The Cleveland Cavaliers swept the Indiana Pacers in their first round series after on Sunday they won 106-102 in Game 4.
The game went down to the last seconds and if the Pacers were able to capitalize on J.R. Smith’s faulty behind the back pass then there might have been a Game 5.
The series was close but the Pacers just didn’t have any luck. They weren’t able to pull a win out in any of the games in the final seconds.
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cavaliers are the ones that benefit from the Pacers woes though but in the back of their mind they have to be thinking how good they are.
The Pacers had a 26-point lead in Game 3 and it looked like they had that game in hand but they couldn’t pull it out. That had to hurt their confidence going into the next game with the fact that nobody has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit and they would eventually lose in Game 4.
The problem for the Cavaliers is the fact that they are a 2 seed and the Pacers are a 7 seed. The games should not have been as close as they were.
They will take the win but while they get this chance to rest and prepare for the next series they will have to think about how to dominate the competition and not make everything so close.
Rest is something the Cavaliers have been doing all season to their best players but now they are not playing games while the rest of the NBA is playing games and that is big.
Their next opponent, which is either the Toronto Raptors or the Milwaukee Bucks, will have to play one more game or possibly another game.
The Raptors are up 3-2 so if they win the next game they will advance and the Cavs would have had eight days of rest and the Raptors would have four from the start of the next round which is May 1st.
If the Bucks win that means they played all the way up to a game seven and the Bucks would only have two days of rest.
It might not be a big deal but with the way the games were spread out in the first round everybody got rest in between games.
The Bucks are young so that might not matter but they will face a rested Cavaliers team with veterans that are only playing for a ring. The Bucks are a couple of years away from a ring so advancing to the next round is a big step for them.
The Raptors are trying to finally beat the Cavaliers and move on to the next round to take their franchise to the next level and win a championship.
The Cavaliers would rather want the Bucks because they are a young team but they know they can dominate the Raptors. They are another team that they have the mental advantage over.
The Cavs will look to get through the semifinals as easy as they got through the first round to keep themselves rested.
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Whoever will get the Cavaliers out of the Bucks and Raptors will get a rested team that is ready to show that they can dominate and build confidence on their way to a championship.