Sam Merrill had an MRI on his left hamstring Wednesday after he hurt it in the Cavaliers’ Game 1 loss to the Detroit Pistons, and Cleveland held the reserve guard out of practice the same day.
The Cavaliers were scheduled to try to even the second-round series in Detroit on Thursday, leaving Merrill’s status a question with the matchup moving quickly and the injury arriving at a critical point.
Merrill played six-plus minutes in the opener on Tuesday night and finished with one assist and one turnover. He averaged 12.8 points during the regular season and scored in double digits two times in the seven-game first-round series against the Toronto Raptors, which made him a useful scoring option off the bench before the hamstring issue surfaced against Detroit.
The timing matters because Merrill is a reserve guard the Cavaliers have leaned on for spacing and bench production, and the loss of even a short-rotation contributor changes how Cleveland can manage a series that already shifted to Detroit. The MRI suggested the team wanted a clearer read before deciding how much he could give them, if anything, on Thursday.
For Cleveland, the next step is simple but unforgiving: face the Pistons again without knowing whether Merrill can answer in time. For Merrill, the night that was supposed to be one more playoff outing instead became the start of a wait that could shape the rest of the series.
