This Needs To Stop Happening To Darius Garland
The injury bug is making its way around the NBA right now and the Cavs are no exception. Kevin Love is working through a hairline fracture in his thumb, Caris LeVert has an ankle injury and Dean Wade is working his way back from a knee injury.
The last thing they need to do is to lose another one of their players to an injury. Let alone a start and All-Star. However, Cleveland is walking on very thin ice with the number of times Darius Garland continues to get hit in the face this year.
Garland missed six games at the very beginning of the season after he received a cut on the inside of his eyelid during the season opener. Since his return, DG keeps taking shots to the face from opposing players.
The latest example of this was on Monday night against the Atlanta Hawks:
After this latest blow, Garland stayed on the ground for a minute before eventually walking off. He did come back into the game to everyone's sigh of relief.
None of these plays have clearly been the purpose or have evidence of being malicious, but it's still happening a lot more than it should. At what point do the referees start calling flagrant fouls for these shots to the face purely to protect the player? That's what a flagrant one-foul is there for.
DG joked around saying, "I'm tired of getting hit in my face. It's alright, I'm not blind. I get hit in my eye almost every game now so I'm used to it at this point."
Thankfully, these blows don't seem to be affecting Garland's play whatsoever. In his last four games, he's averaging 35 PPG, 6.8 APG, while shooting 56 percent from behind the arc.
Still, it's concerning that this happens over and over again. Let's hope it doesn't become a theme for the rest of the season.
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