With 24 games left to go in the regular season, the Cleveland Cavaliers are sitting on a 38-22 record and fourth place in the Eastern Conference. However, they're just a couple of games behind the second-seeded Boston Celtics and one game behind the New York Knicks.
The Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers are also on their toes, but given the way they've played lately, securing a top-four -- or even top-two -- seed shouldn't be out of the question. They're 19-11 at home, so they can definitely use home-court advantage in the playoffs, even for a round.
Fortunately for Kenny Atkinson's team, they're in a prime position to accomplish that. As Cavaliers insider Danny Cunningham of Locked on Cavs pointed out on social media, the Cavs will have just a few challenging matchups to close out the season.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have the easiest schedule in the East
"The Cavs currently have the easiest remaining schedule in the Eastern Conference," Cunningham said. "Their four toughest remaining games are within the next six games that they'll play. After that they have one game (@ LAL, 3/31) against a team currently with a winning percentage above .600."
While that's great news for seeding, it will leave the Cavaliers with just a handful of opportunities to battle-test his new roster. As such, they must approach each and every single one of those matchups as playoff-caliber games, especially after falling to 0-2 in the season series against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
Four of their next six games will come against top-tier competition, with two matchups with the Detroit Pistons, one game versus the New York Knicks, and one game versus the Boston Celtics. They need to use those matchups as much more than just playoff-seeding contests, testing out their lineups and matchups for the playoffs in the process.
The Cavaliers ran away with the top seed last season, but it didn't do much to help their case after that was done. They couldn't keep up with the Indiana Pacers' physicality, pace, and intensity. Their mental fortitude has also been a subject of debate in recent years.
That's why this final stretch will be so crucial and about much more than just making the new pieces mesh together. It's about building confidence in themselves and one another. The Cavaliers need to prove to the rest of the East that they've learned from their past mistakes and are finally ready to get the monkey off their backs.