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Jarrett Allen was the exact opposite of the caricature he\u2019s been made out to be. He was the toughest player on the court on Sunday with the way he thoroughly dominated the paint on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n
Defensively, Allen made it impossible for Toronto to finish inside.<\/p>\n
He cut off both passing and driving lanes with his activity on defense, resulting in three blocks and two steals. Allen did this while grabbing 25%<\/a> of missed shots himself when he was on the floor, translating to 19 rebounds.<\/p>\n This all added up to Cleveland having an impressive 101.4 defensive rating<\/a> with him playing.<\/p>\n That impact carried to the other end of the floor as well.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Allen played with a forcefulness that Toronto couldn\u2019t match. Every cut, screen, or drive to the hoop was made with an effort that we don\u2019t always see from Allen, but when he has few can stop.<\/p>\n Support us and Let \u2018Em Know with HOMAGE!<\/a> Anything bought from the links helps support Fear the Sword. You can buy the Jarrett Allen Fro shirt HERE<\/a>. You can also shop all of Homage\u2019s Cavs gear HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n Head coach Kenny Atkinson saw a game like this coming with the way Allen looked in pregame intros.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was flying around,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cNormally, he\u2019s enthusiastic, but it was like, \u2018Man, what got into this guy?\u2019 But he was ready for the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Allen\u2019s game is momentum-based. When he starts to see a few go through, his energy and effort continue to rise. That\u2019s what we saw, especially in the third quarter. He finished the evening with 22 points on 7-8 shooting in the restricted area with eight huge offensive rebounds.<\/p>\n There was a simple message still written on the Cavs\u2019 whiteboard after Game 7: \u201cWin the possession game again!\u201d Underneath that was a box with +9 in it, signaling how much they won that category.<\/p>\n The guards did a good job of limiting turnovers, but the real difference maker was Allen\u2019s offensive rebounding.<\/p>\n Allen\u2019s lowest playoff moment came when he couldn\u2019t keep Mitchell Robinson<\/a> and the New York Knicks<\/a> off the glass three years ago. That was one of the many reasons Cleveland lost that first-round series so convincingly. It\u2019s also where Allen made the infamous reference to the lights being \u201cbrighter than expected.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n This game was the exact opposite.<\/p>\n Allen wasn\u2019t the one getting pushed off his spots; he was the one moving defenders out of the way and breaking their spirit in the second half.<\/p>\n This one game doesn\u2019t change who Allen is moving forward. In basketball and in life, you continually need to confront and overcome the same problems.<\/p>\n Allen conquering his previous challenges is emblematic of the team as a whole.<\/p>\n In this series, the Cavs repeatedly showed that they can meet the moment. RJ Barrett<\/a>\u2019s game-winning three in Game 6 that hung in the air for eternity before falling through might\u2019ve broken previous versions of this team. It didn\u2019t for this one.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Every time they had a chance to collapse after a bad break, they picked themselves back up and continued fighting. That\u2019s something that we haven\u2019t consistently seen before and will help them in the postseason.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m proud of our group,\u201d Max Strus<\/a> said after an impressive game of his own.<\/p>\n \u201cOvercoming adversity, losing, coming back from it, showing some toughness, showing some character, showing some resilience. I think it\u2019s going to be awesome for us to go through that. Now that we\u2019ve gone through it, we know what it takes to get over the hump. I think it\u2019ll be better for us in the next rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n That is undeniably true.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s also true that the Cavs proved their loudest critics right on multiple occasions over the last two weeks. Mental mistakes, such as struggling to get the ball over half court late in games, cost them both Game 4 and Game 6. Championship-level teams can\u2019t afford to give away road games, especially not two in similar ways.<\/p>\n The Cavs are both the team that showed they don\u2019t have to be defined by their postseason failures, and that what has led to them can pop up at any moment. The first option wasn\u2019t there for previous groups. That, more than anything, is reason to be optimistic if you want to be.<\/p>\n Talent has never been the problem with the Cavs.<\/p>\n The pieces are in place for a deep postseason run. The issue, both individually and as a collective, lies in rising to the occasion in the biggest moments.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Allen isn\u2019t the only one who\u2019s earned the reputation as a playoff failure. He\u2019s on the same team as James Harden<\/a> \u2014 the modern superstar most known for falling short in the clutch \u2014 and Donovan Mitchell<\/a> \u2014 someone who hasn\u2019t gotten out of the second round in his previous eight postseason attempts. Both will have to defeat their demons if this team is going to get over the hump.<\/p>\n Luckily for them, Allen provided the roadmap for doing so.<\/p>\n \u201cI always feel like in this league, when you get a certain label, it always sticks with you no matter what,\u201d Allen said. \u201cNo matter how hard you try to change it, it\u2019s always going to follow you around. I think that if I\u2026want to change the narrative that was placed on me\u2026that\u2019s going to weaken my strengths going forward and always try to weigh me back.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always been the guy that always just moves forward. Things happen in the past that go my way, that don\u2019t go my way. It\u2019s just part of playing basketball, being at the professional level. [All I can do is] just be my best going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n If Harden, Mitchell, and the rest of the team can continue following Allen\u2019s example and just be their best going forward, then maybe this group can accomplish something meaningful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 Reputations don\u2019t change overnight, especially ones built through years of playoff failures. The Cleveland Cavaliers didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[8174,13054,6418,27495,27497,25161,355,361,59050,99,2970],"class_list":["post-622752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-james-harden","tag-jarrett-allen","tag-max-strus","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-rj-barrett","tag-sports","tag-toronto-raptors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d402b6817e6e2a93c604edf99474911b.jpeg\"\/)
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