The Cavs could be without key contributors for a little while longer.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, like every team at this time of the year, have been bitten by the injury bug. Dean Wade (knee), Caris LeVert (wrist), and Isaac Okoro (wrist) will be held out of Monday’s game against the Detroit Pistons. It will be the second straight game Wade was out, the fifth LeVert missed, and the sixth straight without Okoro.
Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson didn’t dive into too many specifics about the injuries, but he did give us a little more information than we had.
“[Wade’s injury] is more than day-to-day,” Atkinson said. “I’ll put it that way.”
More than day-to-day isn’t the most specific injury designation. Wade was injured in Friday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers when he banged his knee with Tyrese Maxey’s. It’s fair to assume that we won’t see Wade for at least a week.
We may however see LeVert sooner.
“That’s more day-to-day,” Atkinson said of LeVert. “These are opinions. I think it’s more day-to-day.”
The Cavaliers appear to be taking a cautious approach with their injured players after Okoro seemingly came back before he was ready. This was seen in how his shot, which was reliable at the start of the season, wasn’t there at all in the five games he played since the initial injury in mid-December.
“[LeVert is] still not feeling right,” Atkinson said. “The wrist is, it’s a little bit like [Okoro] with the shoulder. I think these are sensitive things when it comes to shooting the ball. And if a guy is just not feeling it, we err on the side of caution.”
The Cavs are in the midst of a busy part of their schedule. They have a back-to-back later this week as they take on the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday will be the start of another five games in seven days run.
The All-Star break begins after their game on Feb. 12 against the Toronto Raptors. We’ll see which of these injured players are able to make a return before the time off.