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2022-2023 Regular Season II: Cardiac Cavs

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Dr No said:
I think “pedal to the metal” chasing an unlikely scenario seems like a bad idea. The Knicks have come back to earth after their streak and are only 4-6 in their last 10. I’ll take us rested and healthy against them over worn and wounded against the Nets.
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Plus if we pass the Sixers and Brooklyn falters we could end up playing Miami which I would prefer not be our first round opponent.
 
All praise to our lord and savior Donovan Mitchell whom none of this would be possible without.
 
Congrats to the Cavs for clinching the playoffs. The best is yet to come.

But I think it might be a good time to look back at the 17-18 Cavs.
Those Cavs won 50 games in the regular season. They did make the Finals, but it wasn't an easy road.
The Pacers series went 7 games. They swept the Raptors. They beat the Celtics in the ECF, another 7 games series.
Then the Cavs got swept in the Finals by the Warriors.

In the 2018 playoffs the Cavs started:
LeBron
Love
Jeff Green
Rodney Hood
George Hill
The first 3 off the bench were:
Larry Nance Jr.
JR Smith
Jordan Clarkston

Now I'm not saying the 23 Cavs would beat the 18 Cavs.
But one team is ascending, and the other was cooked.
 
We still have a shot at 3rd. If we win our final six games we're 54-28. The Sixers are 49-25. We need to finish a game ahead of them since they have the tiebreaker. So the Sixers would need to finish 4-4.

Which means they would have to lose to Denver on the road tomorrow, Milwaukee on the road, Boston at home, and one of their other five games; Dallas, Toronto, or Miami at home (very unlikely), or Atlanta or Brooklyn on the road. The Atlanta game is the second night of a back-to-back after playing at home.

Of course, the Cavs can't afford to lose even one game. They have the Knicks at home and Atlanta on the road, plus Orlando on the road twice. Orlando has won four of five and is 19-19 at home. Atlanta is 21-16 at home. It's unlikely the Cavs will win each of their remaining six games even though they have a better record than every opponent.
 
I'm not sure there is a real difference between the 3 & 4 seed.

I don't think there's much of a difference playing Knicks or Heat or Nets.

And then, in the 2nd round (assuming we win round 1), I don't think there's much difference vs Milwaukee or Boston.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Congrats to the Cavs for clinching the playoffs. The best is yet to come.

But I think it might be a good time to look back at the 17-18 Cavs.
Those Cavs won 50 games in the regular season. They did make the Finals, but it wasn't an easy road.
The Pacers series went 7 games. They swept the Raptors. They beat the Celtics in the ECF, another 7 games series.
Then the Cavs got swept in the Finals by the Warriors.

In the 2018 playoffs the Cavs started:
LeBron
Love
Jeff Green
Rodney Hood
George Hill
The first 3 off the bench were:
Larry Nance Jr.
JR Smith
Jordan Clarkston

Now I'm not saying the 23 Cavs would beat the 18 Cavs.
But one team is ascending, and the other was cooked.
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That would be a fun matchup to imagine. The '23 Cavs are better than the '18 at every starting position, except SF, and weaker off the bench.

I could see 23 Cavs getting swept. It depends on the 18 Cavs outside shooting, which was quite good. But it'd be fun see Lebron drive into Mobley and Allen. We might as well put Okoro on Lebron. No one on the team could guard him.
 
I got surprisingly emotional seeing that X next to Cavs in the standings this morning. I've had weak moments of doubt this year but they've never wavered in their vision of how to run this team. Now we get to see if the formula works when it matters most.
 
Cement said:
I'm not sure there is a real difference between the 3 & 4 seed.

I don't think there's much of a difference playing Knicks or Heat or Nets.

And then, in the 2nd round (assuming we win round 1), I don't think there's much difference vs Milwaukee or Boston.
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I can't disagree with this, although we did beat Boston three times and lost by only four points in the one loss. So I prefer to play Boston over Milwaukee in the second round, but it probably won't make much difference if we get that far.

The good thing is we have the last six games to manage the workload of the starters and work on some of the things that need improvement. Hopefully the teams that are battling for the 5-6 spots will come down to the last game and have to play their starters heavy minutes the last couple of weeks.
 
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