After missing 19-straight games due to a calf injury, Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson finally made his return to the court, albeit playing in minimal minutes.
Against the Atlanta Hawks at home on Tuesday, Thompson came off the bench in the first half and spent just six minutes on the floor, during which he took zero shot attempts. He basically accomplished nothing, concluding his brief appearance with no rebounds, assists, blocks, nor steals. If anything, he had a plus-minus rating of -2 in the game. He also didn’t play in the second half because Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue wasn’t yet ready to give Tristan Thompson his usual workload, per Nikki Goel of ClutchPoints.
Thompson last played on Nov. 1, a 124-107 home loss to the Indiana Pacers, before being sidelined for over a month to recover from a left calf strain. Thompson is averaging 21.6 minutes per game, but based on Lue’s usage of the 6-foot-9 big man in the Hawks game, it looks like it’ll take some time before Thompson gets back to playing that many minutes.
For the meantime, Kevin Love will continue to do the heavy lifting in the Cavs’ frontcourt.
Tristan Thompson is averaging just 4.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game thus far this season.