Report: Darius Garland is ‘truly hurt’ after trying to play in 1st round and coming away with ‘worse’ injury

The second round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs has been nothing short of a disaster for the Cleveland Cavaliers so far. Not only did Cleveland lose Games 1 and 2 to the Indiana Pacers at Rocket Arena, but the team has been hit hard by the injury bug in this round.

Big man Evan Mobley and forward De’Andre Hunter were sidelined for Game 2, and guard Darius Garland hasn’t played yet in this series thanks to a toe injury.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst recently provided a reality check on Garland’s injury. According to him, Garland is “truly hurt” after he tried to play in Cleveland’s first-round playoff series against the Miami Heat, which the Cavaliers won in a sweep.

“Darius Garland is truly hurt,” Windhorst said. “I know that it’s difficult to process because the Cavs keep calling him questionable. Clearly he’s been out. He has not been close to playing. They still have — we’re doing this on Thursday morning — they still have 36 hours or so to the game. We’ll see. I think it’s gonna be — there’s a treatment thing, and they’ll see.

“I know that that’s extraordinarily frustrating for Cavs fans, but I would just say Darius Garland had this injury at the end of the regular season. They gave him a couple of days off. They brought him back for the playoffs and played because what you’re supposed to do, right, is play in the playoffs ’cause you play in the playoffs. And then he was reinjured. They didn’t hold him out because they were super conservative with injury. He played, and he was reinjured, and the injury is worse.”

Garland was maybe the Cavaliers’ second-best offensive player in the regular season behind only fellow star guard Donovan Mitchell, as he averaged 20.6 points and 6.7 assists per game across 75 contests played. He also scored the ball with great efficiency, as he shot a career-high 47.2 percent from the field to go along with 40.1 percent shooting from 3-point range.

During the season, he was named an All-Star for just the second time in his pro career. Garland earned his first All-Star appearance in the 2021-22 season, and he averaged a career-high 21.7 points per game that campaign.

There seems to be a chance that the Cavaliers will have to fight to keep their season alive away from home without Garland, as Game 3 is on Friday, and another loss for Cleveland would put the team in a possibly insurmountable hole.

An NBA team has yet to rally from a 3-0 series deficit to advance, and a second-round exit would be quite the disappointing end to a season filled with title hopes for the Cavaliers. After all, Cleveland won 64 games in the regular season and was the team everyone else was chasing in the Eastern Conference standings.

Regardless of whether Garland will suit up for the Cavaliers in Game 3 or not, it should be interesting to see how they respond with their backs against the wall. Cleveland can maybe get back in the series with a victory on Friday.