On Wednesday, Jan. 26, the Cleveland Cavaliers welcomed the reigning NBA champions to town. It was the third of four meetings this season between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Cavaliers, and the first at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The fourth meeting between the Central Division foes will be on April 10, also at RMFH, at a time “TBD”. The season series was tied 1-1 as the two teams split their regular-season meetings up in Wisconsin.
Wednesday’s game between Milwaukee and Cleveland was significant because the two teams are division rivals, but there’s an even bigger reason why that contest mattered. Going into the matchup, Milwaukee was ahead of Cleveland in the Conference standings by half a game. Thus, if the Cavs won they would jump the Bucks in the East.
The Cavaliers were able to knock off the Bucks at RMFH by a score of 115-99. Here’s the most important thing about this win: the Cavaliers were able to defeat a team when they were at full strength. That has been a problem for them all season long. They have wins that could be considered statement wins, such as the MLK Day game against the Brooklyn Nets. Brooklyn didn’t have Kevin Durant, however, who may be the best player in the NBA, so people want to hold that against the Cavs.
It’s not Cleveland’s fault that they have gone against teams when they were not at full strength. They just played the next team on their schedule. No team in the league is immune to injuries, everyone goes through it. This is especially true given how prominent Covid-19 is; players are going on and off the Covid list all the time. But this shouldn’t mean that statement wins get asterisks.
The Cavaliers still have two wins in hand against the Bucks and Miami Heat, and they have one win in hand against the Nets and Chicago Bulls. Before the season, the Bucks and Nets were being talked about in a way where they were being put on a tier above the rest of the East. Therefore the Cavs logging at least one win against those two is huge. Given their strong play this year, let’s also not dismiss the victories against Miami and Chicago.
Wednesday’s victory against Milwaukee has major ramifications in the Eastern Conference Standings, but can the Cavs stay up near the top?
Since the Cavaliers are in the top six in the East, they would qualify for the playoffs directly instead of taking part in the play-in tournament. Cleveland has played every other team in the “Top 6 ” except for the Philadelphia 76ers. These two teams will play four times this season, yet their first matchup won’t take place until well past the midpoint of the season. With four games still remaining and depending on what the other teams do, this could have major playoff implications for both teams.
The first matchup between the Cavs and Sixers will be on Saturday, Feb. 12 in “The City of Brotherly Love” aka Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The unfortunate part of that first matchup between the Cavaliers and 76ers is that it will be on the second night of a back-to-back after Cleveland faces another Central Division rival in the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis the night before.
The Cavs and 76ers will also meet March 4 in Philadelphia, March 16 in Cleveland, and finally on April 3 in Cleveland.
Philadelphia is a very difficult team to go against. Joel Embiid is a matchup nightmare for just about everyone in the league. Tobias Harris is certainly no slouch either. Harris can fill it up and make shots for the Sixers. Seth Curry also plays for Philadelphia, and he’s a Curry, do I need to say more? Danny Green is another shooter on Philadelphia’s roster. This team feels somewhat similar to the 2009 Orlando Magic squad that knocked out the Cavaliers in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals. They won’t be an easy matchup for the Cavaliers.
If one team or the other goes 3-1 or even 4-0 in this season series, it could be enough to propel them up to first in the East, or down to sixth. These four games aren’t only a potential playoff matchup between two talented teams, they could decide the matchups and final standings for the entire Conference.
When people think of the successful seasons for the Cleveland Cavaliers, one name immediately comes to mind. Of course, that name is LeBron James. Would the Cavs have made it to the 2007 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs without LeBron? Absolutely not! So for this year’s Cavaliers to be doing so well (31-20) is absolutely incredible.
They are not just exceeding the small amount of expectations that were put on them before the season, the Cavs are absolutely shattering them.