As the marathon that is the NBA season comes to a brief pause before the postseason, no matter how you look at the season, it’s pretty incredible the Cleveland Cavaliers will be playing in the postseason. Albeit, the play-in at first, but still it’s impressive for such a young team.
On Sunday, the Cavs finished off the regular season with a win over the Milwaukee Bucks 133-115. Kevin Love led the Cavaliers in scoring with 32, shooting 8-for-11 from three-point range. The Bucks seemingly rested Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, Bobby Portis and Grayson Allen in the finale, and there’s a chance Milwaukee and the Cavs will meet again in the first round of the playoffs.
The trio of Jordan Nwora, Sandro Mamukelashvili, and Thanasis Antetokounmpo combined for 79 points on the afternoon. Lauri Markkanen kept his hot streak going, scoring 23 for the victors, going 4-of-7 from outside. Evan Mobley had a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Before we get into the stud and dud from Sunday’s game, let’s look at the Cavaliers current playoff picture with everything locked into place.
The Play-In Tournament
Added to the postseason recently, the 7, 8, 9, and 10 seeds in each conference will play games to see who gets the final two spots in the playoffs.
After the Brooklyn Nets win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday, the Cavaliers must now travel to Brooklyn to take on the Nets on Tuesday night. The game will be at 7:00 PM ET on TNT. The winner of that game will get the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference, and play the Boston Celtics in a seven-game series in the first round of the playoffs.
However, the loser of that game will play the winner of the Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets, the ninth and 10th seed in the East. That game will take place on Wednesday night in Atlanta on ESPN at 7:00 PM ET. Whoever wins that game will take on the loser of the Cleveland-Brooklyn one, at the latter’s arena.
I know it’s not where Cavalier fans hoped the team would be when looking at the standings in January, but in a one-game setting, you can throw out the records.