James Harden's injury comes at dangerous time for Cavaliers

James Harden's injury comes at perilous time for Cleveland Cavaliers

If that timeline proves true for Harden, his absence will still come at an unfortunate time for the Cavaliers.

Five of Cleveland's next seven games are against teams in the top seven of the Eastern Conference, including two against the Detroit Pistons (42-14, first in Eastern Conference), as well as games against the Boston Celtics (38-19, second in Eastern Conference), Philadelphia 76ers (32-26, sixth in Eastern Conference) and Orlando Magic (31-26, seventh in Eastern Conference).

And while the Milwaukee Bucks (25-31, 11th in Eastern Conference) are without star Giannis Antetokounmpo for Wednesday's game, the Cavs announced guard Donovan Mitchell (groin) and center Evan Mobley (calf) won't play, either, leaving the team short-handed against an opponent it would otherwise be expected to handily defeat.

Harden has averaged 18.9 points and eight assists per game on 49.4/48.4/86.7 percent shooting splits for the Cavs since being acquired from the Los Angeles Clippers ahead of the 2026 trade deadline. Cleveland is 6-1 during the stretch, averaging 120.1 points per game.

It currently holds a 2.5 game lead over the Toronto Raptors (34-24, fifth in Eastern Conference) for a top-four seed and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, but with such a challenging upcoming slate of games, that number could soon shrink if Harden misses time. 

Mitchell, assuming his injury isn't severe, would once again have to shoulder the primary scoring responsibility, and he'll need to be better on three-pointers than he's been since Harden arrived. Over his past seven games, Mitchell is averaging 27 points per game but only shooting 26 percent from beyond the arc on 7.1 attempts per game, well below his rate before the stretch (38.1 percent).

The Cavs are fortunate that Harden's injury doesn't appear more serious, but it can still do enough damage. For a team that had found its stride, winning 13 of its past 15 games, the setback threatens to halt Cleveland's momentum.