Cleveland Cavaliers: Activity from Jarrett Allen at Wiz was great to see

Jarrett Allen I thought had two solid outings, to a large extent, in his first two outings back for the Cleveland Cavaliers after missing eight games because of a concussion/concussion protocol.

A few games following those, though, Allen admittedly didn’t seem to be himself, if you will, in terms of his finishing capabilities on the interior and his interior defense/rebounding didn’t appear on-point.

In the past two contests for Cleveland, Allen has looked to have been comfortable offensively, fortunately, and that’s been nice to see. He had 15 points and nine rebounds in a loss at the Charlotte Hornets, and was six-of-six from the field; the finishing was there, most notably.

And Allen had a big-time performance on Sunday, but in a loss for the club overall and one in which Collin Sexton’s absence (concussion) hurt them down the stretch. In that one, the promising young big had a career-high 27 points on 10-of-12 shooting, to go with 12 rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals.

That activity was great to see from Allen for the Cavs, too, and he looks fully back.

As we noted, Allen didn’t appear to be fully himself initially, and had a few rough outings after those first two it seems, so this sort of outing and the one at Charlotte were key positives.

Allen did state, in terms of the defensive rebounding standpoint, that the Charlotte offensive rebounding efforts, from Bismack Biyombo, in particular, were on him, though. He was still active on the interior offensively, either way, however, and I still thought his finishing was far better, albeit he may have still been not nearly 100 back yet.

Regardless, Allen put that on him from the Hornets as far as offensive rebounding, via Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com; he was especially active on the glass in general from the jump at the Wizards, though.

Allen again had a career-best performance in terms of scoring as well in that Wizards game for the Cavaliers, too, and was active as a rolling threat for Darius Garland from the getgo, leading to his share of dunks in that one.

That no-nonsense finishing has been something we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from him, and it was seen throughout that one. Although Daniel Gafford would get one later on Allen, who was really active otherwise, Allen did get one on Davis Bertans here off a Larry Nance Jr. feed.

Along with that sort of element from the former Brooklyn Net, Allen’s touch was there inside, too, and his dexterity as a finisher with both hands is another part of the reasoning for why he’ll seemingly be surely locked up long-term this upcoming offseason.

Allen again, while Robin Lopez did get some looks to go, was active as a rim protector still here, and his rebounding efforts were meaningful.

And although the Cavs’ inexperience did play into issues down the stretch, leading to a loss to Bradley Beal and company without Sexton here, the efforts from Allen at both ends were a very encouraging sign that looks to now be fully back, so to speak.

Additionally, it was nice to see Cedi Osman, who was involved via spot start here after having five consecutive DNPs, have 19 points and five rebounds, to go with a steal and slam going the other way as well.

With Osman, though, it’s tough to read much into one outlier outing considering the shooting and defensive struggles he’s largely had for a while. That’s why I’d still expect Dean Wade, with Taurean Prince now sidelined, to get some real burn as a jumbo 3 and/or his share of run conversely, to go with Nance, when Sexton is back, too

Albeit perhaps Osman could get some momentum going; we’ll see.

But circling back, Allen’s activity on both ends for the Cavaliers in that Wizards game on Sunday was great to see.

Hopefully we’ll see him keep making an impact at both ends to seemingly close the season for Cleveland.