1 stud and 1 dud for Cavs in loss to Lakers on Monday

Cavs stud in their L to the Lakers on Monday: Darius Garland

Darius Garland has been on an absolute tear in March. The third-year point guard is averaging 26.4 points and 11.5 assists in 11 games this month. Garland is hitting 43 percent of his shots overall but is only connecting on 34.7 percent of his three-point attempts; he’s still coming up huge, though.

Monday night was no different, as Garland connected on 10-of-23 shots overall but hit just 2-of-8 from beyond the arc. But what made Garland’s performance a solid one was the 17 assists he dished out.e

Garland has proved he can score from anywhere on the floor, but what is making him so tough to defend is his ability to dish out jaw-dropping passes. Teams are drawn into Garland because of his scoring ability, and he has proven time and time again he can find the open man, whether it be beyond the arc or on a lob feed.

The one concerning number to watch for moving forward is the number of minutes Garland is playing on a nightly basis. This month Garland is averaging 39.6 minutes per game and is shouldering a lot of the Cavaliers’ load offensively. He also looked to have hurt his finger a bit late in the game, but he did finish the game out and postgame, did reportedly say his finger “feels great,” via Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and Right Down Euclid.

While Garland is in prime physical shape and is only 22 years old, he is being asked to do quite a bit, and the concern is he could be worn down by the time the playoffs roll around. The finger doesn’t seem to be to be a big concern thankfully, but his overall workload does, to some degree, given all he is tasked with doing for this team.

Fatigue does not seem to be an issue yet, and Garland is doing all he can to ensure the Cavaliers get to the playoffs for the first time without LeBron since the 1997-98 season.

However, not all members of the Cavs have played their best basketball lately.