The Cleveland Cavaliers are catching a break.
It's not that they need any help to win basketball games. The Cavaliers are 11-0, with some statement wins over the likes of the New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors. They dismantled the Los Angeles Lakers and the Toronto Raptors, among others. They took down the Milwaukee Bucks in consecutive games.
With a deep team packed with both stars and role players, the Cavaliers are rolling to start the season. While their level of play has certainly been impressive, they have also benefited from health for their four stars. On the other hand, they have played a handful of teams at less than full strength, including wins over the Bucks and Magic without their best players, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Paolo Banchero respectively.
The Cavaliers continue getting lucky
That run of luck looks like it will continue this week. Wednesday night the Cavaliers will be playing the Philadelphia 76ers, who have had a painful start to the season with Joel Embiid yet to play a single game. Paul George missed two weeks to start the year, then as soon as he tagged in Tyrese Maxey went down with a hamstring injury. Who the Sixers are at full-strength is a mystery that will not be solved anytime soon.
Joel Embiid has a long history of lower body injuries, and it's not surprising that he is missing time - although the details about why he isn't playing are few and far between. Ramping up to be "game ready" has apparently cost him multiple weeks. Frustration over a lack of communication and Embiid not playing - and the resulting losses, because no one cares if you're winning - have hit those in Philadelphia a certain way.
That included a local columnist, Marcus Hayes, who took shots at Embiid for not playing by referencing his dead brother and young son, which caused an altercation where Embiid lost his cool and shoved the columnist. Neither person comes off looking good from the situation.
Embiid was handed a three-game suspension, one that just wrapped up on Sunday as the 76ers hung on to beat the Charlotte Hornets in overtime and move to 2-7 on the season. To serve the suspension he had to be healthy enough to "play" in the missed games, which means he has to make his debut in their next game - an NBA Cup opener against the New York Knicks on Tuesday night.
That sequence of events -- shove, leading to a 3-game suspension, leading to a necessary debut on Tuesday -- will have an incidental side effect.
The Cavaliers won't need to play Joel Embiid
Embiid and the 76ers have all-but confirmed that he will not be playing any back-to-backs this season. That means that with Embiid close to a lock to suit up on Tuesday, he will almost certainly not play on Wednesday -- when the 76ers are scheduled to play the Cleveland Cavaliers.
That means the Cavs will once again catch a break in the schedule, playing a 76ers team with at most one of its three stars available. For a team built to support three stars, they do not have the depth to muster a top-level effort against a team like the Cavaliers. Anything can happen, especially given the variance of launching a high volume of 3-pointers, but the Cavs will be extreme favorites playing Paul George and the Backups on Wednesday night.
With two games against the Chicago Bulls this week, the Cavaliers will be heavily favored in all three of their games. What could have been the moment that Cleveland's undefeated run comes to an end will instead be another moment where Joel Embiid is sitting courtside in street clothes while the 76ers are run out of their own building.
Things just keep breaking right for the Cavaliers.