The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Allen, Prince look like good fits for Cavs
Takeaways from the Cavaliers’ 147-135 victory the Brooklyn Nets in double overtime on Jan. 20 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse:
• The question of how long it will take newcomers Jarrett Allen and Tauren Prince to fit in with their new team is being quickly answered. Both players were acquired by the Cavaliers from the Nets on Jan. 13 in the four-team blockbuster trade that sent star guard James Harden from the Houston Rockets to Brooklyn.
With the games against the Washington Wizards on Jan. 17 and 18 postponed because of the novel coronavirus, Allen and Prince had to wait until the Jan. 20 game against, coincidentally, the Nets to make their debut with the Cavs.
Allen was greeted warmly by the fans and promptly swatted away a shot by his former teammate, Reggie Perry.
Prince blocked a shot by Perry in the final minute of the third quarter to keep the Cavaliers lead at 87-73. He and Allen both played with authority.
Allen, a 6-foot-11 center, and Prince, a 6-foot-7 forward, were both on the floor to start the fourth
quarter and both helped send the game into overtime.
Prince scored eight points in the fourth quarter. Allen also scored eight points in the fourth quarter.
Allen pulled down four rebounds and blocked a shot in the fourth and was on the floor for all but 16 seconds of the two fiveminute overimes. He had one more rebound, another blocked shot — his fourth of the game — and two more points to run his total to 12 heading into the second overtime. He finished with a team-best 11 rebounds.
Prince finished the night with 17 points and seven rebounds in 31 minutes. The Cavaliers were plus-20 when he was on the floor.
• Washington D.C. turned a page on Jan. 20 when Joe Biden replaced Donald Trump as president of the United States. A few hours later, Cavaliers fans turned a page on Kyrie Irving.
Irving was booed when he was introduced as part of the Brooklyn Nets by the small crowd at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse — not lustily but he was booed by the crowd made small because novel coronavirus restrictions limit capacity to 2,000.
The fans who expressed themselves by booing apparently have not forgiven Irving for demanding a trade out of Cleveland after the 2016-17 season. Irving was traded to the Boston Celtics and two years later was traded to the Nets.
During the first timeout of the game, however, a clip of Irving scoring the winning basket over Steph Curry in the 2016 NBA Finals was shown on the Humongotron. The same fans who just minutes earlier booed Irving cheered him when he stepped back onto the court after the timeout. He waved to the crowd as though everybody was old friends and pointed to the ring finger on his left hand.
• Cavaliers center Andre Drummond plays hard every game, but Allen had the hot hand against his former team. So Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff stuck with Allen in the second half.
Drummond leads by example and shows the younger players on the team that being a professional basketball player means more than being paid.
Drummond, 6-foot10, 279 pounds, had double-digit rebounds in all 12 games he played this season prior to grabbing seven rebounds in 26 minutes against the Nets. He had an incredible game against the New York Knicks on Jan. 15 when he scored 33 points and pulled down 23 rebounds in just under 40 minutes.