What a difference a year can make. In the 11th game of the 2020-21 season, the Cleveland Cavaliers rolled out big men Andre Drummond and Larry Nance to lead the front court. They finished with plus/minus figures of -20 and -16, respectively, while JaVale McGee and Lamar Stevens provided unexciting relief off the bench. The Cavs lost 101-91 to a depleted Grizzlies roster.
Fast forward to present day, with the Cavs fresh off of their 11th game of this campaign. In that outing on Sunday, big men Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley led the front court — actually led it — with monstrous outings. Mobley continued the strong start to his rookie season with a night of 26 points, nine rebounds, five assists and a team-high +26 plus/minus. Allen capped off an excellent week with an 18-point, 17-rebound double-double. Again, what a difference a year can make.
But looking back a year is nothing compared to how far you had to go until you saw a Cavalier pick up the Easter Conference Player of the Week award. 2020-21 season? Never. 2019-20 season? Not even close. 2018-19 season? Nope. It's not until you get back to the 2017-18 Cavs that you'll find a Player of the Week: LeBron James, who did so in back-to-back weeks in March of that year.
Thankfully, that streak is now over. And once again, we look to the Cavs' front court for answers, with Allen's dominance getting the recognition it deserves.
The four-game winning streak is only the second since the 2018-19 season for the Cavs, and unsurprisingly, Allen was behind that streak as well. In the four games from February 23 to March 1 last season — all wins for the Cavs — Allen averaged 15.8 points, 14.0 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game. As you can see in NBA's tweet above, his stats are even stronger this time around.
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Allen, who came to Cleveland midway through last season from Brooklyn, is averaging 14.9 points and 11.6 rebounds on the season, putting him in pretty exclusive company in terms of players averaging 14 and 11. There are only eight others with that production to this point, including Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis and Nikola Jokic (via Stathead).
Oh, and Allen's Cavs are 7-4. And all their wins in this streak came against aspiring playoff teams — the Hornets, the Blazers, the Raptors and the Knicks. Not the worst time to be a Cavs fan, eh? In fact, they shot up a whopping 13 spots to crack the top ten in NBA.com's latest edition of their power rankings, released on Monday morning.
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