Ricky Rubio tore his ACL in December of last year, and when a player clears the one-year anniversary of an ACL tear it’s reasonable to start expecting a return. Rubio predicted before the season a December return, but also made clear he wasn’t going to rush things and would listen to the doctors.
That December goal looks like it will fall through, but not by much. Kelsey Russo of The Athletic reported yesterday that Rubio is expected back very soon. She quoted Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff:
#Cavs J.B. Bickerstaff on Ricky Rubio’s progression: “I would expect him, if things go the right way, sometime early next month. So we're definitely progressing in the right direction.”
— Kelsey Russo (@kelseyyrusso) December 27, 2022
Rubio returning would be another boost to the Cavs’ rotation, excising Raul Neto completely and building in protections for any game that Donovan Mitchell or Darius Garland miss. Dan Gilinsky looked into some lineups the Cavs can deploy when Rubio returns.
More Cavs news
Donovan Mitchell is averaging 28.5 points per game, a career-best number for the sixth-year guard. Darius Garland is averaging 21.4 points per game, just a shade off of the 21.7 he averaged last season. That gives the Cavs a pair of 20-point scorers for the first time since 2016-17 when both LeBron James and Kyrie Irving did so.
That undersells how rare of a feat this is, however. LeBron and Kyrie both averaged 20 points (and played enough games to qualify) twice. Otherwise, the only other season in franchise history with a pair of 20-point scorers was when Lenny Wilkens and Austin Carr both cleared the threshold in 1972-73, the team’s third season of existence. The Cavs have never had a trio of 20-point scorers.
Also, check out John Suchan’s latest over on the site, as he broke down three reasons why the Cavaliers have struggled against the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Are any of the reasons solvable?
NBA news
Other games happened, including the Washington Wizards snapping the Philadelphia 76ers’ winning streak and the Los Angeles Lakers breaking their own losing streak, but the night belonged to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. Trailing by nine points against the New York Knicks with 26.8 points to go, the Knicks pulled off a miracle to tie the game and prevail in overtime.
NBA teams were 0-13,884 in the last 20 seasons when trailing by at least nine with 35 or fewer seconds remaining, per @ESPNStatsInfo.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) December 28, 2022
Luka Doncic and the Mavs pulled off a miracle.
Luka Doncic willed his team to victory with an all-time performance, scoring 60 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists. That was a career-high in scoring and rebounding for Doncic, the most points in a game in Mavericks franchise history, and tied James Harden for the most points in a triple-double in NBA history. Check out ESPN’s Tim MacMahon for more on the historic night.
Coming up: A softer stretch in the schedule opens up, with three games against below-average Eastern teams before tangoing with the West again.