Cleveland Cavaliers are expecting to face the Brooklyn Nets Tuesday night without All-Star center Jarrett Allen, per Chris Fedor of cleveland.com. Allen remains out with a fractured finger in his left hand.
He sustained the injury in a game against Toronto on March 6. At the time, the Cavaliers said he would be out indefinitely.
Even though J.B. Bickerstaff said Allen made progress in a 15-minute-plus workout Sunday afternoon, Fedor reported the Cavs still aren’t optimistic about his availability for Tuesday.
The 23-year-old earned his first All-Star berth this season and is averaging career highs in both scoring (16.1) and rebounds per game (10.8). He’s also averaging 1.3 blocks per game.
The Cavaliers saw their record dropping after Allen’s injury in March. Prior to that, they were steadily holding a spot in the Eastern Conference top-5 teams.
If the Cavaliers win Tuesday, they’ll secure the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. If they lose, they will face the winner of Wednesday’s play-in game between the Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets.
The Cavs won just three of the final 11 games with the All-Star center missing all of them. They went 9-15 in the second part of the season facing injuries in key pieces of the roster like Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and Caris LeVert.
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