Winning 64 games earned the Cleveland Cavaliers the top seed in the Eastern Conference, but that did not faze the fourth-seeded Indiana Pacers on Sunday in a 121-112 road win.
Now, the Cavs face a “real concern,” according to Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson, heading into Tuesday’s Game 2, with three key contributors listed as questionable on the injury report Monday.
Darius Garland has missed three straight playoff games with a left toe injury, while Atkinson used the word “doubtful” when describing the statuses of NBA Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley (ankle) and De’Andre Hunter (thumb).
The latter two were injured during consecutive fourth-quarter possessions on Sunday. After Mobley landed awkwardly following a jumper, Hunter drove to the rim before falling hard to the floor as his shot was blocked by Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin.
Atkinson said Monday that while those plays were not dirty, “I think it passed a line of physicality.”
He later added: “But the fact of the matter, that’s on the referees. Maybe they weren’t missed calls, and maybe I’m misinterpreting the rules, but I have a problem when we got two of our best players doubtful for tomorrow’s game. It’s hard for me to get my head around that.”
Quickly reversing course, Atkinson said that Garland, Mobley and Hunter would be listed as questionable for Tuesday’s game, labeling their official designations as “semantics.”
Mobley has shined for Cleveland all season, becoming the first player in team history to win Defensive Player of the Year. After a 20-point, 10-rebound performance in Game 1, Mobley is averaging 17.0 points and 7.2 boards this postseason.
Hunter, meanwhile, has played a key role off the bench for the Cavs, scoring 12.6 points per game in the playoffs. Cleveland certainly awaits the return of Garland, who scored 27 and 21 points in the first two games of the playoffs before suffering a toe injury.
