavs assistant Jordan Ott has done an excellent job leading what felt like a rudderless team after the disastrous Kevin Durant trade back into relevancy. They\u2019re firmly in the playoff race in a tightly contested Western Conference with a 27-19 record.<\/p>\n

Despite the good play, the Suns have struggled without Booker this season. They\u2019ve been outscored by 2.1 points per 100 possessions<\/a> (40th percentile<\/a>) when he isn\u2019t on the floor and are 1-4 in games he doesn\u2019t play overall.<\/p>\n

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On the season, Booker is averaging 25.4 points, 6.2 assists, and four rebounds per game on .456\/.313\/.864 shooting splits.<\/p>\n

The Cavs conclude their five-game roadtrip on Feb. 9 against the Denver Nuggets. Whether or not Nikola Jokic will be back in time for that game remains to be seen. He hasn\u2019t played since injuring his knee in December, but resumed on-court workouts two weeks ago<\/a>. The initial four-week reevaluation period has already passed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No matter who is in the lineup, this upcoming stretch will be difficult for the Cavs. We\u2019ll see how the Cavs handle it in the coming week, after they host LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers\u2018 good basketball will be put to the test as they\u2019re set to be without Evan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[208,7,193,187,2292,864,576,938,185,150,6,253,472,6445,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-565135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","11":"tag-denver-nuggets","12":"tag-devin-booker","13":"tag-donovan-mitchell","14":"tag-evan-mobley","15":"tag-kevin-durant","16":"tag-lebron-james","17":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nikola-jokic","20":"tag-phoenix-suns","21":"tag-the-suns","22":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115969910723190776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}