It seemed both teams picked a strange time to celebrate on Wednesday.
In an event that almost replicated what happened to the Cavs during Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference finals, confetti started falling from the Wells Fargo Center rafters as the Cleveland Cavaliers started to crawl their way back from a massive deficit against the Philadelphia 76ers. The Sixers would eventually take a 118-112 win over the Cavs their home court.
While the Cavs couldn’t pull off the miracle win against the 76ers, Cavs center Jarrett Allen celebrated something different. He raised his fist and celebrated as the team committed a three-second violation in the second quarter.
Jarrett Allen offered an examination into the team’s mindset behind celebrating the three-second calls, wrote Cleveland.com Cavs reporter Chris Fedor in a Thursday article.
“I could see how it (can) come off as different to some teams, but that’s just how we roll,” Jarrett Allen said. “About two years now, J.B. (Bickerstaff) was like ‘J.A., just stand in the paint, stand in the paint, they’re not gonna call it.’ He said celebrate. I just took it, and I just ran with it.
“Our thing is to protect the paint. We get a three second call, we’re playing our defense and we’re doing something right.”
Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff ducked his head and smiled when Jarrett Allen’s celebration on defense was brought up in a postgame press conference.
“It’s something that we’ve done all year,” Bickerstaff said. “We’ve begged our guys to protect the paint. We told them that we don’t care if they get defensive three-seconds because it’s taking away so many other baskets and attempts.
“Jarrett (Allen) has taken it upon himself to lead the cheer every time we get a defensive three-seconds now.”
The Cavs will tip off against the Denver Nuggets at 7 p.m. EST on Feb. 23 in Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. The game will be broadcasted on Bally Sports Ohio.
