Why Donovan Mitchell isn’t worried about Cavs backcourt partner Darius Garland’s injury

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Why Donovan Mitchell isn’t worried about Cavs backcourt partner Darius Garland’s injury

Spencer Davies, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Tue, Nov 11, 2025 ·

4 min read

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The post Why Donovan Mitchell isn't worried about Cavs backcourt partner Darius Garland's injury appeared first on ClutchPoints .

Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star guard Darius Garland was injured in Monday night's game against the Miami Heat . He was forced to miss the rest of the contest with a left toe injury that was evaluated postgame.

Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson, who was ejected in the third quarter, didn't have an update in his press conference. He isn't sure and can't confirm it, but assumes it is the same big toe Garland had surgery on this offseason .

Garland grimaced with a noticeable limp after a drive to the basket, where he drew a foul from Nikola Jovic with 2:08 left in the second quarter. Sam Merrill came in for him following another minute of play as he tried to tough it out.

"I came back here with him, and I said, 'Hey, this is a part of it. I'd rather this happen today than in four or five months.' This is all of a part of it," Donovan Mitchell said after the 140-138 overtime loss. "And it's easy for me to say that, right? It's easy for us to sit here and say, 'You'll be fine,' and he's not trying to hear that.

"But at the end of the day, there's gonna be setbacks. There's gonna be things that happen. It's not about him not working. I could see if he was upset because you didn't do the things necessary, but he's been in the gym, he's been working on himself. It's nothing to be worried about."

Atkinson shared that the medical staff consulted with the Cavs' point guard, who wanted to give it a go in the second half , but just couldn't continue. He intentionally wrapped up Andrew Wiggins midway through the third quarter and left the court to go to the locker room again.

While Cleveland's head coach initially considered shutting him down when the initial injury occurred, he stuck with Garland.

"There were a couple of times where he was limping," Atkinson said. "You have to defer to the player. I have a good trust with Darius. He plays through a lot, so I kind of kept him out there. Maybe I should've pulled him earlier, but I trust him. We have good communication. But then, it got to the point where he had to give the foul to stop the play, and we got him out."

"Just hope he's okay," Evan Mobley said. "That's the main thing going through my head, and then after that, just trying to finish the game as best we can."

Mitchell shared that Garland is "fine" and in good spirits, noting that it's early November and that there's a long way to go.

"This is all a part of the progress; progress isn't linear," Mitchell said. "You're gonna have days where you feel great, and you're gonna have moments like this. The biggest thing is how can we continue to progress and staying with it, staying with your routine and not getting deflated. But in those moments, I know it's tough. It sucks, man. It's tough to see, seeing all the work that he put into it."

Garland just returned to the fold last week to ignite the Cavs' offense . In the two games he played before Monday night, Cleveland has scored 132 and 148 points.

Depending on the findings of Garland's evaluation, this could be a brutal blow to the wine and gold. Cleveland is crossing its fingers for good news, as is the rest of the basketball world.

"I felt for him," De'Andre Hunter said. "Any athlete that has dealt with injuries knows how that feels to rehab and come back and feel good, and just for a split-second, you go back to how you were feeling, it's terrible. I'm just hoping the best for him and hoping he's not out for too long."

"Whether it's long-term, short-term, whatever it is, we'll deal with it," Mitchell added. "And we know who we have here to help lift who we are, while he may be out or may not be out, I don't know. But at the end of the day, he puts the work in, so he'll be back and he'll be better than ever."

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