{"id":576582,"date":"2026-02-02T04:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T04:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/576582\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T04:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T04:56:15","slug":"winners-and-losers-cavs-at-blazers-jarrett-allen-makes-nba-history-in-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/576582\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners and Losers: Cavs at Blazers \u2013 Jarrett Allen makes NBA history in Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> beat the Portland Trail Blazers behind the best game of Jarrett Allen\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

WINNER \u2013 Jarrett Allen<\/p>\n

Last game, I gave Allen a WINNER for his dominant first half\u2014a first half that never translated to anything in the second as the Cavs let the Suns pull away from them. I\u2019m glad to say I can give him a proper WINNER for a complete performance this time.<\/p>\n

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Allen was dominant start to finish. Portland had no reprieve as he ran the floor and finished every opportunity in sight. He was too fast for Donovan Clingan\u2014and too big for anyone else on the court. Allen had 25 points and 10 rebounds at halftime and felt little resistance for the rest of the game.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just transition dunks or dump-off layups. Allen put on a show with his spin moves and crafty finishes. He even unleashed a textbook dream shake in the third quarter<\/p>\n

Allen finished with a career-high 40 points to go with 17 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 blocks. That\u2019s a statline that\u2019s never been done before in under 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

WINNER \u2013 Jarrett Allen (again)<\/p>\n

Yeah, that\u2019s right. We\u2019re making history with the first-ever double WINNER.<\/p>\n

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While Allen\u2019s performance tonight was special, I wanted to take an extra second to appreciate what goes into a game like this. Because the Cavs roster construction isn\u2019t built in a way that benefits someone like Allen. At least, not traditionally.<\/p>\n

NBA teams typically build around one rim-running big, not two. Being paired with Mobley could have been a deal breaker for Allen. Or a major hindrance to his production. But it hasn\u2019t been. Allen has consistently shown up to do his job (save for a playoff series in 2023) and has always stepped up when Mobley is out. Tonight is another example of this.<\/p>\n

For as much as we talk about Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley, it remains great that the Cavs have an option like Allen, who can deliver performances like this throughout the season.<\/p>\n

Most teams aren\u2019t able to lean on their fourth-best player in the way Cleveland can. And, most players of Allen\u2019s caliber aren\u2019t willing to be the fourth rung on the ladder. Yet he\u2019s never once complained, made excuses, or succumbed to the rampant online criticism. Allen has always been unapologetically himself, and that\u2019s worthy of my respect.<\/p>\n

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WINNER \u2013 Craig Porter Jr. and Sam Merrill<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just lump these two together.<\/p>\n

Porter dished out 12 assists in 27 minutes tonight. He\u2019s provided a huge boost of playmaking off the bench with Darius Garland on the sidelines. He\u2019ll never be a volume scorer, but Porter has found a way to stuff the stat sheet and flirt with a 5\u00d75 multiple times this season. He had 3 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 blocks to go with his 12 assists. Truly a unique player in today\u2019s NBA.<\/p>\n

As for Merrill, this is the type of game that has become familiar. Merrill hit on 6-of-8 three-point attempts, pouring in 22 points in 29 minutes. He was Cleveland\u2019s second leading scorer and helped blow this game open in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

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The Cavs need players to step up during this road trip. Big-time performances from Craig and Sam go a long way to stacking wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Portland Trail Blazers behind the best game of Jarrett Allen\u2019s career. WINNER \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,305,193,14901,791,974,864,1178,785,6,472,471,1166],"class_list":["post-576582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-craig-porter-jr","tag-darius-garland","tag-donovan-clingan","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-jarrett-allen","tag-mobley","tag-nba","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-sam-merrill"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115999263234675714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}