Jarrett Allen scored 14 of his career playoff-high-tying 22 points in the third quarter and grabbed 19 rebounds, powering the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 114-102 win over the visiting Toronto Raptors on Sunday night in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.
Fourth-seeded Cleveland, which trailed by double digits in the first and second quarters, will play the top-seeded Detroit Pistons in the East semifinals, beginning Tuesday in Detroit. The home team won every game in the Cavaliers-Pistons series.
Donovan Mitchell also had 22 points and James Harden posted 18 points and six rebounds for the Cavaliers, who built a 94-72 lead early in the fourth. Allen had 10 rebounds — five offensive — in the third when Cleveland outscored the Raptors 38-19.
“Emotions were high and the crowd was into it,” Allen said, before laughing, “Dr. J-A. I just had to let ’em know. I was just playing hard, trying to get us ahead.”
Mitchell agreed about Allen’s impact on both the game and the crowd.
“The crowd brought the same energy as Jarrett Allen,” Mitchell said. “That dude took over. He was doing everything, getting steals, rebounds, scoring points.”
Scottie Barnes collected 24 points, nine rebounds and six assists for fifth-seeded Toronto. RJ Barrett had 23 points on 9-of-25 field-goal attempts and Jamal Shead added 14 points and seven assists.
“For the stage of his career, (Barnes) gave it all,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but this is not the best version of Scottie we’re going to see. He’s going to be even better next season.”
Despite his coach’s praise, Barnes found plenty to blame for his team’s loss.
“They worked harder than us in this game,” he said. “They had 20 offensive rebounds. They had four guys crashing every play, even 5-10, 5-11 guys crashing the glass.”
Cleveland is 5-0 all-time at home in Game 7 and has beaten the Raptors all 11 times in the playoffs in its arena. The Cavaliers also have won all four of their postseason series against Toronto.
Evan Mobley, who had 13 points, scored the first basket of the second half to give Cleveland its initial lead at 51-49. It turned into a 20-2 run spanning the second and third quarters when Mitchell made a hoop with 9:28 remaining in the third to make it 58-49.
“Jarrett (Allen) really took us over the top with that third-quarter performance,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “That’s the best I’ve ever seen him. He was just absolutely incredible tonight.”
Cleveland used an 11-2 run to close the opening half, tying the score for the first time at 49-all on a Jaylon Tyson 3-pointer. Shead and Barnes led all players at the half with 14 points apiece, while Harden had 10 points and Sam Merrill added eight off the bench.
“It felt like we had them,” Barrett said. “That’s what’s going to hurt. We definitely could have won this game and won this series.”
The Cavaliers committed 13 turnovers in the first half, which Toronto turned into 14 points. Cleveland had six miscues in the first quarter and seven in the second.
Barnes netted the first five points of the evening after Allen missed a dunk on Cleveland’s opening possession. Shead made a runner to give the Raptors a 22-12 advantage, but Merrill had five points in the final three minutes to cut it to 26-24.
Shead scored seven points in the period and Barnes had five points and four assists, helping Toronto shoot 55% (11 of 20) from the floor.
The Raptors were without two starters, small forward Brandon Ingram (right heel soreness) and point guard Immanuel Quickley (right hamstring strain).
“We gave it all, everything we had today,” Rajakovic said. “Our guys were awesome. We made it hard on (the Cavaliers).”
–Field Level Media
