Kenny Atkinson Gives Jarrett Allen, Tyrese Proctor Injury Updates

Jarrett Allen left the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 124-116 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder late in the first quarter Wednesday night with a right knee injury and did not return. Tyrese Proctor left in the fourth quarter with an apparent ankle injury.

Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said Allen would be evaluated Thursday.

Allen went down after a knee-to-knee collision with Jared McCain while setting an off-ball screen just past half-court. He walked off under his own power, according to The Plain Dealer’s Chris Fedor.

Evan Mobley replaced him with 1:11 left in the first quarter. Allen finished with 1 rebound and missed his only shot in 7:08.

Thomas Bryant played 12:49 off the bench and scored 8 points on 1-of-4 shooting and 5-of-6 at the line. Mobley finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds in 32:45. Oklahoma City outscored Cleveland 44-40 in the paint and 17-10 in second-chance points.

Atkinson did not have an answer on Allen’s knee after the game.

“I don’t know yet, too early to determine,” Atkinson said. “So the wrap, it gets wrapped, and I think they collide [knees]. So we’ll get looked at tomorrow and see what it looks like.”

Proctor made the second start of his NBA career in place of Meleek Thomas, who started Monday and scored a career-high 17 in a 117-112 loss to Oklahoma City.

He finished with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, made 2 of his 3 3-point attempts, and scored 6 in the fourth quarter. His 3 off a Donovan Mitchell pass at 5:07 made it 104-93, and his driving floater and free throw with 3:25 left cut Oklahoma City’s lead to 111-96. He committed a take foul two seconds later and was replaced by Craig Porter Jr., then left for the locker room with an apparent ankle injury, according to The Plain Dealer’s Ethan Sands.

Atkinson started Proctor on a gut feel. He wanted a different defender on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored 42.

“Just a feel,” Atkinson explained. “A gut, I definitely wanted to get a different guy on Shai. And Tyrese has been really good defensively for us. So that was a thinking, but it really didn’t. Meleek played well in the starting lineup, but just a gut feel.”

Proctor’s ankle took a pretty good twist, Atkinson said, and the minutes before it were what the staff expected.

“Hopefully it’s not too bad,” Atkinson said. “Came to it and it was a pretty good twist, though, pretty good. But he was good. What we expected, solid defensively, makes the right play offensively. Really, really good.”

“When you go through some stuff like this and little hard times, guys are out, you discover things,” Atkinson continued. “You always discover more about your team because you have different guys get more minutes. So that’s always the silver lining. He’s definitely taken advantage of his minutes so far.”

Proctor is in his second season. His rebounding has more than doubled, from 1.3 a game as a rookie to 2.8 this season.

Sam Merrill pointed to how hard Proctor fights through screens.

“He’s just continuing to get better,” Merrill said. “Tyrese is super competitive and puts in the work. Has defensively been good and really fights through screens. And he communicates, which is really important for us. And him just continuing to be super confident as a jump shooter and letting that thing go. And we know what he can do with the ball in his hands. So hopefully whatever happened to him isn’t too bad because we’re going to need him.”

Jaylon Tyson missed his third straight game with a sprained right ankle. Peyton Watson sat with right hamstring tightness, and Nae’Qwan Tomlin is out with a low back stress reaction. Tristan Enaruna played 15:59 and Craig Porter Jr. played 13:38.

Cleveland (4-4) is back at Rocket Arena on Friday to face the Philadelphia 76ers, with tip-off at 7:30 p.m. ET.