This past week was a bit of a struggle, as the Cleveland Cavaliers went 2-2, when including Cleveland’s loss on Monday at the San Antonio Spurs in that context. They beat the Los Angeles Lakers, lost to the Sacramento Kings, then beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, and then lost by one point to the Spurs.
The Cavaliers are still third place in the Eastern Conference, but they aren’t holding on to the lead as much as they’d probably like. They are three-and-a-half games back from the first seed, and only three games out of the play-in tournament.
Donovan Mitchell missed the game against Sacramento and Oklahoma City, which didn’t help. The Cavs’ offensive rating of 115.3 with Donovan Mitchell in the two games he was in last week, but a rating of 106.8 when he didn’t play. Their defensive rating slipped a bit this past week (including Monday in this sense), as well. Their defensive rating was 108.8 in the four games, but their defense still ranks second in the league, only behind the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Cavs’ shooting wasn’t up to par for the rest of their season, as they shot 30.4% from distance, a fall from their season average of 36.8%. Their offensive rating was practically the same it has been all season in those four games, with only a 0.1 difference.
Looking at Cavaliers’ players, Darius Garland didn’t shoot too well. He shot 37.9% from the field and 26.1% from deep in his four games, but did put up 17.3 points and 8.5 assists per night. Sadly, he did also have 4.3 turnovers per game, not helping his team in that stat.
Now, Garland did reportedly have his left hand wrapped in ice following that Spurs game, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, but he was not listed on the injury report for Wednesday’s game at the Dallas Mavericks. It was bothering him at the Spurs. Hopefully in time, he gets things healed up; we’ll have to see in games ahead how he does, though.
As for Donovan Mitchell, he had a great week, but only played in two games, so I’m not sure if I would really qualify him for the Player of the Week Award this time around. He did put up 35.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in the two games. He also shot 56.9/40.0/100.0 splits, and attempted 51 total shots in his two games.
As for Evan Mobley, he had a good week, as well. He put up 15.8 points, 11.0 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per night. He also was a +21 for the week, which is a great sign.
My personal player of the week, however, is Jarrett Allen.
In this latest Cavaliers Player of the Week, I have to go with Jarrett Allen.
He finally came back from a back injury against the Lakers, and showed out in that game. He had 24 points, 11 rebounds, and shot 78.6% from the field in that game. Also, he was a +21 in that game alone, which was his seventh-best as a Cavalier.
He also averaged 1.8 blocks in the four games last week, proving what a valuable piece he is to the Cavs’ defense. He averaged 9.3 rebounds per outing as well, which was a bit down from his season average, but was still a robust clip.
Watching the Cavaliers, you can see the difference Allen makes to his team. Defensively, he is one of the best rim protectors in the league, and being a lob threat himself is always a great help to his team. He is also a great pick-and-roll partner, as like I mentioned, he is a great threat inside the paint.
Will JA make the All-Star game this season? Personally, I don’t think so, but I still think he’s one of the more underrated players in the Eastern Conference(I may be biased, but whatever).
I think Allen deserves this Player of the Week for Dec. 5-12, as he had a tremendous week.