Everything went right for the Cleveland Cavaliers last season until it didn’t. They won 64 games and cruised through the first round with one of the most lopsided sweeps in NBA history. Then, things went awry
in the second round when they ran into the Indiana Pacers. Tyrese Haliburton’s late-game heroics played a large role in that happening, but so did injuries.
According to Darius Garland, the team would’ve won the championship last season if they weren’t injured. He told Sirius XM NBA Radio as much on Sunday.
“I think we would have won it,” Garland said when asked how far Cleveland would’ve gone if he were healthy. “I say that pretty confidently. I think we would’ve won it. It’s just the talent with this group is just out the roof.
“The will that we have on both sides of the ball. Defensive side we have the Defensive Player of the Year and I would say the second-best defensive big since we got the Defensive Player of the Year already. With Evan [Mobley] and JA (Jarrett Allen) down there blocking shots, protecting the paint. I think that was going to really help us on that side of the ball. Evan growing. Donovan [Mitchell] being Donovan of course. Dre (De’Andre Hunter) was coming along. Max Strus was coming along. I felt that I was pretty good in the first round.
“Yeah, I say that confidentially.”
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It’s easy to forget just how injured the Cavs were in that second-round series. Hunter missed Game 2 with a dislocated thumb and wasn’t the same after sustaining that injury in Game 1.
Mobley played through an ankle sprain after missing Game 2, but wasn’t his usual self. He didn’t have his normal lateral quickness. The coaching staff tried to compensate by using Mobley up top in a 3-2 zone, but once Indiana realized who couldn’t navigate screens due to the injury, that didn’t work. In the end, his defensive impact was nowhere near what it was during the regular season.
Garland was out for games 1 and 2. He played the final three games of the series, but was moving at half speed due to a toe injury he still hasn’t fully recovered from after having surgery this summer.
Lastly, Mitchell was playing through a calf strain. This reared its head at the end of Game 2 during Cleveland’s late-game collapse and throughout the remainder of the series — particularly in the second halves of games.
The Pacers deserved to win that series. They were the better team on the court, and you can’t take that away from them. That said, it’s understandable to believe that the Cavaliers could’ve gone to and won the NBA Finals if they had full health like the Oklahoma City Thunder did throughout the postseason.
Cleveland is hoping injuries won’t be an issue again next spring. But at the same time, it’s difficult to keep things like this from happening. It’s just a part of the game.
