Cavaliers Provide Update On Darius Garland

Garland left Wednesday night's season opener with an eye injury

The Cleveland Cavaliers announced on Thursday evening that point guard Darius Garland sustained no structural damage to his left eye and his injury won’t require surgery. There is still no timeframe for his return to the lineup and his status for Saturday night’s tipoff against the Chicago Bulls.

Garland left the Cavaliers 108-105 loss to the Toronto Raptors in the second quarter after he was inadvertently poked in the eye by Toronto's Gary Trent Jr. The Cavs guard laid on the floor in front of the Raptors' bench for several minutes and was surrounded by teammates. 

Shortly after Garland left, the Cavs' announced Garland was being evaluated with a left eye injury and would not return. 

Garland left with 3:51 to play in the second quarter. Until his exit, he played 13 minutes and was 2-of-8 shooting with four points and three assists before departing the game.

Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said he spoke with Garland via text message and that his DG is understandably frustrated with the injury. 

"It does not look pretty," Bickerstaff said. "When you take a cut, right in that inner part of the eyelid and the eye. The eye is swollen. Bloodshot on the eyeball. We just hope he gets better and relieve the pain so he's not going through that."

Bickerstaff said his eye is shut but Garland wasn't experiencing any adverse vision problems. They are 

"We'll prepare for that just because we spent all of training camp and preseason preparing with him so we know what we need to do if that's the case," Bickerstaff said. "We haven't spent any time without him, so we'll spend time preparing as if he's not going to play."

Moving forward, Bickerstaff said they will like shorten the length of Donovan Mitchell's reps and his rest in Garland's absence. The coach said he didn't give any consideration on playing Mitchell the entire second half despite Mitchell scoring 31 points in 34 minutes

"What we are asking him to do on both ends of the floor, it would have been unfair to put him in that type of position," Bickerstaff said. "He's committed himself to playing hard on the defensive end of the floor and taking on individual challenges. It's not fair to ask anyone to carry that type of load, this early in the season."

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