MIAMI — About 30 minutes after the final buzzer sounded, the Cavs were still trying to find the proper words to summarize an absurd basketball game.
Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson got ejected in the third quarter for verbally berating the three-person officiating crew — Scott Foster, Jenna Schroeder and Sean Corbin — over what Atkinson believed was a one-sided whistle.
Second-year forward Jaylon Tyson split a pair of late-game free throws that breathed life into Miami, allowing it to tie the game with 7.1 seconds remaining — and then send it into overtime.
Donovan Mitchell, who had his nose bloodied at one point in the second half, nearly ripped Miami’s hearts out with a clutch 3-point dagger that pulled Cleveland back even near the end of OT — only for the Heat to follow with a game-winning, buzzer-beating alley-oop dunk.
And, yet all of that is an afterthought.
Darius Garland’s injured toe is all that matters. Yes, _that_ toe, the one Garland had surgery on five months ago.
“I haven’t gotten an update yet,” Atkinson said following the 140-138 overtime loss to the Heat. “Obviously, he couldn’t continue.”
Garland was not made available to the media postgame.
After showering and getting dressed, Garland went to the trainer’s room for further evaluation. He will meet with team doctors again Tuesday morning.
For now, it’s being called a left great toe injury — the same toe Garland originally injured last spring, near the end of Game 2 against the Heat, which caused Garland to miss the final two games in Round One and then two more in the conference semifinals. The same toe that cost Garland the first seven games this season while recovering from summer surgery.
“Just hope he is OK,” Evan Mobley said. “That’s the main thing going through my head. Just hope he is OK.”
“I felt for him,” De’Andre Hunter added when asked about seeing Garland leave the court in pain. “Any athlete who has dealt with injuries knows how that feels to rehab and come back and feel good and then for a split second when you go back to how you were feeling, it’s terrible. I’m just hoping the best for him and hoping he is not out too long.”
Around the two-minute mark of the second quarter, Garland came up hobbling after awkward step on a drive to the basket that sent him to the floor. As the whistle blew, with Garland earning a pair of free throws, he remained on the hardwood for a few seconds, reaching for his foot and pounding the ground in frustration. He gathered himself, gingerly got up, shook off the pain, made both freebies and stayed in the game.
But Garland kept limping and eventually got taken out, retreating toward the locker room with a minute left until halftime.
He returned for the start of the second half. Played the first five-plus minutes without issue. But then removed himself with a purposeful take foul.
Garland exited the court in agony — his second trip to the locker room. This time, he never came back.
“There were a couple times where he was limping, and you have to defer to the player,” Atkinson said following the game when asked why Garland wasn’t shut down at the first sign of trouble. “I have a good trust with Darius. He plays through a lot, so I kind of kept him out there. Maybe I should have pulled him earlier, but I trust him with good communication. It got to the point where he had to get the foul to stop the play and we got him out.”
Garland finished with 11 points on 2 of 9 shooting. He logged just 19 minutes.
“I came back here with him and I said, ‘Hey, this is part of it.’ I’d rather this happen today than in four or five months,” Mitchell explained. “It’s easy for us to sit here and say he’ll be fine, and he’s not trying to hear that, but at the end of the day, there’s gonna be setbacks. Progress isn’t linear. You’re going to have days where you feel ready and there’s gonna be moments like this. The biggest thing is how can we continue to progress and stay with it? He’s fine, he’s in good spirits. In those moments, I know it’s tough. It sucks. And it’s tough for us as a group.
“He’ll be good. It’s November. We have a long ways to go. Whether it’s long term, short term, whatever it is, we’ll deal with it. I don’t know. At the end of the day, he puts the work in, so he’ll be back and he’ll be better than ever.”
The question is when.
The Cavs were considering a Tuesday afternoon practice at Miami’s Kaseya Center, but it will be a recovery day instead. Their next game is Wednesday night — the second straight in Miami against the Heat.
Will Garland be available? What does this setback mean? How long might he be out?
As the Cavs left Miami late Monday night, there was palpable concern.
The organization is left holding its breath — again.
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