The Cavs Core Four: Evaluating their Game 4 performances vs Knicks

Allen’s Game 4

One word to describe Allen’s performance at the Garden for Games 3 and 4: embarrassing. He is getting paid $20 million this season to grab 9 REBOUNDS COMBINED in two games.

He is getting thoroughly outplayed by Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein. He is out of position, he is getting pushed around in the paint, and he almost looks like he does not belong on the court with those guys. While he did have 14 points in Game 4, he was nonexistent on the boards and on defense.

This is a guy who will probably be on an All-Defensive squad this year and was a huge reason why the Cavaliers were the number one defense in the league this year. He was playing like it in Games 1 and 2.

In the Garden though, it looks like he lost all of that ability. What is the most frustrating about Allen is that he is so much better than this. He has been an integral part of the Cavs turnaround. I expect him to bounce back in Game 5, and he needs to. The Wine and Gold cannot win without him playing at a high level on both ends in the paint.

The Core Four has carried the Cavs all season. It has been up and down for all of them at some point in this series.

Now, they need to step up their level of play if the Cavs want to extend their season by one game.