Cavs News: Showdown in Philly, All-Star, the best team

Danuel House, Philadelphia 76ers and Darius Garland, Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
Danuel House, Philadelphia 76ers and Darius Garland, Cleveland Cavaliers. Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images

The Cleveland Cavaliers have one final test before the All-Star Break. Tonight they will be in Philadelphia to face the 76ers. These two teams have developed some recent history as the Cavs have grown into a good team, and while the 76ers have been good for a while, they haven’t exactly broken through in the playoffs. These are two teams both trying to push the East’s upper crust.

Positioning down the stretch will be crucial at the top of the East. Securing a top-2 seed means home-court advantage in two series, something that could be a deciding factor. All four teams in contention in the East are alive for any of the four spots, with just four games separating them.

The Cavs won the first game against the 76ers, so winning tonight would put Cleveland in a position to secure the tiebreaker. They are set up to have the tiebreaker over all three of their opponents at the top of the standings, which would be huge at the end of the year as they jockey for positioning.

Tonight’s game holds enough importance that ESPN flexed it into the lineup, moving out the defanged Nets. The entire country will be watching as Cleveland tries to go into Philly and pull out a statement win, something they have been doing all season.

More Cavs news

The full list of participants for All-Star Weekend was announced yesterday, and they highlighted something: there are not a lot of Cavaliers participating in the festivities. Donovan Mitchell will start in the All-Star Game but he declined a spot in the 3-point Contest. Evan Mobley will play in the Rising Stars Game. That’s it! It’s a far cry from last year’s event when Cleveland hosted and had participants in nearly all of the events.

The Cavs might be playing for third place this evening, but there is a case to make that they are actually the best team in the NBA. We laid out the case this morning on the website, looking at the strength of their defense, the advanced metrics and some more subjective elements to highlight the true strength of this Cavaliers team.

NBA news

A five-game slate had a mix of studs and duds. The Orlando Magic gave the Toronto Raptors all they could handle before Scottie Barnes helped the Raps pull away late to win and stay in the thick of the East Play-In race. The Washington Wizards did the same, blowing out the Trail Blazers in Portland. That game also gave us a teaser for the Dunk Contest when Shaedon Sharpe detonated on the rim:

It’s too bad he dropped out. Kyle Kuzma may want to drop out of the league after that one.

The game of the night was in Milwaukee, where the Boston Celtics nearly won a game in which they were missing four of five starters (including Jayson Tatum) and the Bucks had a full complement of starters. In the end, Jrue Holiday was too much, pouring in 40 points to lead the way. Just a half-game separates the Celtics and Bucks at the top of the East, with Philly three games back and Cleveland four.

Coming up: ESPN Wednesday night, at 7:30 pm, the Cavaliers take on the 76ers before a week off for the All-Star Break.