Cavaliers: Darius Garland says he wasn't himself against Pacers because of toe injury

INDEPENDENCE — Darius Garland freely admits he wasn't himself. He was out there on the court, going through the motions, but wasn't the player fans were accustomed to in Game 5's deflating loss on Tuesday. Garland managed 11 points and three assists in 31 minutes. However, he turned the ball over five times and failed to hit a shot from the 3-point line. For the game, he was 4-for-16 from the field and 0-for-6 from long range. The All-Star point guard was far from being the reason the Cavaliers were humiliated 4-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Indiana Pacers, but he was a contributing factor. Garland aggravated a left big toe sprain in Game 2 of the first-round Miami series and missed the final two games. Garland remained on the injured list for the first two games of the Indiana series before throwing caution to the wind and deciding to play in Game 3. He said people didn't understand what he was going through trying to get back onto the court. "I was playing with a steel plate (in my shoe)," Garland said Wednesday at the end-of-the-season media availability at Cleveland Clinic Courts. "I was trying to win games and win this series. I definitely wasn't myself. It was uncomfortable. "I was there for the guys. I wasn't 100%. That's what made it tough. Even if we were not all 100 percent, we were all out there. I'm happy I went to battle with my guys." People on social media and several in the national media attacked Garland for not being in the lineup. He heard the criticism. "Everybody is going to have an opinion," Garland said. "A lot of you didn't know what I was going through physically. A lot of you wouldn't have been able to play. I wanted to be out there (for my teammates)." The 6-foot-1, 192-pounder suffered through injuries in each of the last two seasons, both of which ended with the Cavs losing in the East semifinals. He missed 19 games in 2023-24 with a broken jaw and struggled once he made it back into the lineup after losing 12-15 pounds during the ordeal. This season, he appeared in a career-high 75 games before hurting his toe. For a player who makes violent stops and starts on the court, it was a dramatic injury. In three games against Indiana, Garland averaged 14.0 points, 4.0 assists and 4.0 turnovers. He shot just .342 from the field (13-for-38) and .167 from the 3-point line (3-for-18). Those were drastic drops in all categories compared to the regular season, when he averaged 20.6 points and 6.7 assists and shot a career-high .472 from the field and .401 from distance. "I want to come back stronger, mentally and physically, and be ready to do it all over again," he said. "We want to prove the doubters wrong. We have to figure out what we need to do to get to the next step. We want to win a championship. "You're always judged by how you finish in the postseason. We're going to get better in all aspects." He welcomed the naysayers to "write us off again." "We'll go to work and get stronger and come back stronger next year," he said. Garland struggled in the last three games. However, Cavs center Jarrett Allen was almost non-existent. With the team needing him more than ever in the last two games, he amassed 11 points and six rebounds. In Game 4, he attempted one shot. "Obviously, (my performance) could have been better," Allen said. "Not enough. I just didn't go get the ball in those two games. It reflected in the stats." Allen appeared in all 91 games this season and said it was more of a mental challenge than anything to make it through the whole season without missing a game. Six-time All-Star Donovan Mitchell met with the media Wednesday and said he had yet to sleep after Game 5. "I've watched the game twice," he said. "It's tough. You put a lot into a season and you accomplish different things throughout the season and you feel you're right on the cusp. To end this way, it's tough. We didn't hold up our end. "Winning is not easy in this league. We're going to figure it out." Mitchell, who averaged 34.2 points in the Pacers series, said being eliminated from the postseason caught him off-guard. "I don't know what the hell I'm going to do tomorrow," he said. "It was abrupt. We believed in each other. We believed this was the year. It wasn't supposed to end like this." Mitchell was also extremely banged up by the time he got to Game 5. It started when he stepped on an opponent's foot late in the regular season and turned his ankle, causing him to miss the final four regular-season games. He then he aggravated it in the Indiana series. "I had a calf strain," he said. "It came out but I didn't want it to come out. I tried to keep that as quiet as I could. Then, the (strained) ligaments in the (left) ankle. You'd have to knock me out before I wouldn't go out there. It's the playoffs. Everybody is going through something. It's a matter of will at that point." Contact Bob Finnan at rfinnan30@gmail.com. Follow him @BobCavsinsider on X.