Cavs All-Star Donovan Mitchell out for Game 4 with calf strain

CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell will not play Game 4 against the Boston Celtics due to a left calf strain suffered in a Game 3 loss Saturday night.

“Just the other night in the game towards the back end of that fourth quarter, it just started to build on him and just became sore,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of the injury.

Mitchell, who did not participate in shootaround Monday morning, is averaging 29.6 points per game in the playoffs for the Cavs while the supporting cast has struggled when he is not on the floor.

“Everybody's going to have to tick up a little bit,” Bickerstaff said. “Not one person obviously is going to replace what Donovan does for us, but everybody's just got to tick up. Whatever their strength is, whatever their skillset is, they got to go out and be the most confident version of themselves tonight. But again, we'll always do it together.”

Caris LeVert will start in place of Mitchell and Darius Garland will be expected to carry the backcourt.

“It's all my responsibility,” Garland said. “I'm the leader of the floor, so just have to take control, be aggressive, make the right play, and just try to get downhill. Like I said, just be aggressive and make the right play, make the extra pass and on the defensive end just keep communicating, maintain the ball and just try to drive to some of our bigs.”

For the second time in his career, Mitchell has scored 180-plus points on at least 50% shooting and at least 20 three-pointers over a 5-game span in the postseason, and he’s the first in NBA history to accomplish the feat.

Cleveland will also be without center Jarrett Allen, who has been sidelined since Game 4 against the Magic with bruised ribs marking his seventh straight missed playoff game.

Allen shot some free throws and did a light workout Monday morning during shootaround, similar to what he did Saturday prior to Game 3.

“Obviously with what he's going through, everybody's body heals and feels differently and the pain moves in different ways,” Bickerstaff said. “And if he wakes up and feels like he can go, then he's going to go and every day for a while now he's been trying to go and trying to do more. So we just genuinely don't know when that day's going to come. And then a lot of that is the stuff that you have to go through the league and what you label guys. So I think that's part of the reason why he's been questionable.”

Boston leads the best of seven conference semifinal series 2-1.