CLEVELAND — Reputations don’t change overnight, especially ones built through years of playoff failures.
The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t alter how they were perceived with a gutsy 114-102 Game 7 win over the Toronto Raptors. They did, however, show that they don’t have to be defined by previous postseason letdowns.
Jarrett Allen was the exact opposite of the caricature he’s 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.
Defensively, Allen made it impossible for Toronto to finish inside.
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% of missed shots himself when he was on the floor, translating to 19 rebounds.
This all added up to Cleveland having an impressive 101.4 defensive rating with him playing.
That impact carried to the other end of the floor as well.
Allen played with a forcefulness that Toronto couldn’t match. Every cut, screen, or drive to the hoop was made with an effort that we don’t always see from Allen, but when he has few can stop.
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Head coach Kenny Atkinson saw a game like this coming with the way Allen looked in pregame intros.
“He was flying around,” Atkinson said. “Normally, he’s enthusiastic, but it was like, ‘Man, what got into this guy?’ But he was ready for the moment.”
Allen’s game is momentum-based. When he starts to see a few go through, his energy and effort continue to rise. That’s 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.
There was a simple message still written on the Cavs’ whiteboard after Game 7: “Win the possession game again!” Underneath that was a box with +9 in it, signaling how much they won that category.
The guards did a good job of limiting turnovers, but the real difference maker was Allen’s offensive rebounding.
Allen’s lowest playoff moment came when he couldn’t keep Mitchell Robinson and the New York Knicks off the glass three years ago. That was one of the many reasons Cleveland lost that first-round series so convincingly. It’s also where Allen made the infamous reference to the lights being “brighter than expected.”
This game was the exact opposite.
Allen wasn’t 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.
This one game doesn’t change who Allen is moving forward. In basketball and in life, you continually need to confront and overcome the same problems.
Allen conquering his previous challenges is emblematic of the team as a whole.
In this series, the Cavs repeatedly showed that they can meet the moment. RJ Barrett’s game-winning three in Game 6 that hung in the air for eternity before falling through might’ve broken previous versions of this team. It didn’t for this one.
Every time they had a chance to collapse after a bad break, they picked themselves back up and continued fighting. That’s something that we haven’t consistently seen before and will help them in the postseason.
“I’m proud of our group,” Max Strus said after an impressive game of his own.
“Overcoming adversity, losing, coming back from it, showing some toughness, showing some character, showing some resilience. I think it’s going to be awesome for us to go through that. Now that we’ve gone through it, we know what it takes to get over the hump. I think it’ll be better for us in the next rounds.”
That is undeniably true.
However, it’s 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’t afford to give away road games, especially not two in similar ways.
The Cavs are both the team that showed they don’t 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’t there for previous groups. That, more than anything, is reason to be optimistic if you want to be.
Talent has never been the problem with the Cavs.
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.
Allen isn’t the only one who’s earned the reputation as a playoff failure. He’s on the same team as James Harden — the modern superstar most known for falling short in the clutch — and Donovan Mitchell — someone who hasn’t 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.
Luckily for them, Allen provided the roadmap for doing so.
“I always feel like in this league, when you get a certain label, it always sticks with you no matter what,” Allen said. “No matter how hard you try to change it, it’s always going to follow you around. I think that if I…want to change the narrative that was placed on me…that’s going to weaken my strengths going forward and always try to weigh me back.
“I’ve always been the guy that always just moves forward. Things happen in the past that go my way, that don’t go my way. It’s just part of playing basketball, being at the professional level. [All I can do is] just be my best going forward.”
If Harden, Mitchell, and the rest of the team can continue following Allen’s example and just be their best going forward, then maybe this group can accomplish something meaningful.
