Cavs: Darius Garland-Jarrett Allen duo will only get better in 2nd half

The Cleveland Cavaliers of course had their share of issues in what was their toughest month of the season schedule-wise in February, and that unfortunately led to Cleveland having a 10-game losing streak.

The Cavs have rebounded in their past bit of games, though, handling business in their Atlanta Hawks-Houston Rockets back-to-back on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, and while Tobias Harris was out, Cleveland’s overtime W at the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday was a quality one. The Cavaliers followed up those outings with a win at the Rockets on Monday from there, and have now tallied four straight victories.

The group has continued to get solid play out of Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, who had 39 points and eight assists on Monday, even after having a busted up lip that needed stitches at halftime, and Jarrett Allen for a good stretch here. And it’s been nice to see Isaac Okoro and Dylan Windler seemingly playing with more conviction in the last 4-5 games.

One particular two-man game that should be clicking game-to-game, though, is the Garland-Allen duo, which I’d expect to carry that forward in the season’s second half as well, for what it’s worth.

The Garland-Allen duo will only get better, regarding their chemistry, in the second half for the Cavs.

Allen has fit in like a glove ever since being acquired via trade from the Brooklyn Nets in mid-January. And since taking over full-time as Cleveland’s starting 5 for Andre Drummond, who will be sitting while they’re reportedly trying to move him before the March 25 deadline, Allen has made his presence felt on both ends inside game-to-game.

The chemistry between Garland, whose had 7.8 assists per game in his past six outings (although 4.5 turnovers), and Allen has already seemed to be on-point, too, and one would imagine that will only get better over the course of the second half of this season. Garland, who reportedly tweaked his left groin the third quarter on Monday and was banged up a bit, seems fine and aided Cleveland in ending out that one, anyhow.

In regards to the pick-and-roll, with Garland being a gifted lob thrower, that’s often led to throwdowns for Allen, who is more than capable of getting those to go down, with his timing as a roller, with his terrific hands and his athleticism.

Along with the lobs, Garland has delivered some great feeds to Allen as a diving threat, where he’s been able to finish with power at times, sure, but has also shown his exemplary touch with both hands when that’s been applicable.

We should expect to see that sort of thing after initial Allen handoffs on the wing initially, too, as the season progresses with the chemistry in that realm continuing to improve in settled offense, hopefully, which should aid perimeter shooters, as a result. That’s with the vertical spacing threat of Allen, whose had 18.2 points, 14.0 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game in his last six outings, factoring in lobs as well.

Here and there, Garland’s timing has been on-point with Allen with occasional low-post feeds as well, and Jarrett has shown some ability, albeit on low volume, to have success with his touch there, and high release point on hooks.

In relation to the other end of the spectrum, Allen, as has been the case with Windler, for example, Allen has had nice timing with give-and-gos to Garland as a shooter, too. And I’d expect to see that moving forward, as well with Windler again, in coming years, with the Cavaliers assuredly set to lock up Allen this upcoming offseason, whether or not matching a restricted offer sheet ends up being needed.

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Allen’s on-ball screening for Garland, along with Collin Sexton, will lead to some floaters still, clearly, albeit on not nearly as high of a volume as earlier last month I would think, but those should could aid DG in getting in-rhythm in key instances.

From there, though, as an off-ball screener, we’ve seemingly seen Allen more involved in this last handful of games, and occasionally, I’d think his chemistry with Garland in the relocation sense should be more on display in the second half.

Diddo for Windler, and perhaps Cedi Osman/Taurean Prince, and/or when he’s back, Kevin Love.

I’d also imagine when Allen is doubled inside, as we’ve seen some of, I’d think he’ll often look for Garland as an outlet via kickouts, especially with how Garland’s catch-and-shoot game is taking off. Garland has hit 43.3 percent of his catch-and-shoot three-point attempts this season, per NBA.com’s shot tracking data, for further context.

Moreover, as the Cavs move forward with their second half of the season next week with the All-Star break coming up, it should be awesome to see the Garland-Allen two-man game really continue to blossom.

That should play out for a very long time, one would assume, too.