CLEVELAND -- Cavaliers coach JB Bickerstaff said Donovan Mitchell ultimately needed to get a platelet-rich plasma injection to treat a left knee bone bruise because after trying to play through the injury, it was clear the star guard wasn't himself.
"You're always obviously concerned, but we're confident these next steps will be the steps that are necessary [to get him healthy]," Bickerstaff said before Tuesday night's come-from-behind 105-104 win against the league-leading Boston Celtics. "It was one of those things where he was trying to play through it, but he just was hampered and you could see he couldn't explode, he couldn't move in certain directions because of the pain and how it was limited.
"I'm not a doctor, but from everything that I'm hearing, the time, the rest and the process should give him back to full strength."
The Cavaliers announced Monday that Mitchell had received the PRP injection in his knee and would miss at least three games: Tuesday's against Boston, Wednesday in Atlanta and Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Beyond that, it's unclear if Mitchell will miss any more, with Bickerstaff saying his return will be based on how his knee recovers and how quickly he regains the explosion.
"I don't like to overstep my bounds, but at the end of the third game or three games, they'll reevaluate him and then we'll make a decision from there," Bickerstaff said. "Again, I am hopeful. I do not expect this to be a long break. But we will always do what's best by our guys to make sure they're healthy."
Mitchell is amid an All-NBA-caliber season in his second year in Cleveland, averaging 28 points, 5.4 rebounds and a career-high 6.2 assists. But this injury puts him at risk of being ineligible to make an All-NBA team; after Friday, he already will have missed 16 games.
Players can miss a maximum of 17 games under the new player participation policy implemented this season to be eligible for most of the league's top individual honors, including MVP and All-NBA.
The injury issues for the Cavaliers, however, don't stop there. In addition to Mitchell, Cleveland on Tuesday was without guard Max Strus, who missed his first game of the season with a right knee strain.
Bickerstaff said Strus had been dealing with the injury for some time, but that he exacerbated it while going for a dunk against Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein on Sunday.
"We'll just have to wait and see, to be honest with you," Bickerstaff said. "It's something that he had been dealing with, and then the play the other night, when he tried to take off and dunk, it really bothered him. And it's Max, so if he misses a game, he's bothered by it.
"So it's something we just have to take our time with, and go from there."
Things then went from bad to worse during Tuesday's game, when forward Evan Mobley dunked the ball late in the third quarter, came down awkwardly on his left foot and immediately grabbed his ankle.
He walked to the bench with a heavy limp, left for the locker room a short time later and was quickly ruled out for the rest of the night.
"From what I saw in the replay quickly, he landed funny after the dunk and kind of stumbled and twisted his ankle," Bickerstaff said. "I haven't heard anything about X-rays or anything like that yet."