Cavaliers get more bad injury news as Evan Mobley will be sidelined

The bad injury news just keeps rolling in for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Cavs have been undermanned all season. Darius Garland missed the start of the season due to the toe injury he suffered in last year’s postseason. Max Strus has yet to make his season debut. Jarrett Allen has missed extended time with a finger injury.

Now, Cavs forward Evan Mobley will be sidelined two to four weeks with a calf injury, the team announced on Saturday afternoon.

Mobley injured his left calf during Cleveland’s narrow victory against the Washington Wizards on Friday night. An MRI on Saturday revealed a Grade 1 strain. He will begin treatment immediately and is expected to miss up to one month.

So far this season, Mobley has only missed one game.

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— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) December 13, 2025

While Mobley has underwhelmed considering his fringe-MVP expectations coming into the season, the fifth-year power forward has been Donovan Mitchell’s most reliable option. Now, Mitchell will have to deal with even more roster uncertainty as the team moves forward.

The Cavs are 15-11, the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference. While it’s still early and the Cavs are just 5.5 games back from the No. 1 seeded Detroit Pistons, dealing with even more injury news is the last thing that the team wants to deal with.

Allen will be returning soon, as will Sam Merrill, who has been sidelined with a hand injury. Garland has been in and out of the lineup due to injury management and a minor setback on his toe.

Outside of Mitchell, the Cavaliers have struggled to find any consistency this year. Head coach Kenny Atkinson is not using injuries as an excuse, but he does seem increasingly fed up with how the team is underperforming.

Adding another injury to one of the team’s most readily-available options likely will not help things.

The Cavs want to be healthy in time for the postseason, but it will be important for the team to gel together ahead of the end of the regular season.

Mobley’s absence will mean Atkinson’s Cavs will continue to lean on inexperienced players and role players for significant minutes. Unfortunately, Larry Nance Jr. will not be an option as he’s sidelined with a calf strain of his own.

The Cavs have plenty of time to turn their season around. But they are going to want to accomplish that soon. Mobley’s return to action should hopefully come around the same time that Strus should be ready to make his season debut. Garland will have had several weeks in the lineup to be reacclimated by then. Hopefully Merrill will have returned as well.

Cleveland will be without the services of Mobley for Sunday afternoon’s meeting with the Charlotte Hornets at Rocket Arena.