CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Credit the Milwaukee Bucks with the assist of the season.
The defending NBA champions rested their starters for the regular season finale and the Cavaliers took advantage to secure their spot in the 7 vs. 8 Play-In Tournament game with a resounding 133-115 win to finish the regular season 44-38.
Cleveland will face the Nets in Brooklyn Tuesday night at 7 p.m. after the Nets beat the Pacers 134-126 Sunday afternoon.
“They should appreciate it and not take it for granted,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the game. “These opportunities, and this is what I want our guys to understand, they’re not promised. They’re not guaranteed.”
The winner Tuesday night advances to the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. The loser gets another chance to secure the No. 8 seed Friday night against the winner of the No. 9 vs. 10 game to be played Wednesday at 7 p.m. between Charlotte and Atlanta.
Avoiding having to win two games this week as opposed to getting two games to win one to advance is a sigh of relief for the Cavs.
“Just odds work in your favor there,” Bickerstaff said. “The ability to just win one out of two as opposed to having to win two. The opportunity to get a home game if needed. If you have this building behind you in a win or go home scenario, I like our chances. Being ab to have two shots at it is huge but again our focus is on Brooklyn, and we need to go out and get that job done.”
Needing a win to avoid having to win twice to make the playoffs as the eighth seed in the conference, the Cavs wasted no time to erase all doubt against the Bucks backups at Rocket mortgage FieldHouse.
The Cavs opened the game Sunday afternoon by scoring the first 14 points and ripping off a 19-3 run, and they never looked back.
“I thought they did a great job of coming out and setting the tone,” Bickerstaff said.
Cleveland led by as many as 40 only to see the Bucks climb back within 12 in the fourth quarter causing head coach J.B Bickerstaff to put Darius Garland, Caris LeVert and Lauri Markkanen back in.
Kevin Love hit four of his eight 3s in the opening quarter and the Cavs hit 10 as a team to open up a 46-20 lead after 1. Love finished with 32 points and 10 rebounds.
“It was huge for us, just knowing what was at stake,” Love said. “Just getting that win and locking in that eighth seed and going back to Brooklyn and best case, winning a game we get into the playoffs but giving ourselves at most two chances is huge for us but we did our work and took care of business.”
Rookie Evan Mobley posted 18 points, 10 rebounds and blocked four shots. Markkanen added 23 more in the victory for Cleveland.
“I’m definitely excited, I feel like the whole group is excited” Mobley, who was selected third overall in the 2021 NBA Draft, said. “New experience for a lot of people on our team. We’re a very young team so I feel like everyone is excited and everyone is going to come out with a lot of energy and play our hardest. I have a good feeling about it.”
Hampered by injuries, it was just the Cavs’ third win in their final 12 games and they finished 9-17 since being season best 35-21.
Although their hot start raised aspirations, they ultimately achieved their goal coming into the season despite a mountain of adversity.
They play an 83rd game Tuesday night.
“That was the goal all along,” Mobley said. “Get here and get as many wins as possible. We’re here and we just have to capitalize.”
