CLEVELAND, Ohio — On Tuesday night, all it took was one look exchanged between Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen.
The Cavs trailed the Brooklyn Nets for most of the game, their 14-game win streak in jeopardy. It was a slog of a first half with key players Donovan Mitchell, De’Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome all out.
“Me and J.A., we gave each other that look like, ‘all right, come on, let’s turn up a little bit,‘” Garland said. “And when he gave me that look, that’s when we just started going crazy, just flying everywhere.”
Blocked shots. Buckets. And most importantly, offensive rebounds.
Allen’s 23-point, 13-rebound, three-block output was huge down the stretch of Cleveland’s 109-104 win, their 15th straight. His third quarter effort in particular helped open things up for Garland, who poured in 18 of his game-high 30 points in the fourth quarter, as the Cavs clawed back after trailing by as many as 18.
“I thought J.A. was player of the game,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “I know Darius offensively, but J.A. is the one that really sparked our defense in the second half.”
So how exactly did Allen pull it off?
Two of his blocks came in the third quarter but Allen would argue that getting his hands on those shot attempts started with his work on the offensive glass.
He finished with six offensive rebounds for the game. Four came in the third quarter as the Cavs started to turn the tide.
“As the saying goes, when you score the ball and you touch the ball, you don’t get tired on defense,” Allen said. “And that’s exactly what was happening.”
Allen scored on putbacks after a missed 3 by Garland at the 5:12 mark, cutting Brooklyn’s lead to single digits, 75-66. He grabbed another big one on a missed 3 by Max Strus less than three minutes later, keeping things close and narrowing the Nets' lead, 79-71.
In the fourth quarter as the Cavs outscored the Nets 31-18 and Garland went on his run, Allen had one more big putback in him, tying the game at 94, grabbing the ball after a missed Garland floater. It was the first time the Cavs were able to knot things up since the 44-second mark in the first quarter.
When Allen is in this particular kind of zone, it’s a phenomenon that’s difficult to describe.
“You just see the board and you just go get it,” Allen said. “I know it doesn’t sound complex, but in this game, a lot of things just boil down to just the want for the ball, and we just needed it at that point. I just wanted to turn it on.”
And he did.
Keeping it close in those moments, Allen’s big grabs helped neutralize a tough shooting night for Cleveland.
The Cavs went 39 of 89 from the field, but were just 10 of 42 from 3 (23.8%), their worst performance from deep for the year.
“It’s hard to win in this league when you shoot that poorly,” Atkinson said. “And those extra possessions — it seems like when J.A. has the huge games, that he does it on the O-boards. And [it] seemed like he was cleaning up all our many misses tonight.”
Tuesday continued a trend for Allen and the Cavs: When he’s dominant on the offensive glass, the Cavs tend to win way more often than not.
This was Allen’s fifth game of the season with six offensive rebounds. He’s also had two games with a season-high seven, in wins over Brooklyn on Feb. 20 and OKC on Jan. 8. The Cavs have won six of those seven games, the lone loss being the 112-105 loss to the Celtics on Feb. 4.
Allen also still remains in the top 30 in the league (28th) and the best on the Cavs, averaging 2.7 offensive rebounds per game.
It’s impressive considering he has fewer opportunities than most to corral them. The Cavs have the best shooting percentage in the league currently (49.4%), and the top offensive rating at 121.8. He’s also been fighting through a hand injury in recent weeks.
“He’s got length and instinct, and then he’s got the grit to go get it,” Atkinson said.
More importantly, it’s the kind of game-changing grit that will come in handy mid-April onward.