5 Cavs games that jump out in second half of 2022-23 season

Key Cavs game No. 4 of second half: Versus the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, March 15 @ 7:30 PM

As for the next outing, Cleveland’s game versus the 76ers on Wednesday, March 15 is another game that I’m circling.

Cleveland lost all four of their games to Philadelphia last season, but the games were mostly close, and the second they let slip away after a blown lead. The final two games in Cleveland in the closing stretch of the season could’ve went either way as well, unfortunately not in the Cavs’ favor.

The Cavaliers don’t have James Harden or Joel Embiid, however, and both will get theirs. Cleveland should benefit from the likes of Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio’s impact in these contests, though, which was not there last season, and I personally could foresee the bench having a sizeable impact, perhaps playing some through Kevin Love here as well.

Overall, the dynamic between Harden/Tyrese Maxey and the Cavs’ perimeter guys should make this one worth the hype, and I’ll be looking to see if Mobley can make plays off-ball defensively to help Jarrett Allen and in denying Embiid entries.

And offensively, can the Cavs get Markkanen rolling in this one on the other end to open some things up?

Needless to say, there’s plenty of elements to this game to warrant the national broadcast. It could be two teams vying for better seeding then, too.

Our own Josh Ungar sees the Sixers as the Cavs’ biggest rival from here, which I personally think is a stretch, but given how things played out in the closing stretch of last season, I could see where he’s coming from.

This one of course set to be on ESPN adds all the more juice to it, not to mention this contest is with the regular season winding down. There could very well be some playoff implications as well.