{"id":729255,"date":"2026-05-08T22:03:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/729255\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T22:03:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:03:31","slug":"cavs-vs-pistons-game-3-injury-news-what-happened-to-sam-merrill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/729255\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs vs Pistons Game 3 injury news. What happened to Sam Merrill?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cavaliers<\/a>\u00a0and Detroit Pistons<\/a> each had a backup player inactive for Game 2<\/a>. The same scenario could unfold in Game 3, which is set for 3 p.m. Saturday, May 8, at Rocket Arena<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cavs<\/a> shooting guard\u00a0Sam Merrill<\/a>\u00a0(left hamstring strain) and Pistons wing Kevin Huerter<\/a> (left abductor strain) were shut down when Cleveland<\/a> lost 107-97 on May 7 in Detroit, falling behind 2-0 in the best-of-seven second-round NBA playoff series.<\/p>\n

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Cavs column: Cavaliers lack mental fortitude required on road in playoffs | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are the official injury reports for Game 3:<\/p>\n

1 \/ 4<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Detroit Pistons, Game 2 photos<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) warms up with assistant coach Jarrett Jack ahead of Game 2 of second round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Thursday, May 7, 2026.<\/p>\n

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1 \/ 4<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Detroit Pistons, Game 2 photos<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) warms up with assistant coach Jarrett Jack ahead of Game 2 of second round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Thursday, May 7, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2 \/ 4<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Detroit Pistons, Game 2 photos<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) walks off the court after warmup ahead of Game 2 of second round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Thursday, May 7, 2026.<\/p>\n

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3 \/ 4<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Detroit Pistons, Game 2 photos<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons fans cheer on during warm up ahead of Game 2 of second round of NBA playoffs between Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Thursday, May 7, 2026.<\/p>\n

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4 \/ 4<\/p>\n

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Detroit Pistons, Game 2 photos<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) warms up ahead of Game 2 of second round of NBA playoffs at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Thursday, May 7, 2026.<\/p>\n

Cavs vs Pistons Game 3 injury report. Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> list Sam Merrill as questionable for Game 3 vs. Detroit<\/p>\n

The Cavs listed Merrill as questionable to play in Game 3.<\/p>\n

Merrill’s hamstring issue limited him to 6 minutes, 41 seconds of playing time off the bench in Game 1, a 111-101 loss to the Pistons. He did not attempt a shot. He had one assist and a turnover.<\/p>\n

The Cavs initially listed Merrill as questionable to play in Game 2 before ruling him out shortly before tipoff.<\/p>\n

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Cavs All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell appeared to twist his right ankle while driving with roughly 11 minutes left in the second quarter of Game 2 at Little Caesars Arena.<\/p>\n

However, Merrill is the only player the Cavs listed on their injury report for Game 3 against the Pistons.<\/p>\n

Sam Merrill stats during Cavaliers playoffs<\/p>\n

Merrill played in all seven games of the Cavs’ 4-3 first-round series win over the Toronto Raptors<\/a>. He averaged 7.6 points on 43.2% shooting from the field (37.9% on 3-pointers), 1.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 20.2 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"Nov<\/p>\n

Nov 5, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Sam Merrill (5) throws a pass in the first quarter against the Philadelphia 76ers at Rocket Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Pistons vs Cavs Game 3 injury report. Detroit lists Kevin Huerter as doubtful for Game 3 vs. Cleveland Cavaliers<\/p>\n

The Pistons listed Huerter as doubtful to play in Game 3.<\/p>\n

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Huerter was inactive for Games 1 and 2 against the Cavs. He also missed the final three games of the Pistons’ 4-3 first-round series win over the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pistons initially listed Huerter as doubtful to play in Game 2 and later ruled him out shortly before tipoff against the Cavs.<\/p>\n

Kevin Huerter stats with Detroit Pistons<\/p>\n

In February, the Pistons acquired Huerter in a trade with the Chicago Bulls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 25 regular-season games with Detroit, Huerter averaged 8.6 points on 44.3% shooting from the field (29.4% on 3-pointers), 2.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.1 steals and 20.5 minutes.<\/p>\n

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In four playoff games this year, Huerter is averaging 1.5 points on 18.2% shooting from the field (28.6% on 3s), 1.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 15.3 minutes.<\/p>\n

Nate Ulrich is the sports columnist of the Akron Beacon Journal and a sports features writer. Nate can be reached at\u00a0nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com<\/a>. On Twitter:\u00a0@ByNateUlrich<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cavs vs Pistons Game 3 injury updates. Sam Merrill questionable<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cavaliers\u00a0and Detroit Pistons each had a backup player inactive for Game 2. The same scenario could unfold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,136,329,305,193,3846,188,864,11606,560,4103,6,76,1166,2484,476],"class_list":["post-729255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-basketball","tag-cavaliers","tag-cavs","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-clevelandcavaliers","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-injury-report","tag-james-harden","tag-kevin-huerter","tag-nba","tag-orlando-magic","tag-sam-merrill","tag-the-cavaliers","tag-toronto-raptors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116541221682339421","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}