Getty Jarrett Allen of the Cleveland Cavaliers talks with head coach J. B. Bickerstaff.
By most indications, the most rousing part of the Cleveland Cavaliers win over the Brooklyn Nets Tuesday night came with ten minutes left in the fourth quarter, then All-Star Donovan Mitchell pulled off an impressive dunk over Yuta Watanabe.
Aside from the dunk, the win over Brooklyn also saw the awaited return of Jarrett Allen to the lineup. The big man finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds in his return from an eye injury, leaving head coach JB Bickerstaff to marvel postgame.
“I mean, he’s always in the right spot,” Bickerstaff said after the game of Allen, per the Cavaliers’ YouTube channel. “He’s always playing two guys at once, and the rim. So as long as he’s in the paint, people see him, and they’re not as likely to go and attack the paint because they see him already.”
Bickerstaff also noted that Allen’s presence allowed the Cavs to defend the paint, which had a cascading effect on stopping the rest of Brooklyn’s offense.
“Brooklyn, for example, like what they are really good at is getting into that paint, and that’s how they create a lot of their 3s,” Bickerstaff observed. “But when he’s there and in the right position, they don’t go as much because they don’t feel they have an advantage. And I thought that helped us limit some of the threes that they wanted to take also.”
The Cavaliers took the game over Brooklyn 109-105. But as noted, all eyes were on Mitchell’s dunk in the fourth quarter.
Jarrett Allen Sounds Off on Mitchell’s Dunk in Cavs Win
Even though Mitchell, who is 6’1, slammed the ball down over the 6’8 Watanabe, not everyone could give the dunk a perfect rating.
“That was one of his better ones,” Allen said. “It’s funny, we were talking about dunking, Donovan dunking, before the game and he had an excellent one. I give it a 9.7 out of 10,” Allen told Chris Fedor of cleveland.com after the game.
Why wasn’t it perfect? Allen struggled to give an exact reason.
“I don’t know,” Allen said. “But I’m not a guy that can say it’s perfect.”
Mitchell himself, ever humble, wasn’t even sure if the dunk was the best of his career.
“It was not bad,” Mitchell said. “Everybody’s reaction in the timeout, it was like, ‘That’s your best one.’ It’s up there. I don’t know if it’s my best, but it’s definitely up there.”
Donovan Mitchell Praises Mikal Bridges in Cavs Win over Nets
In fact, after the game, Mitchell was more concerned with the fact that his actions after the dunk led straight to a breakaway layup by Nets wing https://heavy.com/sports/nba/cleveland-cavaliers/mitchell-bridges-dunk-hustle-nets/Mikal Bridges.
“Outside of me letting Mikal Bridges get downhill instead of being in help because I was still thinking about the dunk,” Mitchell told reporters when asked how the dunk changed things for the Cavs.
As a result, the nice dunk was a fleeting moment of brilliance for Mitchell, who admonished himself for not getting back on defense.
“Typically it’s getting my a** back on defense,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t do that today, they got a bucket…That’s really what it is. Yeah, I dunked on them. But I gave up the points right back. Whoever was on the ball did a great job. I wasn’t in my shift spot to deter Mikal from driving to the rim to get the floater. So, at the end of the day, it’s great to have a dunk but you got to get back.”