Why Cleveland was just fined $250,000 for Darius Garland
The Cleveland Cavaliers lately they’ve been on the fight bus, continuing the brutal home run loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday evening. It was the second one strong game for Donovan Mitchell in this one, but as has often been the case this year, Cleveland won a rough game Darius Garland and some other key supporting cast members, dropped their record to 13-10 in 2025-26.
Garland hasn’t been able to put it together this year as he returns from injury, and the Cavs recently received some tough news regarding their pockets after the way they acted their peak availability at the end of November.
“The Cleveland Cavaliers have been fined $250,000 for violating the league’s Player Participation Policy,” ClutchPoints NBA insider Brett Siegel reported on X, formerly Twitter.
“The league says star player Darius Garland was able to play in one of their two games on Nov. 23 and 24, but the team did not make him available for their nationally televised game on Nov. 24 against Toronto,” he added.
The NBA really cracked down on players being available for nationally televised games to help their bottom line, and the Cavs didn’t seem to follow protocol when creating their lineups for that set of games. Garland instead played in the Cavs’ home win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 23, before making a nationally televised appearance against the Raptors the following night.
In the meantime, though, the Cavs have bigger fish to fry, including trying to figure out how to get Garland to play at the All-Star level he was at last season. If the season ended today, the Cavs would be in the playoffs.
The Cavs next take the court on Friday night at home against the San Antonio Spurs.
2025-12-04 22:32:00
