Cavaliers All-Star Guard Reportedly Making Return Vs. Celtics

After only playing 13 minutes in Cleveland’s season opener, Darius Garland is expected to make a return against the Boston Celtics.

The All-Star guard suffered an eye injury in the Cavaliers’ season opener against the Toronto Raptors on Oct. 19. Despite the loss of Garland, J.B. Bickerstaff’s squad enter Wednesday’s matchup with a 5-1 record, including an overtime win over the Celtics last Friday at TD Garden.

Shams Charania of The Athletic reported Wednesday Garland will return when Cleveland takes on Boston at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

The Celtics are a consensus 1.5-point favorite heading into the contest as the C’s are coming off a dominant victory over the Washington Wizards on Sunday. The consensus total for the game is 220.

It’s not known off The Athletic’s reporting how much Garland will play in his first game back. But oddsmakers at DraftKings Sportsbook have set the All-Star’s points prop at 19.5, with the Over at slightly more juice at -115 compared to the Under at -110. The guard also has a slightly ambitious assists prop set at 6.5 with odds on the Over set at +100.

Garland’s double-double prices are one of the shorter odds at +380. Jayson Tatum has +340 odds to notch a double-double Wednesday.

So, oddsmakers expect a normal workload for Garland, and it will present a challenge for Boston. While Joe Mazzulla’s team played shutdown defense against the Wizards, the Celtics are 22nd in defensive rating this season — a steep drop from the top defense of last season. This bodes well for 76% of DraftKings bettors, which represents 81% of the handle, who have the Over on the game.

Whether rumors of suspended head coach Ime Udoka arriving to the Brooklyn Nets will weigh on the players or not is unknown, but it adds more intrigue to a game where 79% of the handle on DraftKings is on Boston to cover the spread.