{"id":707099,"date":"2026-04-10T03:45:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T03:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707099\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T03:45:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T03:45:35","slug":"cavs-to-be-without-several-key-players-in-rematch-with-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/707099\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs to be without several key players in rematch with Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> are balancing getting reps together before the playoffs and trying to go into the postseason completely healthy. On Wednesday, that meant playing all available players<\/a> in a game that doesn\u2019t have too much significance for the Cavs in the standings. On Friday, that means resting several key players in their rematch with the Atlanta Hawks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cavs will be without the services of Donovan Mitchell (right ankle injury management), Jarrett Allen (right knee injury management), and Sam Merrill (left hamstring injury management). This is in addition to Thomas Bryant missing the game with a left calf strain.<\/p>\n

Cleveland didn\u2019t go with a vanilla game plan in their win on Wednesday. There\u2019s reason to believe they\u2019ll go for it again, just with fewer key contributors available.<\/p>\n

No one is 100% at this time of the season, but it is fair to point out that Allen and Merrill have been playing through injuries recently.<\/p>\n

Allen hasn\u2019t looked like himself since returning to the lineup from a knee injury that kept him out for a few weeks. He mentioned after his return to the lineup from that injury that he was playing through some pain<\/a>. Given how important he is to the Cavs\u2019 playoff ceiling, it would make sense to rest him until the playoffs begin next weekend.<\/p>\n

Merrill has also been fighting through various injuries throughout the season. The hamstring injury is just the one listed on the injury report right now.<\/p>\n

Whether or not Mitchell is as injured as the other two is unknown. He twisted his ankle on Sunday in the win over the Indiana Pacers, but has since denied that he was injured in any way. Resting a star player for a game like this makes sense. I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s worth reading into too much.<\/p>\n

The Cavs do have some good news on the injury front. Jaylon Tyson has been upgraded to questionable. He could make his return to the lineup on Friday. On Wednesday, head coach Kenny Atkinson said that the reason he wasn\u2019t playing then was more related to conditioning than any concerns about the toe.<\/p>\n

The Hawks will be fully healthy, except for Jock Landale, who will miss the game with a right high ankle sprain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers are balancing getting reps together before the playoffs and trying to go into the postseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,148,677,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-707099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-cavs-injury-report","13":"tag-hawks","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116378360756728457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707099","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=707099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}