It’s safe to say that the Cleveland Cavaliers are in a tough spot right now, with Darius Garland having missed three of four games since the All-Star break, and Caris LeVert out for each of those. Rajon Rondo is currently out, too. Garland’s back issues have been lingering, and he and the team will have to manage that the rest of the way, but hopefully, he can play the majority of their games from here; we’ll see. He was back in Cleveland’s blowout loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday.
LeVert’s right foot soreness is not something I’m taking lightly either, and Rondo has a right big toe sprain. LeVert could be back on the weekend it seems, and Rondo sooner than later.
With the backcourt injuries for Cleveland, it’s been largely difficult to have offensive consistency for extended stretches, and the team has been 1-3 since the break. With the two losses prior to the All-Star break added in, where Garland was in action, the Cavs have lost five of six.
On a positive note, Lauri Markkanen has returned from an 11-game absence because of a right ankle sprain, and he should help as he regains his rhythm.
Again, the team does need Garland looking onward, and I’m not glossing over that. But Markkanen’s return, Evan Mobley’s defense and Brandon Goodwin’s play mostly filling in for extended stretches with Cleveland’s injuries have been positives. So has the play of Cedi Osman, too, for a number of games here.
That said, while the Cavs do need LeVert back in action sooner than later, particularly with the lack of Collin Sexton, this team has found ways to overcome injury issues this season. They do need to clean up things involving live-ball turnovers, which have really hurt their defense recently, but I do believe their defense can rebound, and this team can get back on track.
And as far as another positive lately, the play of Jarrett Allen has been big in these first games since the All-Star break, by and large, and regardless of the injury situation, that has to continue. He does need help, still.
Allen has been on-point of late, and he has to keep that up for the Cavs in this closing stretch, but he does also need more help from others.
For whatever reason, Allen had a rough go of it in Cleveland’s disappointing loss at the Detroit Pistons last Thursday night, and I have to give Detroit their credit. Garland being out in that one, and likely some post-All-Star rust for both teams, to some extent, probably didn’t help, either.
Allen has since responded well, though, and did a solid job in his last game before the break on the inside, albeit in a loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
In Allen’s last three contests, he’s been playing good ball, anyhow. He stayed the course in Cleveland’s grind-it-out win over the Washington Wizards on Saturday, helped spur on a Cavs near-comeback versus the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday and was still one of the team’s bright spots in that blowout L to Charlotte.
Now, I’m not going to say that Allen’s play jumped out as much in that loss to the Hornets, where the Cavaliers had their share of issues, and their defensive communication seemed off, to get that out there. The Wine and Gold’s rotations to shooters need to be sharper, as they’ve been for most of the season prior to this recent downslide, for what it’s worth, and the live-ball turnovers have really been crushing, as an aside.
However, it has been good to see Allen respond well to a rough game back at the Philadelphia 76ers prior to the All-Star break, and the Detroit game, where he didn’t play nearly at the level he’s played at throughout this season.
Allen did have 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting, and was 4-of-5 from the free throw line in that Charlotte loss, and did have 11 rebounds, and thanks some to his energy and Garland’s shooting, there were several times when it seemed the Cavs could get back into that Hornets game. That didn’t materialize, of course, as Terry Rozier, Miles Bridges and Kelly Oubre Jr. off the bench seemingly had countless answers to Cleveland runs, but what Allen has been doing shouldn’t go unnoticed.
And even for stretches against Karl-Anthony Towns on Monday, he played well, and had 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting, to go with eight boards versus Minnesota. I’m not glossing over Kevin Love’s 26 points off the bench, either, of course.
Nevertheless, while it may not be getting a ton of recognition with the team’s struggles at the moment (injury-related or not), Allen’s aggressiveness and activity on the interior has been great to see.
But it’s imperative that, Garland’s health aside, that other key contributors on the Cavaliers step up, such as Evan Mobley, who needs to be more assertive, and find ways to have more of an offensive impact game-to-game, as he typically has.
The bench guys I do believe can get going more as well, as the Cavs get more of their crucial pieces back and/or if Cedi Osman and Love can get quality looks. Markkanen and Dean Wade, in bench spurts, can, too, as we’ve seen.