East Notes: Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton, Cavs, Donovan Mitchell, Wizards

Pacers

Point guard Tyrese Haliburton was a full participant in practice and could make his return on Thursday vs. the Lakers, per Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files.

Haliburton has been sidelined for about three weeks since suffering a mild left knee bone contusion and a left elbow sprain against the Knicks on Jan. 11. The Pacers, of course, have struggled mightily in his absence.

“I’m aiming to play on Thursday,” Haliburton said, via Agness. “That’s my goal.”

That said, he will still need to receive clearance from the Pacers’ medical team before anything is official.

“I’m not the deciding factor,” Haliburton said. “If it was up to me, I’d tell you I’m for sure playing Thursday. Obviously, I got to be smart about long-term things. That’s why the staff and our great training staff, they’re here to protect me from myself sometimes. As long as practice goes well and I feel good the next couple of days, I’ll be good to go Thursday.”

• As we relayed here, the Pacers are among the teams linked to Raptors forward OG Anunoby, a former Indiana Hoosier. He was selected by the Raptors with the No. 23 overall pick in 2017.

Cavaliers

Star guard Donovan Mitchell said consistency will be the key if the Cavaliers are to go from good to great.

“We are kind of inconsistent,” Mitchell said, via Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “I don’t want that to be the headline. I want it to be known that the sky is not falling. We are in good shape. But we have to find that level of consistency to be a great team.”

Coach J.B. Bickerstaff echoed those sentiments.

“We have seen flashes of how good we can be. We’ve seen flashes of how we can control moments and now it’s just a matter of how long can you sustain it?” he said, via Fedor. “Nobody plays a perfect game. Never seen a team play a perfect 48. But can you get to 40 minutes where you play at your best? And then you work yourself up.”

• The Cavs have been active in trade talks and seem to be dangling small forward Cedi Osman, along with perhaps several others. We have that full post here.
• We discussed more trade rumors on the latest Cavs on the Break Podcast, where I theorized the contract of Kevin Love could serve as a surprising trade chip at the deadline. You can listen to the full pod right here.

Wizards

• Josh Robbins of The Athletic proposed some Wizards deadline moves, including a hypothetical trade of star guard Bradley Beal to the 76ers, and another to the Lakers. He also receives feedback from other writers. Check it out right here.
• The Wizards’ game at Detroit on Wednesday has been postponed because of travel issues for the Pistons. We have that full post here.
• For more Wizards news and rumors, check out this post, or visit our Wizards page.