by Athens, OH – The Cleveland Cavaliers have officially clinched a spot in the NBA Play-In tournament with their 133-115 win over Milwaukee in their regular season finale. Cleveland was able to dominate early and often in the first quarter, which allowed them to rest their own starters for majority of the game afterwards.
Whether they were injured or not, Milwaukee sat all their starters other than Jrue Holiday, who played a whole eight seconds before fouling Darius Garland and heading to the bench right after. Holiday had an incentive in his contract if he played in 67 games during Milwaukee’s regular season, and this was his 67th game. Other than that, Milwaukee played six guys, all for the most part not likely to see many minutes in the playoffs.
For Cleveland, Evan Mobley was back for his second straight game, but Jarrett Allen remains sidelined with his fractured finger. Dean Wade and Collin Sexton remain out for the season, with no updates on if Sexton will be able to join the Cavs if they make the playoffs.
I won’t do the normal format since the significance of this game is more prevalent for the postseason. Cleveland went off in the first quarter, primarily through Kevin Love. the veteran power forward had 18 of his 32 points in the first quarter, along with 5 three-pointers. He had a double-double with 10 rebounds in only 15 minutes of action. Other studs for Cleveland throughout the game were Lauri Markkanen, who had 23 points on 8/11 shooting, and Mobley, who had 18 points, 10 boards and four blocks.
For Milwaukee, since they were running out a very depleted rotation, this also meant a bunch of minutes for everyone. Five of their six players who saw more than eight seconds of court time played at least 40 minutes. Jordan Nwora and Sandro Mamukelashvili both had big double-doubles for the Bucks, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a 30-point deficit.
Now, looking into the future, Cleveland will be the eight seed going up against the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night. The two teams played in a pretty competitive game last week, with Brooklyn coming out victorious. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving took over in that one, and Bruce Brown created several turnovers from Cleveland’s back court.
In their upcoming game, Cleveland might have Jarrett Allen back, which would be a huge boost for the Cavs. His defense has been sorely missed ever since he left the lineup with his finger fracture. He also used to play for Brooklyn, along with fellow Cavalier Caris LeVert, with both of them being apart of the trade that brought now-76er James Harden to Brooklyn. There will be plenty of narratives involved in the matchup, with Kyrie playing against his former team to try and capture the seven seed being another one.
The winner of this game will go onto become the seven seed in the eastern conference, and would most likely play either Philadelphia or Boston, with Milwaukee losing to Cleveland tonight. The loser of this game will go onto play the winner of the Hawks-Hornets matchup, and whoever would go onto win that matchup would become the eight seed and play the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs.
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Photo Credits: NBC 15
