Donovan Mitchell was dealing with something very serious

After being sidelined for four games due to an illness, Donovan Mitchell finally made his return on Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks. Despite the Cleveland Cavaliers falling short, Mitchell was still able to drop 34 points and dish out nine assists.

After the game, Mitchell spoke to the media, saying that he spent four days in bed while sick, as per Right Down Euclid’s Jackson Flickinger. Even though the four-time All-Star states that he “feels better than expected”, there was still a bit of cough on Mitchell’s end as he talked postgame.

The Cavs’ depleted lineup

While Mitchell may be back from sickness, he’ll have to push through without Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and a number of other players in the meantime. Garland is recovering from a broken jaw suffered on December 14. Mobley, on the other hand, is out for 6-8 weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee shortly after Garland went down with his injury.

Without the Cavs’ second and third-leading scorer, Caris LeVert, Max Strus and Jarett Allen are all expected to step up and increase their scoring output to help Mitchell on the offensive end.

However, despite all the said players dealing with injuries, the Cavs have shown fight, winning three out of the four games wherein Mitchell was ill. LeVert tallied 29 points previously against the Dallas Mavericks while Strus also had a big outing two games prior with 26 points.

At the moment, the Cavs sit in sixth place in the Eastern Conference. With Donovan Mitchell back in action, the team can expect the wins to accumulate much easier than they did the past week, as good as the results were.