The Cavs will be without Allen in Game 7.
The Cleveland Cavaliers will once again be without Jarrett Allen on Sunday afternoon as he’s officially been ruled out of Game 7 vs. the Orlando Magic. Allen initially injured his ribs in Game 1 and then reaggravated it during the second half of Game 4. He played through it for the remainder of the evening but was sidelined for Games 5 and 6.
J.B. Bickerstaff will be reverting back to the Game 5 starting lineup with Isaac Okoro starting in Allen’s place instead of Marcus Morris. The first five are Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Okoro, Max Strus, and Evan Mobley. Orlando is going back to their typical regular season starting lineup with Garry Harris back. He will join Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero, and Wendell Carter Jr.
The Cavaliers will need to find a way to rebound without Allen. The Magic grabbed 33.9% of their misses in Game 6 (82nd percentile for an offense) after just getting 24.4% in Game 5 (36th percentile for an offense). They’re allowing their opponent to grab 29.9% of their missed shots this series without Allen on the court. That number has ballooned to 36.5% (3rd percentile for a defense) with Okoro on and Allen off.
The defense has been fine without Allen, but the offense has been a completely different story. He was the second-most consistent scorer on the team as he averaged 17 points on 67.6% shooting through the first four games. The offense has only mustered a 94.7 offensive rating (0 percentile) this series without him on the floor.
This rib injury comes at the absolute worst time for the Cavs in what had been a healthy season for him up until this point. Allen had only missed five full regular season games before the injury.
The Cavs will need their front court to step up in a way they couldn’t in Game 6 if they want to stave off elimination. Mobley, Morris, Georges Niang, and Tristan Thompson combined for just 10 points in the team’s total collapse outside of Mitchell in Game 6. Cleveland can’t afford for that to happen again.
