Darius Garland could miss Game 4

The Cavs may be without Darius Garland as they look to complete the sweep on Monday.

The Cleveland Cavaliers were able to take care of the Miami Heat on Saturday in Game 3 without the help of Darius Garland. They may need to do so again if they look to keep this series from going back to Cleveland.

Garland is listed as questionable for Game 4 on Monday with a left great toe sprain. This is the same injury designation that kept him out of Saturday’s game and two late regular-season games.

The Cavaliers should be able to get past the Heat without Garland even if they were to drop Game 4. They have a significant talent advantage over the Heat that consistently showed through in Game 3, even though they were without Garland and Donovan Mitchell struggled to play up to his usual standards.

While that is the case in the first round, it won’t necessarily be so throughout the remainder of the playoffs. They will need Garland at 100% if they want to make it through the conference and a possible Eastern Conference Finals showdown with the Boston Celtics. Because of that, it’s better to play this safe for right now.

Fortunately, if the Cavs are able to wrap up this series in four, they would have a long break for Garland to recover. The Cavs would take on the winner of the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers series. Game 7 of that series is scheduled for Sunday, May 4. It may not go that far, but if it were, the Cavs wouldn’t start their second-round series until after that date.

The Cavs don’t have anyone else on the injury report besides Garland. Miami will still be without Kevin Love (personal) and Terry Rozier (ankle).