CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cavs will not be at full strength for their long-awaited home opener on Friday night.
Sources tell cleveland.com that starting point guard Darius Garland will be out versus Oklahoma City because of a left hamstring strain.
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Garland was listed as questionable going into the night, and after not participating in Friday morning’s shootaround, sources say Cleveland will take a cautious approach. Garland will join center Jarrett Allen on the sideline. Allen is inactive for a second straight game because of a bone bruise in his ankle that cost him most of training camp and all the preseason.
Allen has been sidelined since Oct. 7 and is not expected to play in either game this weekend. Friday night is the beginning of a back-to-back, with the Indiana Pacers coming to town on Saturday. The Cavs will then have a few days off before hosting the rival New York Knicks in a rematch of their first-round playoff series. Sources say the Cavs are hopeful Allen will make his season debut then.
“He’s back on the floor,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said Friday night. “He’s running and then it’s just a matter of once he’s comfortable, once his conditioning is where he feels confident and then where the medical staff is with him and their comfort level to let him get out there.”
Without Garland and Allen — two of the five expected starters this season — sources say Bickerstaff will go with Donovan Mitchell, Isaac Okoro, Max Strus, Dean Wade and Evan Mobley as the fill-in starting group. It’s the first game of the season for Wade, who was unavailable for Wednesday night’s 114-113 season-opening win against the Brooklyn Nets because of an illness.
Garland, who sat out two of Cleveland’s four exhibitions but was able to suit up without issue in Brooklyn, scored 15 points in 32 minutes two nights ago.
