Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland will miss Friday’s home opener against Oklahoma City with a left hamstring strain, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff previously called Garland “very questionable,” tweets Thunder sideline reporter Nick Gallo.
According to Fedor, Garland didn’t participate in the team’s shootaround on Friday morning, and the Cavs decided to take a cautious approach with the 2021/22 All-Star.
Garland will be Cleveland’s second starter sitting out, as Jarrett Allen continues to deal with a left ankle bone bruise. The 25-year-old center is expected to miss Saturday’s back-to-back against Indiana as well, Fedor writes.
The Cavs are hopeful that Allen will make his 2023/24 season debut on Tuesday against the Knicks, sources tell Fedor. Isaac Okoro and Dean Wade, who missed Cleveland’s first game with an illness, will start in place of Garland and Allen.
Here are a few more injury notes:
- Nets big man Nic Claxton has a left ankle sprain and is out for Friday’s game at Dallas, tweets Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Brooklyn’s starting center will be a free agent next summer — he’s on an expiring $9.6MM contract. According to Lewis (Twitter link), head coach Jacque Vaughn said Claxton is day-to-day.
- Nets forward Cameron Johnson will also be in street clothes on Friday, having been downgraded from questionable to out with a left calf contusion (Twitter links via Lewis). Vaughn said the team is just being cautious with Johnson, who re-signed with Brooklyn on a four-year, $90MM+ contract this summer. It’s worth noting that Johnson missed all of training camp and preseason with a mild left hamstring strain, though he did start and play 26 minutes in Wednesday’s opener vs. Cleveland.
- The Heat will be shorthanded again on Friday at Boston, with Caleb Martin (knee) the latest wing player sidelined (Twitter link via the team). Josh Richardson (foot) and Haywood Highsmith (knee) didn’t travel with Miami on its three-game road trip, as we previously relayed. On Tuesday, Martin said his knee still wasn’t 100%, calling the injury “a work in progress.” He played 20 minutes in Wednesday’s opener vs. Detroit.
Is it just me, or does there seem to be a heck of alot more injuries to start the season than normal this year?
Idk, maybe every team is just being reported on more closely, or I’m just paying more attention to all the other team’s cause the Bulls are likely to be stuck in NBA purgatory once again..
What do you guys think?
Teams can’t hold out star players for rest anymore so whenever they want to “rest” a star, they come up with a small nagging injury to avoid the fine
I could definitely understand that being a thing this season, but this is the very beginning of the year.
I doubt they’d be starting that nonsense this early on. Plus, for several of the injuries so far, it has been predominantly role players and not necessarily team’s bigger stars that have been missing time.
Either way, I definitely think, like you said, teams are for sure going to be playing up some bumps and bruises to help their players get their extra rest.
That is a good point, and I’m really curious to see how it all plays out. I wonder if that is going to become a bigger story and an issue as the season continues on and especially as the season comes to a close.
Bro the season literally
Just started what are they holding them out for? And none of these players that are hurt, are even stars.
Per the new rule, the definition of a star is anyone who has mad an all star or nba team in the last 3 years. Meaning the Cavs have 3 (Mitchell, Garland, Allen) none of which played Saturday against the pacers