The Cleveland Cavaliers just got some bad news about one of their players and this time, it has nothing to do with soup.
Tristan Thompson, the team’s center who recently was re-inserted into the starting lineup, will miss “multiple games” due to a sprained ankle he sustained on Saturday, per Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.
Apparently, Thompson stepped on someone’s foot during the team’s loss to the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. He kept playing but it swelled up overnight, causing the team to announce that will be out.
This news is quite a big blow to the Cavaliers. Thompson is arguably the team’s best defender, and putting him back in their starting lineup definitely helped things before and after the trade deadline.
With only about 20 games left for all the teams in the NBA, the Cavaliers need to be as healthy as possible for this stretch run if they want to be playing strong going into the postseason. Aside from Kevin Love, the Cavaliers were doing a relatively good job of doing just that.
But now, the Cavaliers have two of their most important players out. Love is on his way back, but it will take him some time to get back into the swing of things after missing so much time on the court.
As for Thompson, ankle injuries are always somewhat tricky to manage. It does not make sense for him to come back to early, as he could re-aggravate the injury and miss even more time than originally thought.
The Cavaliers have to hope that Thompson is not out for too long and that he can come back with a few games left in the regular season.