Friday night was a unique occurance in the NBA season: all 30 teams in the league played.
While the league was likely hoping for maximum chaos setting up another 15-game slate on Sunday, the penultimate day of basketball games instead served to lock everything into place. While the Western Conference still has some question marks, the Eastern Conference Playoff field is entirely locked into place.
Who will the Cleveland Cavaliers face? And what does the Play-In Tournament look like? Let's break down what happened and what we know with 81 games in the books.
Cavaliers know their Second Round opponents
The Cavaliers have locked in the No. 1 seed and will play the final team to come out of the Play-In Tournament; more on that in a moment. Assuming they win that series, they will play the winner of the 4-5 series.
Heading into Friday's game, their potential opponents were still very much up-in-the-air. If the Cavaliers had pulled out the win in Indiana on Thursday night, a game they very nearly won despite sitting four of their five starters, it would have locked the Pacers into the 4-5 part of the bracket.
Instead, Indiana was alive to take hold of the No. 1 seed if they won out and the New York Knicks lost both of their remaining games. The Cavaliers did their part, beating a Knicks team that played most of its starters and was clearly trying to win and secure the No. 3 spot.
The Pacers, however, let go of the rope. They probably viewed little benefit in being the No. 3 seed, as it would face a similarly-strong opponent in the first round and set up a matchup with the defending champion Boston Celtics in the next. While Cleveland has been a better team than the Celtics in terms of record, their lack of playoff success likely makes them the weaker foe in the eyes of their East brethren.
Thus the Pacers rested all of their starters against the Orlando Magic, who won easily to lock the Pacers into the No. 4 seed for good. Things also crystallized behind them, as the Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons played one another with the No. 5 seed on the line. Former Cavaliers draft bust Kevin Porter Jr. continued his career revival and Giannis Antetokounmpo had a triple double to secure the 125-119 victory, and in the process the No. 5 seed. Detroit is now locked in at No. 6.
That means the Milwaukee Bucks will play the Indiana Pacers in the 4-5 series to open the playoffs, and the Cavaliers will face the winner of that series in the second round.
Play-In Tournament Finalized
In one of the inequities of the NBA postseason structure, the Cleveland Cavaliers will not know their first playoff opponent until less than 48 hours before Game 1 of their opening round series.
The Play-In Tournament for the Eastern Conference begins on Tuesday, when the 7th-seed Orlando Magic will host the 8th-seed Atlanta Hawks. The winner of that game will advance into the playoffs and be lined up to face the Boston Celtics -- good luck.
On Wednesday, the second game of the East Play-In Tournament takes place, where the No. 9 Chicago Bulls host the No. 10 Miami Heat. The winner of that game then advances to play the loser of the 7-8 game on Friday night. That game's winner will become the 8th seed in the playoffs and face the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In the Western Conference, there is a clear difference between the Top 8 teams and the 9-10 Play-In teams. One team will lose the 7-8 game but be heavily favored in the next game to become the official 8th-seed.
That is not the case in the Eastern Conference. Only a handful of games separate the four teams, and the Miami Heat in 10th have the best point differential of the group. Any of the teams could truly win or lose against any of the opponents.
That provides very little clarity to the Cavaliers. If chalk reigns through, they will face the Atlanta Hawks in the first round. By Wednesday night, they will at least have their options narrowed down to two.
The playoffs will begin on Sunday for the Cavaliers, which means that they have a full week off -- and more if they rest all of their key players for Game 82 against the Indiana Pacers, a game that means nothing to either team.
Then the playoffs begin, and the Cavaliers will begin their quest to prove their season was for real.