{"id":137357,"date":"2025-05-02T15:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T19:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=137357"},"modified":"2025-05-02T15:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T19:01:09","slug":"darius-garlands-injury-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/05\/02\/darius-garlands-injury-status\/","title":{"rendered":"Darius Garland\u2019s Injury Status Could Determine Cavaliers’ Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers are set to start their second-round playoff series<\/a> this Sunday. The Cavs are coming off a dominant sweep of the Miami Heat<\/a>, while the Pacers handled the hobbled Milwaukee Bucks in just five games. The Cavaliers are the better team, but as we\u2019ve learned, anything can happen in the NBA playoffs. Unfortunately, playoff injuries can often determine a team\u2019s fate in the postseason, and the Cavaliers are dealing with that right now. Darius Garland<\/a>, the Cavs\u2019 star point guard, has been dealing with a toe sprain that kept him out of the last two playoff games for Cleveland. With Game 1 quickly approaching, Garland\u2019s injury status could be a determining factor for both Game 1 and the series beyond.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Darius Garland\u2019s Injury Status Could Determine Cavaliers’\u00a0Future<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Garland\u2019s Toe Injury<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Garland was solid in the Cavs\u2019 first two games against the Heat in round one. He averaged 24 points, seven assists, and 2.5 rebounds in the Cavaliers\u2019 victories. At the end of Game 2, however, Garland re-aggravated his toe, an injury he suffered towards the end of the regular season. This kept him out of the next two Cavaliers\u2019 wins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The severity of Garland\u2019s toe injury is somewhat unclear. The Cavaliers likely didn\u2019t feel the need to push him for Games 3 and 4 against the Heat. They handled them quite easily without their All-Star guard. Now, Garland\u2019s injury status for Game 1 against the Pacers is in question, which could have huge ramifications.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Garland\u2019s injury status for Game 1 has yet to be officially revealed. However, there have been multiple quotes from teammates and coaches that have shed some light on whether we should expect to see Garland suit up for Game 1.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Coach Kenny Atkinson said<\/span><\/a> that Garland is \u201cDay to day right now. There\u2019s pain and all that. But the good thing when we watch him shooting right now, he\u2019s moving well\u201d. Garland\u2019s backcourt co-star, Donovan Mitchell<\/a>, added regarding Garland\u2019s status, \u201cIt\u2019s great that we took care of business in games three and four. Now he got some rest and he\u2019ll be back\u2026 Ideally, he\u2019ll be back on Sunday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Garland and the Cavaliers Moving Forward<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Unlike the Heat, the Cavaliers likely won\u2019t have the pleasure of playing things safe against the Pacers. If Garland is unable to suit up for Game 1, the Cavaliers will have their work cut out for them. The Pacers are a lot better than the Heat, and missing arguably your second-best player for a playoff game can put you down 0-1 easily.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Atkinson added regarding Garland\u2019s status for Game 1, \u201cI\u2019m not going to make a judgment either way\u2026 But sure, there\u2019s some concern there. I could see it go either way. I think it\u2019s something he\u2019s going to have to deal with, probably the rest of the playoffs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If the Garland is not 100% for the rest of the playoffs, the Cavaliers may have some major issues down the line. For Game 1 of this series, Garland’s status may not make or break them, but if Cleveland advances and has to face the Celtics at less than 100%, that is concerning. First, they have to get there, and that will start with Game 1 on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 David Richard-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers are set to start their second-round playoff series this Sunday. The Cavs are coming off a dominant sweep of the Miami Heat, while the Pacers handled the hobbled Milwaukee Bucks in just five games. The Cavaliers are the better team, but as we\u2019ve learned, anything can happen in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":137376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,9,11,62,3],"tags":[1937,900,236],"class_list":["post-137357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-cavaliers","category-pacers","category-nba","category-news","tag-darius-garland","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-kenny-atkinson"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137357"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137377,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137357\/revisions\/137377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}