Cavs’ stud: The reliable Fro
It wasn’t but a couple of days ago when I wrote about the man in the middle being the Cavs’ second-best player halfway through the season. For me, that belief doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. The Fro is as reliable as they come.
In 34 minutes of action in Saturday night’s loss the 24-year-old big man ended the contest with 19 points, shooting 80.0 percent (8-of-10) from the field. He was 3-for-3 from the charity stripe, grabbing 8 rebounds, along with two assists and two blocks.
The 7-foot-big made a living between the baseline and left block Saturday evening catching lob after lob as defenses collapsed on the Cavaliers making their way into the key. Jarrett Allen as always had his usual involvement with screens playing some pick-and-roll basketball and finessing for buckets down in the paint.
Both of his blocks came in what was a competitive first half. Right under the eight-minute mark in the first quarter before his early exit, Donovan Mitchell’s former teammate Gobert missed a shot that was contested by the consistent presence in the paint that (J.A.) is.
Allen retrieved the ball off the glass and tossed an outlet to Garland to get a quick bucket in transition. It was Jarrett who ran the floor, set the screen for Darius, rolled, and drew the defense off of number 10 for a floater down the lane.
His second block came with about a minute-and-a-half left in the first half. The 23-year-old Jaylen Nowell tried to take Rubio and Allen off of a screen and come down the left side of the paint, where Allen said ‘no sir” and the Cavs ended up leading at the half by five.
It’s nothing new. Night in and night out the 2022 All-Star contributes in more ways than one. He’s going to continue to be a bright spot for this team that’s, unfortunately, going to see some continued growing pains.