The Cleveland Cavaliers missed out on the NBA Cup.
They barely did, in one sense, as they finished with the best point differential in their group -- unfortunately, that came with a 2-2 record, as two of their three losses for the season came in NBA Cup group play. They will not be competing in the Knockout Stage when it kicks off next week.
What that means, however, is that they needed to have two more games added to their schedule, as did all 22 NBA teams which did not advance in the NBA Cup. The NBA therefore ran their algorithms and punched their numbers and perhaps did that fancy ticket-stacking the teller in Frosty the Snowman does, and in the end came out with two new games for each NBA team.
And in doing so, they gave the Cleveland Cavaliers a tremendous participation gift.
The Cavaliers' schedule just got even easier
The Cavaliers have proven that they can play with and beat anyone; their 19-3 record is not built on taking down power puffs, although they have certainly enjoyed an easier schedule than most thus far this season. They have beaten the Golden State Warriors, the Boston Celtics and the Orlando Magic, to name a few.
In the regular season, however, the goal is to accumulate wins. With the NBA adding two new games to the schedule, a tean's December schedule has the potential to get much more difficult, or much easier. For the Cavaliers, it was absolutely the latter.
The NBA announced the new games for every team, and they wrapped Cleveland's games with some shiny paper. The Cavaliers will now host the last-place Washington Wizards on Friday, December 13th, and then play the Nets in Brooklyn on Monday, December 16th.
Dan Feldman of Dunc'd On Basketball analyzed the two new games for each team, and the Cavaliers had the two easiest games added to their schedule of any team in the league. The Wizards are truly awful this season; the Cavs had one of their worst offensive games of the season when they played on Tuesday, lost Darius Garland before halftime, and still cruised to a 31-point win.
The Nets have had some solid wins this year, especially against the Western Conference -- Brooklyn is 6-1 against the West and 4-12 against the East. Yet they are starting to accrue injuries that are harming their already thin rotation, and they have a significantly negative point differential. They are even worse than their 10-13 record.
Many teams had contenders added to their schedules; the Wizards had both the Cavaliers and Celtics, but they somewhat want to lose games this season so that's not a major concern. Unfortunately for Cleveland, the Celtics have the second-easiest slate of new games.
Yet for a Cleveland team trying to rack up regular-season wins to secure a top seed in the Eastern Conference and avoid playing the Boston Celtics until the Eastern Conference Finals, adding a couple of games where they will be heavily favored is a gift served on a silver platter.
Now they need to go out and win those games, but assuming they do, it will mean an even stronger record to start the season for a team that couldn't have dreamed of a better two months to begin the year.
The Cavaliers' rocket is pointed up, and the NBA just added some fuel.