Cavs: Jarrett Allen’s absence was clearly felt in past two losses

The Cleveland Cavaliers have gotten great play out of Jarrett Allen this season, as he’s done a heck of a job, combined with Evan Mobley often, anchoring Cleveland’s defense and being a constant threat on the interior at the other end.

Allen’s had 14.2 points and 10.9 rebounds per contest, and his verticality, rim protection and active hands on the defensive end have been so impactful. He’s also been a heck of a lob and interior/dump-off threat for the Cavaliers guards, and has shown more capability to take advantage of favorable matchups inside.

Unfortunately for the Cavs on Monday, a game where they went severely shorthanded as it was going in with Lauri Markkanen and Kevin Love still unavailable (COVID-19 health and safety protocols), Allen wasn’t involved, either. That was due to illness, which was reportedly not COVID-19-related. The Celtics were without Jaylen Brown though (knee sprain), but the Cavs were banged up, clearly, with Collin Sexton (meniscus tear) and Lamar Stevens (ankle sprain) out, too.

Cleveland did have a valiant effort still in a 98-92 loss, and Cedi Osman and Ricky Rubio, the latter of whom made a spot start in that one, had 26 and 28 points to try to will the Cavaliers to a victory.

That said, it was tough for the Cavs to get interior production easily, as opposed to plenty of other games, and I thought the Cavs missed Allen’s screening in this one as well. Evan Mobley playing the 5 in that one essentially full-time was an adjustment without Allen in there, and he struggled as a scorer, and it was more difficult for him to play in that role. He went 0-of-11 from the field, and had just one point in 29 minutes; he did have nine rebounds, five assists and two blocks, though.

Mobley banged his elbow in the late third, and it was awful to hear that, he’ll be sidelined, as of Tuesday, for 2-4 weeks.

Nonetheless, circling back, in this one and in Cleveland’s loss at the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday, it was evident that Cleveland was missing Allen’s presence in there.

Allen’s absence was clearly felt in these past two losses, and hopefully he can return against the Golden State Warriors.

The Nets are a club that could realistically come out of the Eastern Conference and/or win the NBA title this season, and Kevin Durant and James Harden will always get theirs, anyways.

With those guys, Kyrie Irving out aside, and shooters Brooklyn has around them, such as Patty Mills, who torched Cleveland, they were so difficult to defend for Cleveland, and will be for teams on a night-to-night basis. Not to mention Blake Griffin inside and as a secondary playmaker, and LaMarcus Aldridge, who is finding his rhythm again. To that point, even with the Cavaliers so shorthanded, the Nets still shot [UPDATE STATS] from three-point land.

With the mobility of Allen, though, and his ability, along with Mobley’s, to contest shots so well at the rim, and with Allen’s rim running, it could’ve helped out the other Cavs involved.

Regardless of the types of shots, or with many being dunks or putbacks, Allen has still converted on 78.0 percent of his looks in the restricted area (per NBA.com’s shooting data). And with him being far mobile than two-way 5 Tacko Fall, obviously, it opens up more movement; that’s in the same realm with Ed Davis also.

Plus, with the way Allen has finished on the interior this season, on some post-ups as well, it could’ve opened up more open perimeter looks in stretches in these past two outings. I give Davis credit for his work in a spot start on Wednesday, and he filled in admirably on the glass, but in stretches, the Cavs could’ve definitely used Allen’s interior presence.

I don’t discount Allen’s feel for timing up his screens off-ball for Cleveland’s shooters, combined with the pick-and-roll game with Darius Garland and Ricky Rubio, too; that’s part of why I thought Cleveland’s offense in recent games was bogged down.

In any case, with the way Allen has been such an integral player, and emerging leader it seems for the Cavaliers, not having him the past two outings made things even tougher, with the aforementioned guys out, too.

Maybe the Fro is back from illness on Thursday against a surging Golden State team.