After splitting a home-and-home set with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday and Monday, the Cleveland Cavaliers now have a tough schedule to finish off the week. On Wednesday, they are hosting the LA Clippers, and then Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks come to town for back-to-back matchups at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Friday and Saturday.
Although, on Tuesday, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and the Clips visited Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets. Many fans and experts alike were saying this was a possible NBA Finals preview. Plus, the game was on national television.
On top of all that, the Clippers had to expend a lot of energy in a tight game on Tuesday night that they ultimately lost narrowly 124-120.
Now they have to turn around and face a middle-of-the-road Cavaliers team who has gone 4-4 in their last eight games, which included back-to-back home victories against the Nets. Durant was not playing in one of those outings, though, and the first meeting was that Brooklyn Big 3’s first game together.
Anyhow, while LA was in the pressure cooker of being in the national spotlight at Brooklyn, the Cavaliers were able to take the day off and so they were able to prepare for Wednesday’s game.
In turn, the Cavs might able to use that to their advantage in Wednesday night’s game.
The Cavs might have a slight advantage in this one with the Clips just having played that hard-fought Nets contest.
The Clippers could seemingly end up resting George or Leonard; now, that would seem to make the job easier for Cleveland, right?
However, last season the Clippers came to Cleveland on the second night of a back-to-back when Leonard took the night off and LA still put a whooping on the Cavs 133-92. That was the night after the Clippers got blown out at the Minnesota Timberwolves, 142-115, too.
So you have to take the whole situation with a grain of salt because being in Cleveland on the second night of a road back-to-back didn’t affect the Clippers last season, and Cavs such as Darius Garland and Collin Sexton have been playing far better. The Cavs didn’t have players such as Isaac Okoro and Jarrett Allen, who was terrific in a start for Andre Drummond on Monday (lower back soreness), then, either.
And along with that, LA was not coming off of a nationally televised game on night one. Will that ultimately make a difference?
Early on, the Clippers will most likely be sluggish versus the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night. Being that the Cavaliers are the younger team, they might be able to take advantage of that. Guys like Sexton, Cleveland’s leading scorer once again at 24.1 points per game, Garland, Allen, and others might be able to take advantage of the situation.
Will they be able to sustain it long enough before the Clippers, who are currently second in the Western Conference, find their legs? We’ll have to wait and see.