{"id":625464,"date":"2026-02-26T06:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T06:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/625464\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T06:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T06:04:27","slug":"cavaliers-star-james-harden-being-evaluated-after-sustaining-fractured-right-thumb-in-win-over-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/625464\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavaliers star James Harden being evaluated after sustaining fractured right thumb in win over Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Cavaliers made one of the <a data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/article\/james-harden-darius-garland-trade-is-the-cavaliers-big-swing-all-about-donovan-mitchell-192959448.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:more impactful moves at the NBA trade deadline;cpos:1;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">more impactful moves at the NBA trade deadline<\/a>, acquiring 11-time All-Star James Harden from the Los Angeles Clippers. Harden&#8217;s time in Cleveland, however, has already hit a snag, as the guard suffered a fractured right thumb during the team&#8217;s win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The injury was discovered <a data-i13n=\"cpos:2;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nba\/new-york-knicks-cleveland-cavaliers-2026022405\/\" data-ylk=\"slk:after Tuesday&#039;s 109-94 win over the Knicks;cpos:2;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">after Tuesday&#8217;s 109-94 win over the Knicks<\/a>. The team&#8217;s medical staff did an initial examination on Harden before sending him for X-rays Monday, which revealed the extent of the injury.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Harden, who shoots left-handed, is undergoing further evaluation and is listed as questionable for Wednesday&#8217;s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, the team announced.<\/p>\n<p>The news comes a day after Harden scored 20 points and played 32 minutes during the contest. It&#8217;s unclear when he sustained the injury.<\/p>\n<p>Harden has seen a slight decline in his numbers since joining the Cavaliers, and is averaging 18.9 points with his new team. While he hasn&#8217;t been the same scoring threat in Cleveland just yet, the team has played well since bringing him on board. The Cavaliers have gone 6-1 since the trade, and are tied for third place in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The 36-year-old Harden reportedly intends to play through the injury, per ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania. Harden will not undergo surgery on the thumb, and will try and gut it out, potentially wearing a wrap on his injured thumb.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s unclear whether Harden will miss time due to the issue. It&#8217;s possible he could sit out Wednesday&#8217;s game against the Bucks, but it sounds like he has the chance to <a data-i13n=\"cpos:3;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/2026764972424917484\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:return to the court soon;cpos:3;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">return to the court soon<\/a>, per Charania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers made one of the more impactful moves at the NBA trade deadline, acquiring 11-time All-Star&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,193,560,304,135,121,6,2828,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-625464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","10":"tag-james-harden","11":"tag-knicks","12":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","13":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nba-trade-deadline","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-knicks","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116135425876470832","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625464","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=625464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}