Good foot, bad eye for Darius Garland

Darius Garland took part in the shooting session with goggles on the nose. Severely injured in the left eye during the first game of the season in Toronto, the Cavs point guard is close to a return but remains on the sidelines. While his team won against the Magic tonight, he missed his third game in a row.

Ahead of the game, JB Bickerstaff stressed that if his player continues to improve, his peripheral vision will be crucial in deciding when he can play again.

” We don’t want to put him in danger if things come from the side where he is touched, whether it’s a ball coming towards him, a defender, a screener. We don’t want to put him in that kind of situation because his eye is still swollen. We’re going to make sure he’s fully recovered before we send him to the field. », developed the trainer.

The latter specified that the leader will in all cases wear protection on his return. ” He will be protected, that’s for sure. You don’t want the cut itself to reopen, but you still have to protect the eye. The cut is inside his eyelid, but the swelling is in the eyelid and the top of the eye as well. […] I can’t tell you when the swelling will go down enough for him to play. »

In his absence, the Cavaliers have chained three straight victories and the newcomer, Donovan Mitchell, has clearly taken control of the attack of the team. Despite his small outing to 14 points (5/19 on shots) last night, the back has averaged 28.5 points and 7 assists since the start of the season. And Cleveland settled into second place in its conference.