CLEVELAND, Ohio — With injuries piling up across the roster, the Cavs will gladly take some positive news. They regain another ball handler as Craig Porter Jr. returns from a three-game absence caused by a hamstring strain.
Cleveland will need every healthy body it can get. The Cavs open a back-to-back against the Boston Celtics on Sunday before heading to Indiana for a quick one-game trip, and the availability of Darius Garland and Lonzo Ball for that second leg remains uncertain.
For now, the focus is squarely on Boston. The Cavs will be without Jarrett Allen (finger), Lonzo Ball (injury management), Sam Merrill (hand), Larry Nance Jr. (calf) and Max Strus (foot).
Through the first 20 games, this group barely resembles the one that stormed through last year’s regular season.
“Every season’s different,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said pregame. “We were blessed with almost perfect health last year, and this year is different. And you just gotta manage it differently. Everything. You’ll manage your lineups differently. You manage practices differently. ... It makes it more challenging. There’s no doubt. I felt last year we were just running the same lineup, same rotations. You get on this rhythm, and that’s how you get momentum. This has been a little jagged and therefore clunky. And we just kind of feel like we gotta embrace it.
“...Last year was not reality in terms of teams just don’t stay that healthy.”
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Cleveland, now 12-8 and sixth in the Eastern Conference, is still navigating what this version of the roster looks like under constant lineup pressure.
Atkinson has leaned into offensive tweaks and defensive adjustments tailored to whoever is available, searching for ways to highlight strengths and cover flaws on the fly.
“We have good habits,” Atkinson said. “Everything we’ve asked, the tweaks we’ve asked, I think our guys have executed pretty well.”
On Sunday, the Cavs will again rely on a committee approach, giving three young players another chance to prove they can impact a game at NBA speed against a Celtics team that rarely takes its foot off the gas, regardless of whether the opposition is fully healthy or limping in with one leg.
Cleveland will still look to All-NBA Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley to anchor both ends, but the early season has been about finding the right balance between star power and reliable depth. It’s an ongoing process meant to ensure the entire rotation is ready when the postseason arrives in a few months, especially if the injury turbulence continues.