Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen will miss Game 3 against the Boston Celtics. This is his sixth consecutive postseason game he’s missed with a rib injury he sustained in Game 4 against the Orlando Magic. This came after only missing five games in the regular season.
Allen did participate in morning shoot-around on Saturday for the first time since his injury. However, he wasn’t exactly moving his arms as freely as you need to in order to play center in a playoff game. Even something simple like shooting free throws seemed painful as it appears he’s more pushing the ball more than he is actually shooting it.
Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said before Game 3 that the rotations wouldn’t be the same when Allen is able to return.
“If he plays,” Bickerstaff said before Allen was officially ruled out, “[he] obviously won’t be able to [play] the long stints that he’s used to playing. We would typically run him the longer stint between him and Evan [Mobley]. But, if he does play, it won’t be that. It’d have to be shorter stints.”
Bickerstaff mentioned that conditioning has been an issue for him given the nature of the injury.
Mobley has done a good job of filling in and the smaller frontcourt has worked well so far in the playoffs. The issues have come with finding a backup four and five for when Mobley is on the bench. Dean Wade’s return for Game 3 should be able to help with that.
Bickerstaff is confident Mobley will be able to continue the level of play he showed in Game 2 as the starting center.
“I think he’s got the mindset of being aggressive,” Bickerstaff said prior to Game 3. “I love when he defensive rebounds the ball and pushes it. He had the coast-to-coast [runs] and a few assists off of it. So I think he’s just being aggressive and how he helps diversify our offense. We need it from everybody at this point.”