Jarrett Allen turns the lights out on Raptors season, leads Cavs to Game 7 win

CLEVELAND — To say losing Game 7 to the Toronto Raptors would be disastrous for the Cleveland Cavaliers is an understatement.

Eight years of building led to the most expensive roster in the league that traded for a 36-year-old former All-Star at the deadline just to save this season. Dropping this game would’ve been an indictment of every decision the front office made that led to this point, as well as the players who once again got bounced in the playoffs by a lower-seeded team.

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However, judgment day has been cancelled. Or at the very least, it’s been put off for at least a week.

It wasn’t pretty in the first half, but a strong response in the second half was enough to close out a plucky Raptors team in seven games, 114-102. It should’ve never gotten to this point, but the Cavs did what they needed to grab a win. And at this point, that’s all that matters.

As has been the case throughout most of this series, the Cavs started poorly. Jarrett Allen missed a wide-open dunk on Cleveland’s first offensive possession. That set the tone for what became a disastrous first quarter.

Toronto was once again the aggressor. They jumped out to an early 10-point lead behind seven early points from certified Cavalier killer Jamal Shead.

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This continued in the second quarter.

Toronto held a nine-point advantage with 2:41 left in the first half, but the Cavs erased it just before the break. A 11-2 run, capped off by a Jaylon Tyson triple, evened things up and gave Cleveland momentum for the first time all evening.

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That carried over into the third quarter. The Cavs registered the first nine points of the second half. In total, the Cavs had a 20-2 run that flipped a nine-point deficit into a nine-point advantage.

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Evan Mobley picked up his fourth foul just four minutes into the half. That meant that the Cavs would have to rely on Jarrett Allen for likely the remainder of the third quarter.