If I told you at the beginning of the season that the Cavs would be fighting for a playoff spot in late April, you probably would not have believed me.
It is April 23 and the Cleveland Cavaliers are 21-37, but they still have a chance to make the NBA playoffs! In any other season, we would be in the ¨tanking¨ stage right now, where we would be losing on purpose to try and get a higher draft pick. This year is different; the NBA has extended the field to ten teams, while hosting a play-in tournament for the first time ever. Teams 7-10 will battle it out for the 7 and 8 seeds in the bracket. Many players are upset about this new format; for example, Dallas Mavericks star point guard Luka Doncic said, “I don’t understand the idea of the play-in [tournament], you play 72 games to get in the playoffs, then maybe you lose two in a row and you’re out of the playoffs. I don’t see the point of that.¨ But for teams like Cleveland, they are happy to have something to play for late in the season.
The Cavaliers still have a long way to go; with over a month left in the season, they currently stand in the 13th spot, four games back from the 10th seed. Four teams are in the mix, going for that last spot in the tournament. The Wizards, currently 10th, the Bulls, Raptors and Cavs are all going to be fighting out down the stretch with around 15 games to play.
With hope late in the season, everyone will be cheering on the Cavs. Cleveland will play Charlotte and Washington over the weekend, two very important games, if they want to continue to make this push.
