Cavaliers' Darius Garland set for return after 19-game absence as NBA's hottest team gets healthier
Garland, who has not played since Dec. 14 with a fractured jaw, is reportedly suiting up Wednesday vs. Detroit

Darius Garland is set to make his return from his fractured jaw on Wednesday when the Cleveland Cavaliers face the Detroit Pistons, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania. Garland has been out since Dec. 14 with that injury, missing 19 games in total during this stretch. The Cavaliers got another major boost on Monday when Evan Mobley returned from a lengthy absence of his own in their win over the Los Angeles Clippers. Now the Cavaliers are back to something resembling full strength after dealing with injuries throughout more or less the entirety of the season.
While Cleveland is certainly happy to be getting its young stars back in the fold, integrating them fully is going to be a somewhat awkward process. The Cavaliers are the hottest team in the NBA right now. They just went 15-4 in the games that Garland missed, and reintroducing him and Mobley into the fold is going to have trickle-down effects on the rest of the roster.
The emergence of Sam Merrill as one of the NBA's best shooters has been a key part of this resurgence, for instance, yet with Mobley back on Monday, he played only seven minutes against the Clippers. Will his role be maintained now that Garland is back and presumably playing major minutes? And how will Donovan Mitchell, who has thrived as Cleveland's only high-usage ball-handler, adjust to being back in a timeshare with Garland?
These are questions the Cavaliers will have to answer with time, but they've discovered a winning formula over the past month or so without Garland and Mobley. They play faster, they shoot more 3's, and while they're defending well, their lineup choices have been geared more towards offense. That formula has been a success for the Cavaliers, so figuring out how to successfully integrate Garland and Mobley within it will be key if Cleveland is going to keep up all of this recent winning.
















