Plenty of Cleveland Cavaliers fans held their breath after point guard Darius Garland left in the third quarter of Monday’s loss to the Miami Heat with an injury. He re-injured a toe on his left foot, and he missed the team’s first seven games of this season to recover from surgery on that part of his body.
Garland has since been diagnosed with a toe contusion, and he will be sidelined for Cleveland’s second bout of the week against the Heat on Wednesday. It’s not clear when exactly he will take the court for the Cavaliers again, either.
“All-Star point guard Darius Garland, who left Monday’s 140-138 overtime loss against the Miami Heat early after re-injuring his surgically repaired toe, has been diagnosed with a contusion,” Chris Fedor wrote.
“Garland will not play Wednesday night in Miami. His status beyond that is uncertain, as he will receive daily treatment and continue with the already-established post-surgery management plan.”
But on the bright side, Garland’s injury diagnosis is allegedly believed to be the “best-case scenario.”
“Garland, who was not made available to the media postgame, met with team doctors Monday and Tuesday,” he wrote. “That further evaluation revealed a contusion — the best-case scenario given what Garland has been through the last five months.”
Garland hardly had any time to get his feet wet with the Cavaliers before the injury bug came back to bite him once again. He made his season debut just a week ago on Nov. 5 and played in just three games. He showed off a lot of rust in two of those contests. In the games against the Philadelphia 76ers and Heat, he combined to shoot just 5-of-20 from the field and 3-of-10 from 3-point range.
He also had a game against Washington where he shot 7-for-16 from the field and and 4-for-9 from deep, finishing with 20 points.
Practically as soon as the Cavaliers’ “core four” was at full strength, one of the quartet is back on the shelf. Garland hasn’t been able to catch a break when it comes to injuries in recent months, and that’s a concerning sign considering how important he is to Cleveland’s title hopes.
He’s probably the Cavaliers’ second-best offensive player behind only guard Donovan Mitchell, and when he’s at the top of his game, their offensive attack is a different level of lethal. Garland was phenomenal for the Cavs as a scorer and playmaker in the 2024-25 regular season and a big reason why they obtained the No. 1 seed in the East with 64 wins.
With any luck, Monday’s injury will mark the end of a spell of poor injury luck for Garland, and he will have a clean bill of health for the rest of the regular season and the entirety of the 2026 NBA Playoffs.