Jarrett Allen Faces Mobley’s 8-for-24 Slump In Games 3 And 4

jarrett allen and the Cavaliers needed Evan Mobley to steady a playoff series that had already turned, but Games 3 and 4 brought an 8-for-24 shooting line instead. Cleveland lost two straight to the Toronto Raptors after opening the series with two wins, and Mobley averaged 11.5 points per game across the pair.

Mobley and Toronto

Mobley was at the center of Cleveland’s slump. He went 0-for-7 from 3-point range in Games 3 and 4, and the Cavaliers were outscored by 33 points in his minutes between those games.

Scottie Barnes also played well against Cleveland in the series, and rookie Collin Murray-Boyles outplayed Mobley on both ends in the last couple of games. That left the Cavaliers searching for a different answer from the frontcourt they expected to anchor this run.

Cleveland’s playoff pressure

The Cavaliers entered this postseason with the East’s 4-seed after 52 wins, a step down from the 64-win season before this one. The gap between those regular-season numbers and the two losses to Toronto has put more weight on Mobley’s role than Cleveland could afford.

That pressure sits alongside the broader expectation around the roster. Mobley was supposed to be a centerpiece of the future and one of the league’s best defenders, and Cleveland also framed the season around a team that was expected to dominate the Eastern Conference and reach the NBA Finals.

Jarrett Allen’s frontcourt test

Jarrett Allen now sits in the middle of the same problem. Cleveland’s front line has to answer Toronto’s momentum after the two straight losses, and the recent numbers give the Cavaliers little margin: 8-for-24 shooting from Mobley, 0-for-7 from deep, and a 33-point deficit in his minutes across Games 3 and 4.

For Allen, the task is straightforward. Cleveland has to get more from its bigs before the series slips further, because the Raptors have already taken back control and Mobley’s last two games have made that impossible to ignore.