Entering Wednesday, James Harden and the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers had 28 games remaining in the regular season, with 13 of those games against NBA teams that are tanking, according to Yahoo Sports' Tom Haberstroh.
Haberstroh calculated that only the Golden State Warriors and Orlando Magic have as many games remaining against tankers. In Haberstroh's eyes, this gives the Cavs a good chance to make a run at the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
James Harden and the Cavaliers' remaining schedule is full of bad teams
Full disclosure, the teams Haberstroh identified as tankers were the Sacramento Kings, New Orleans Pelicans, Brooklyn Nets, Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks, Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Clippers, and Washington Wizards.
The Cavs handled Washington on Wednesday behind 30 points from Donovan Mitchell and a scintillating first half of 3-point shooting from Sam Merrill, who bested Mitchell with a game-high 32 points.
The victory gave Cleveland a 34-21 record, good for fourth place in the East as of the final buzzer.
The Cavs are still 7.5 games back of the East-leading Detroit Pistons headed into the All-Star break, which seems pretty insurmountable with 27 games left in the season, even if 12 of those games for Cleveland are against tankers, as noted by Haberstroh.
Notably, the New York Knicks were just behind Cleveland on Haberstroh's list, with 12 games remaining against tanking clubs. Detroit, mind you, has nine such games remaining -- not a small amount.
Haberstroh's point remains; the Cavaliers will likely go on a run. But here's a pivot -- what if a post-All-Star break steamroll actually wouldn't be good for the Cavs? Sure, the No. 1 or No. 2 seed would be nice, but does Cleveland really want to enter the postseason without having gone through any adversity at all in the Harden era?
To reach the NBA Finals, the Cavs will inevitably have to win a series against a team like the Knicks, Pistons, or Boston Celtics, each of which contains a core of players that have been through the trenches together.
Cleveland, by comparison, is in the middle of a dreamy "Honeymoon Harden" phase where absolutely everything is going right. The Cavaliers are going to have to crash back down to reality at some point, and if that point occurs during the postseason, it'll be nothing but bad news.
In an 82-game season, there are peaks, valleys, and a lot of meh in between. There is an art to peaking at the right time, and the Cavs want to make sure they don't hit their stride too early.
Haberstroh's vision for the Cavs entails a glorious string of regular-season victories (over bad teams, but wins, nonetheless) that propels them to the top of the East standings.
That's not completely unrealistic, but it's also not Cleveland's goal. The Cavs would much rather hit a lull next month and finish as the No. 3 or No. 4 seed if it means they save their best basketball for June.