Darius Garland out against Heat with toe injury. What’s next?

The Cleveland Cavaliers issued by Darius Garland injury update on Tuesday morning. He aggravated a left toe injury in Monday night’s loss to the Miami Heat and was unable to finish the game, leaving midway through the third quarter. Fortunately for the wine and gold, Garland only suffered a bruise.

In a team press release, the Cavs announced that Garland suffered a major contusion to his left toe when he made contact with Heat forward Nikola Jovic during a drive to the basket. He was evaluated after the game and the next morning.

The Cavs announced that he and several other members of the team will miss Wednesday’s rematch with the Heat.

“Garland will receive daily treatment and continue with the established management plan post-surgery,” the team said. “He is listed as OUT for tonight’s game in Miami and his availability to return to play will be updated as needed.”

Seeing how he reacted on the floor the other night, this update is like as positive as it gets for Cleveland and its fan base. Garland simply had a minor setback in his third game back.

“This is all part of progress; progress is not linear,” Donovan Mitchell said Monday night. “You’re going to have days where you feel great, and you’re going to have moments like this. The biggest thing is how we can keep moving forward and stay with her, stay with our routine and not get drained. But in those moments, I know it’s hard. It sucks, man. It’s hard to see, to see all the effort he put into it.”

In addition to Garland, Cleveland decided to rest Mitchell and Evan Mobley because of the minute workload each had on Monday, in addition to Wednesday’s tilt being the first night of back-to-back home runs. The Toronto Raptors will be waiting at Rocket Arena at 7pm ET on Thursday.

The Cavs will need to move forward in the short term with Lonzo Ball, Craig Porter Jr. and rookie Tyrese Proctor picking up their teammate. How long this will last has not yet been determined; knowing Kenny Atkinson and his performance staff, they could handle this as delicately as possible.

The fact that there was no re-injury to Garland means the franchise dodged a bullet – and can breathe a sigh of relief.