Inside the jam-packed, energetic Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse that was excited to see him again wearing a wine and gold gear, Darius Garland unleashed a flamethrower to flare up the Boston Celtics on their second meeting for five days.
Garland was back like he never left. After sustaining an eye injury that kept him out for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ five previous games, he went out to lead with a double-double showing of 29 points and 12 assists.
His comeback game can’t be more needed enough for the Cavs to take home a feisty 114-113 home win that fortifies their early reputation as a terrifying Eastern Conference foes – carving up a 6-1 card that just trails the unblemished record of the title heavyweight Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.
For Garland, he just willed his way to show out and repay what his teammates have carried upon his five-game absence.
“Just sitting over there and having to wait and just seeing everybody get loose warming up and going through full practice and stuff, it was just kind of aggravating,” Garland said, courtesy of cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor. “I tried to stay high. My teammates, they were winning. They was doing well, so I was happy about that. But I just wanted to be on the floor with them. I wanted to feel that energy.”
Garland had some plenty of reasons to be indebted. As he recovered from his nasty eye injury that required laceration, his teammates took a step up from the lead of Donovan Mitchell. It was no luck that they pulled up a perfect and gutsy 5-0 standing on his unavailability.
For Mitchell, he is just happy to share the court once again with his backcourt tandem and on the aggresiveness he displayed against the reigning East champions.
“It’s nice to have Darius Garland back, I will say that,” Donovan Mitchell said following the win. “He helped set the tone. I said, ‘Come out and just go.’ He said, ‘No, I’m going to pass.’ I ain’t going to say what I said, but I was like, ‘No. No.’ He came out like he’s been playing with us this whole stretch.”
“He was Darius,” head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said about Garland. “Coming back after not playing, not doing anything live until tonight, just speaks to his talent and his abilities.”
