INDEPENDENCE — The Cavaliers are roughly as healthy entering the playoffs as they have been all season, but a few considerations do remain entering Game 1 of their best-of-7 series against the Toronto Raptors.
The knee injury that Cavs center Jarrett Allen sustained in early March is one of those situations.
Allen left a game March 3 after a knee-to-knee hit and then missed the next 10 games, along with a few scattered absences after that as the team tried to manage the injury.
Allen will be available for Game 1 between the Cavs and Raptors, set for 1 p.m. April 18. In fact, Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said April 16 they hadn’t even discussed restricting Allen’s minutes “or anything like that.” Cleveland will have their center for Game 1, barring something unforeseen before tip-off.
But Allen noted he is playing through some pain, and the idea that he’s at 100% might be going a bit too far.
“I’d be lying if I said I would expect it to be 100%,” Allen said at the team’s practice facility in Independence. “I don’t think anybody will be 100% going into the playoffs. That’s just how it is. … But I think it’s definitely something I’m going to have to deal with and manage, get treatment before, take the medicine that I’m supposed to to try to be at my best.”
Jarrett Allen injury update, history
Allen missed significant time in the 2024 playoffs dealing with a rib injury. It was originally termed as a bruise, but Allen later revealed he still had a piece of bone floating around in his system somewhere from the impact.
He went into the 2024-25 season with the goal of playing in all 82 regular season games, which he accomplished. But he fell short of that mission this year, as he was limited to just 56 games.
When on the floor, Allen averaged 15.4 points and 8.5 rebounds on 63.8% shooting from the floor. His minutes were ramped up to his normal levels at the end of the regular season, plus he’ll have nearly a week from their last game to Game 1 against the Raptors.
So even though Allen’s right knee will be an ongoing situation for the team to monitor, he is a full-go for the beginning of the playoffs.
“I had some time off for it to calm down and try to get back to homeostasis, back to the level where it should be,” Allen said. “[The pain] is not going to go away immediately. That’s something that’s going to linger for a while, but it’s enough where I can play at a high level, I believe.”
Ryan Lewis covers the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Jarrett Allen to play through knee injury in NBA playoffs vs Raptors
Reporting by Ryan Lewis, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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