Status of Cavs’ Darius Garland TBD After Eye Injury

It’s hard to know how much time Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland will miss after suffering a left eye laceration in Wednesday’s season-opening loss to the Raptors.

But it didn’t look good.

“It’s tough to see him go down like that in a freak accident,” guard Donovan Mitchell said, via Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “That’s tough. Don’t know the full extent. Don’t have news for y’all. But he’s a fighter and he’s a competitor and he’s going to be back strong. The one thing about this group is we fought and competed. When one man goes down, the next guy is stepping up. I’m proud of the way this group responded.”

Garland suffered the injury in the first half when Raptors guard Gary Trent Jr. swiped to steal an inbounds pass, and accidentally got Garland’s eye instead.

Without Garland, the Cavs were unable to hold on to their lead, as the Raptors went on a 13-2 burst late in the fourth quarter in escaping with a 108-105 win.

Cavs center Jarrett Allen told Fedor that he thought Garland may have been “exaggerating” the pain at first.

“But then he wasn’t getting up, so I knew something was wrong. It looks like he got beat up,” Allen said, via Fedor.

Garland finished the night by playing just 13 minutes and scoring four points. Again, his eye was fairly swollen at the end of the night.

“His head and everything was clear,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said, via Kelsey Russo of The Athletic. “But he was cut and bleeding pretty bad from the inside of his eyelid.”

For related Dribbles on the Cavs’ opener, check out my column right here.

The Cavs return to action Saturday with a visit to the Bulls, then return to Cleveland for their home-opener Sunday vs. the Wizards.