NBA
Will Jarrett Allen play for the Cavs in Game 3 against the Celtics? Injury update
J. B. Bickerstaff’s team are back on home turf after levelling the series. Let’s take a look at how their casualty list is looking heading into Saturday’s game.
Cleveland registered their first win away from home of the postseason, beating top seeds the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Thursday to tie the series at 1-1. “It was one of our best games, for sure,” head coach JB Bickerstaff told reporters afterwards. “The understanding and the execution... of what it was going to take for us to win this game. You see it on film, then you get thrown into it. I thought out guys did a great job of picking up what we needed to do in order to make it tough on them to come up with a win”.
Jarrett Allen recovering from pierced rib injury
Bickerstaff has four players on their injury list, including Jarrett Allen. Allen has played a key role in the Cavs’ postseason - he leads the team’s in rebounds (13.8), steals (1.2) and has the second best figures, behind Donovan Mitchell, in shooting. The 26-year-old center has been sidelined since Game 4 of the last round. He finished as the Cavs’ top scorer in the 112-89 defeat to the Magic but suffered a pierced rib injury during the game after colliding with Franz Wagner, taking an elbow to the ribs. The injury left him in excruciating pain and kept him out for the subsequent four matchups, plus the first two games of the semi-finals.
According to the latest reports, Allen’s rib injury is showing no signs of improvement. The Athletic’s Shams Charania noted that due to the nature of the injury, Allen will not feel comfortable, whatever he does out on court: “You feel it all the time. The words I keep hearing are ‘really uncomfortable,’” the journalist explained. Other sources have claimed that the player has been struggling to lift his arm.
Bickerstaff explained: “Every day, he tries to do more and more and test the mobility. That’s where we’ll get the signs ... of when he’ll be able to play. We’re not gonna put him out there if he can’t protect himself and that’s where he’s been at to this point”.
Allen averaged 17 points (67.6% from the field), 13.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1 block per game in the first round against the Magic. He played 77 games during the regular season, averaging 16.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
Apart from Allen, three others won’t be suiting up for the Cavs tonight - Dean Wade is ruled out with a knee injury, Ty Jerome is nursing an ankle injury and fringe player Craig Porter remains out with a sprained ankle.
Without them, Bickerstaff said the plan remains exactly the same - to win Game 3: “That’s the most important thing to the guys. There is nothing else that matters. There’s no other agenda. We’ve got playoff games in front of us that we need to win, and the guys are sacrificing and willing to do whatever it takes to win because they don’t want to disappoint one another. When it seems that our backs are against the wall and things are difficult, our guys figure out a way together to get through it”.