Playing their fourth game in six nights, the Cavs knocked off the best team in the Western Conference – in overtime – two nights after beating the top team in the NBA in dramatic fashion.
Sandwiched between those gutsy wins were losses to the Hawks and the severely undermanned Knicks.
Friday night, the Cavs went toe-to-toe with the Timberwolves and their No. 1-ranked defense, matching Minnesota’s physical style of play – a promising sign for a team that got pushed around in the playoffs last year.
With Evan Mobley out, Jarrett Allen stepped up in a big way. Against a bigger man in Rudy Gobert – the second-leading rebounder in the NBA – Allen was a force in the paint, and he finished with a career-high 33 points, 18 rebounds and two blocks.
It was fun to watch Gobert’s late-game meltdown that led to a technical foul and a game-tying free throw. Gobert pantomimed the money sign with his fingertips after getting whistled for his sixth foul, suggesting the refs had money riding on the game. Allen clearly got under his skin.
Allen’s strategy against Gobert: “Just go out there with energy.”
“I think Rudy gets a lot of hate for what he does, but I still think he’s excellent in his position and how he goes out and plays the game,” the affable Allen told reporters after the game. “So for me it was to try to find little moments where I can sneak in, grab a rebound, tip the ball out or just catch him slipping.”
Gobert’s sixth foul sure seemed like a legit foul. But the hot-headed Frenchman didn’t see it that way. With 27.8 seconds left in the game – and the T-Wolves clinging to a one-point lead – it probably wasn’t the best time for Gobert to get on his soapbox about sports gambling.
The Cavaliers prevailed in overtime, 113-104, without the services of Mobley, Donovan Mitchell and Max Strus.
“It just boosts us for when everybody else comes back,” Allen said. “Contrary to [popular] belief, I do believe we’re at our best when everybody is back in the lineup.”
Still, it sometimes seems that Allen plays better when Mobley is out of the lineup. He’s more assertive, more aggressive and more decisive. Maybe it’s a case of next-man-up mentality.
J.B. Bickerstaff chalks it up to Allen’s consistency.
“He’s just been consistently dominant,” Bickerstaff said after the T-Wolves game. “We’ve been saying this since before the All-Star break, where we thought he was deserving to be an All-Star, because I can’t tell you bigs that are playing better than Jarrett Allen. He’s just been phenomenal. It’s a testament to him as a human being, as basketball player, to just want to do more to help the team win. And that’s who JA is.”
Darius Garland wasn’t too shabby either. Garland – who after the game said he doesn’t feel anywhere near 100% yet – paced the Cavaliers with 34 points on 13-of-26 shooting and eight assists.
“We know what Darius is capable of, and we believe in Darius wholeheartedly,” Bickerstaff said. “In the NBA, guys go through ups and downs, but the great ones figure out a way to come out of it. And he puts the time in, he works his tail off, his teammates believe in him, support him, trust him, and we know he’s gonna make the plays when we need him.”
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