Because of the COVID-19 pandemic that we are all experiencing, the NBA has had to make a couple of changes for this season. One of which is that the Toronto Raptors are not playing at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Instead, they’re playing at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay, which is the normal home of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning (who are the defending Stanley Cup champions).
The other significant change the league made is that 10 games got shaved off the schedule. So instead of the usual 82 games, this season is going to be 72 games, as we know. Also, the schedule got released in two parts which are 36 games each.
The first half of the schedule is approaching a close with the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ last road game set to be at the Toyota Center against the Houston Rockets on March 1. The Cavs’ last home game is on March 3 against a Central Division rival in the Indiana Pacers, for what it’s worth, and the league’s All-Star break is set to commence from the 5-10 of next month.
Speaking of the Central Division, Cleveland played the Milwaukee Bucks three times, the Detroit Pistons twice, and will end up having played the Pacers twice pre-All-Star break. There’s one division rival who the Cavs won’t have played in the first half of the season, though, and that’s the Chicago Bulls, but that’ll be much different soon enough.
As a result, the Cavaliers and Bulls will see a healthy dosage of each other in the second half of the season, with meetings on March 24 and April 17 in Chicago and April 21 in Cleveland. Regarding the second half of the schedule, the NBA released that for their games on Wednesday, and you can view the Cavs schedule via team release, specifically via PDF format, at this link.
However, the Bulls aren’t the only Eastern Conference team that the Cavaliers haven’t seen yet. There are three other Eastern Conference teams who Cleveland hasn’t played yet: the Toronto Raptors, the Miami Heat and the Washington Wizards. Now, there is a bit of a caveat with the Wizards. That’s because Cleveland and Washington were supposed to play a back-to-back set in our nation’s capital, but those games had to be postponed because the Wizards were having issues with COVID-19.
Additionally, there are some Western Conference teams who the Cavs haven’t seen at all yet. Those teams are the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, and the Sacramento Kings. Like Washington, there is a bit of a caveat with the Spurs because they were supposed to visit the FieldHouse this past Wednesday. But the Spurs were having their own COVID-19 issues, so the game got postponed.
For the other Western Conference teams, the Cavaliers have either played them once already or the two teams already wrapped up their season series.
The Cavaliers will have a few interesting road trips in the second half of their schedule. The first one is from March 12-16. Cleveland will be at the Pelicans on March 12, at the Atlanta Hawks on March 14, and at the Heat on March 16.
The next road trip of note goes from March 24-29. They again be in Chicago to start, on March 26 at the Lakers, March 27 at the Sacramento Kings, and finally at the Utah Jazz on March 29.
The last major road trip is from April 3-8, beginning at Miami, then on April 5 at San Antonio, and at Oklahoma City on April 8.
The thing that sticks out right away is the Chicago, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Utah road trip. It’s surprising that Oklahoma City wasn’t included in that road trip after Chicago or after Utah because either of those would make sense geographically.
When Cleveland and Chicago matchup with each other on three occasions, the Cavs may end up having their work cut out for them against the improved Bulls. Chicago is one of the top 10 teams in the conference that is fighting to make the playoffs, and are currently in that postseason mix, whereas I recently hit on, the Cavaliers appear to once again be bottom-feeders.
Bulls guard Zach LaVine, who has had 28.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game and has continued to ascend, recently got named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team as a reserve. Nobody from the Cavs got named to the All-Star team.
So who will the Cavs matchup against LaVine in order to try and slow him down? That figures to be by committee, with Isaac Okoro, one could perhaps see Lamar Stevens even, and perhaps Taurean Prince doing so.
When the Cleveland Cavaliers match up with the Sacramento Kings on March 22 and March 27, it will be a matchup of two young, budding guards in De’Aaron Fox for Sacramento and Collin Sexton, who has made further strides this season, for Cleveland.
Neither player made the All-Star team for their respective conferences but both players are on the upswing, and Sexton’s case, he’s led Cleveland in scoring once again at 23.1 points per outing, and has made strides as a secondary playmaker, with 4.2 assists per contest.
Moreover, we’ll have to see what plays out/how Cleveland closes and/or what kind of impact hopefully Kevin Love can have when he’s back, for instance.