CLEVELAND — The middle finger on Jarrett Allen’s left hand remains in a splint, immobilized against his ring finger.
When the Cleveland Cavaliers’ All-Star center sits on the bench to watch his teammates, he’s not only wearing street clothes instead of a uniform, but also a brace that wraps all the way around his pinky, because of his broken middle finger.
The Play-In Tournament doesn’t start tomorrow. But it does start next week. If Allen still needs to keep his broken finger perfectly still, how soon will he be able to lose the brace? And then dribble a ball, catch one, or block a shot without too much pain?
These are fair questions to ponder as you consider the 44 points and 17 rebounds NBA Most Valuable Player candidate Joel Embiid piled up in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 112-108 win over the Cavs on Sunday.
Embiid was ferocious. He scored 13 points in the fourth quarter. He took 20 foul shots and made 17. He blocked five shots. The Sixers needed Embiid to be precisely this good, or they would have lost to a short-handed Cavs bunch that has not only been playing without Allen since he was injured March 6, but Rookie of the Year candidate Evan Mobley also missed his fourth straight game with a left ankle sprain.
Mobley was at Sunday’s game, too, wearing a sweater instead of a jersey, but at least his injured ankle is no longer in a walking boot. The Cavs have said Allen and Mobley are progressing, with the hope one or both could return this week, ahead of the start of the postseason.
At minimum, Allen does not seem to pass the eye test. He’d be on the court playing with one hand, if all the contraptions holding his finger in place are any indication. The Cavs have said he’s begun to do some things as far as working toward a return but have not been specific. Internally, after Allen chose not to have surgery, the organization had hoped his finger would have healed by now. Discussions about his prognosis for a return have gravitated toward “if” instead of “when.”
“We’re monitoring how much attention that finger is getting,” Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said Sunday. “Making sure that, if the time comes and hopefully when the time comes, it won’t be a conditioning-fatigue-legs, issue. It’s just a matter of the finger healing properly and giving him the best time to heal.”
Allen is averaging career highs in points (16.1 ppg) and rebounds (10.8 rpg) and is blocking 1.3 shots per game. None of this is to suggest the Cavs would have contained Embiid with Allen on the floor — that is not something that is happening anywhere, on any night, in the NBA this season.
But with three games remaining, the Cavs (43-36) are trying to hang on to the No. 7 seed in the East, which would mean home-court advantage in the Play-In and only needing one win to make the playoffs. The Cavs hold a 1 1/2 game lead over the No. 8-seeded Atlanta Hawks.
Not only will the Cavs probably need to handle their business this week (games Tuesday at Orlando, Friday at Brooklyn and Sunday at home against Milwaukee) without Allen, but, again, the Play-In is around the corner. Cleveland could have to win the most important game of the year without Allen, to say nothing of Mobley.
“We’re trying to fight with the guys that we have right now,” said Caris LeVert, who scored 18 points with seven assists Sunday. “We don’t want to put any extra pressure or whatever on those guys. Those guys will be back when they’re ready, when they’re healthy. Regardless, we got to fight in their absence. We’re doing the best we can right now to hold down the fort until they get back, whatever that is.”
Cleveland thought it did a good job on all of Philadelphia’s high-end talent, without the two 7-footers. James Harden recorded a triple-double (21 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists), but he shot 4-of-13 from the field. Tyrese Maxey shot 4-of-11 and Tobias Harris was 4-of-12.
Even Embiid, the player of the game, was 12-of-26 from the field. The Cavs used Moses Brown on Embiid, as well as Lauri Markkanen, and Lamar Stevens, who is a wing.
The Sixers were ahead by one point, 107-106, when Cleveland’s best offensive player, Darius Garland (23 points), had the ball inside of 25 seconds to go. Garland’s defender went over on the screen, but Embiid didn’t stay with the screener. He stalked Garland, making it clear Garland would have to shoot over him if he tried to get to the rim.
Garland tried, and the shot ended up not hitting the rim. Garland hit the floor after a brush with Embiid. The Cavs wanted a foul called and didn’t get one.
“He was fouled,” Bickerstaff said after Sunday’s loss. “It’s simple. He was fouled. He did his job, got to a spot, and was fouled.”
The Sixers took 42 foul shots and made 35 of them, compared with 23 of 31 for Cleveland. Bickerstaff called the way the game was officiated “absurd,” and said, “that game was taken from us.”
Perhaps. Or, one could argue, it was Embiid who stole the game, in making his MVP case. Or, it was these injuries, at the worst possible time, to two of the Cavs’ three best players.
There are many ways to explain this empty feeling in Cleveland.
(Photo of Jarrett Allen: David Liam Kyle / NBAE via Getty Images)