The cavaliers need Darius Garland to overcome adversities again

Cleveland Cavaliers Guard Darius Garland was speechless.

Literally.

Garland’s mouth was recovered by a broken jaw that was suffered during a collision in the game and was closed and did not make it able to speak or eat. The broken pine was one of the few setbacks for Garland last season, whose game on the square was also calmer than the NBA.

In 2023-24, Garland has achieved its worst average and field goal percentage since his rookie year, and the Cavaliers also took a step back and won a year after winning 51. In the playoffs, a always repeating Garland looked like a shell of itself when Cleveland was defeated in the second round in the second round in the Boston Celtics in the second round in the Boston-Keltik-Keltke.

All adversities asked big questions for Garland and the Cavs. Did injuries permanently rob him of his former all-star form? Could Garland and Backcourt Mate Donovan Mitchell coexist? Has the team reached a blanket?

A regular season later and almost all of these questions were answered.

Garland received a second all-star selection in February. And he and Mitchell blossomed when Cleveland achieved his second highest victory in Franchise history this season and achieved No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

“I really started in this organization,” Garland told NBC News in April before the playoffs started. “If I grow it from the ground until now, hopefully I am a team for championship calibers and I am very proud to stay in the process and believe in the process.”

The process was bumpy for Garland and the Cavs.

His all-star season 2022 ended in the Play-in tournament. This summer Cleveland bought Mitchell and increased the expectations of the franchise. But in Mitchell’s first year, the team lost to the New York Knicks in five games in the first round. And last low season after Mitchell had signed an extension with the team, there were rumors about whether Garland wanted to stay in the middle of a disappointing finish of the season.

Instead of asking, however, Garland searched Mitchell in summer to learn how to better coexist with your co-star.

“I had a lot of conversations with Don to see what he really likes and find out what I really want in this crime,” said Garland.

In addition to these conversations, Garland said that he saw hours and hours of the film to understand how he could better complement Mitchell than Mitchell was the person who dealt with the ball. Garland particularly studied Golden State Warriors Point Guard Stephen Curry and has tried to emulate how he moves without the ball to put pressure on the defense.

“Sometimes I have to make selfless cuts to lift people,” said Garland. “Sometimes I have to set a small ghost screen to bring it down and create confusion for defense. Only move the ball to help teammates to make open shots.”

Together with a new vision of head coach Kenny Atkinson, which was discontinued last June, Garland and the Cavaliers went to a new level this season. Cleveland had a 9.2-Netto rating during the regular season, which has been best in the NBA and in the best brand of franchise since 2009.

And Garland celebrated its role in the back yard and exchanged some goal tasks with Mitchell for a more efficient game. Garland shot a career of 47.2% from the field in the regular season, including 40.1% at 7.1 tries per night from a 3-point range.

“It is a really good basketball that is played, everyone touches the rock, everyone enjoys their time together on the floor,” said Garland about his team’s success. “Our depth is crazy. Sometimes it can (not) know your names, but you will make three 3s right in front of your face.

“I think the world should be excited to see us play.”

In the middle of the first round, however, Garland hit another bump. A toe injury kept him out of the last two games of a sweep against the Miami Heat and cost him the first two games of the second round, in which the Cavaliers joined 0: 2 against the Indiana Pacers.

While the weapons of the heat to start the post -season was an impressive representation of the dominance that Cleveland showed all year round, Garland knows that this team is ultimately judged whether it can improve its playoff end a year ago. He said what he has learned from the last two post -seasons of the Cavaliers is the meaning of the little things, such as avoiding sales, conversion of quick fraction and the missity of the rebounds.

(After all, it was an insulting rebound that led to Tyrese Haliburton’s game 3 for the Pacers in game 2.)

It was not always smooth for Garland in his career, and yet he consistently found a way to lift himself back. Although no team in a playoff series wants to be two games, a year after he calmed down for numerous reasons, Garland now has the opportunity to come back and to give the loudest statement of his career.