Is Donovan Mitchell playing tonight? Cavs vs 76ers injury report [UPDATED]

The Cleveland Cavaliers spent the past few days in Charlotte, NC adding a few wins at the expense of the Charlotte Hornets. Now they speed back to Cleveland to face the Philadelphia 76ers in a critical game. Will they have their best player available for the contest?

Donovan Mitchell injury update (Updated March 15th)

As of 6:20 pm ET, Donovan Mitchell is expected to play. Jarrett Allen is OUT, while Ricky Rubio went from OUT to AVAILABLE in the course of the afternoon.

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As of midday on Wednesday, there is no official word on Donovan Mitchell‘s status for tonight’s game. He has dealt with a myriad of injuries in the past couple of weeks, from reaggravating his groin injury to hurting his fingers. Playing on the front end of a back-to-back last night, the Cavaliers elected to sit Mitchell and let him rest his various ailments.

It makes sense that the Cavs rested Mitchell last night in a winnable game (and they did win, 120-104 over the Hornets) in order to have him at full strength tonight. The official designation on the injury report for Mitchell was “finger – injury management” which sounds like a proactive move that won’t get in the way of Mitchell playing tonight.

That’s good news for the Cavaliers, as tonight is a key game. The Philadelphia 76ers are three games up on Cleveland in the standings; if there is any chance that the Cavs catch the Sixers for the 3-seed, they need to win this game. In doing so, they will tie the season series, pull within two games, and have the leg up on the conference record tiebreaker (the division record is still up in the air).

Having Mitchell will be vital; what about their star center?

Will the Cavaliers have Jarrett Allen tonight?

It’s never a good sign when a player is ruled out a day ahead of a game; that generally speaks to a long absence. Jarrett Allen was ruled out of Tuesday’s game in Charlotte on Monday due to an eye contusion.

However, the same caveat applies here as it did with Mitchell. The Cavs may have decided ahead of time to give Allen an extra day of rest before the big showdown with the 76ers. Allen is obviously important to any game, but the Cavs did manage to beat the 76ers without him earlier in the season.

If he’s not back tonight, however, the Cavs will need him back soon. They faltered down the stretch last season when he was out injured, and he is crucial to this team’s defensive identity.

The Cavaliers hope to have both Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen available for tonight’s game, especially against a Philadelphia 76ers team that should be fully healthy. The showdown will serve as a good barometer for the Cavs and the deciding factor in how the final few weeks go in the East.