Donovan Mitchell’s Cavaliers tenure could end soon, but Cleveland must embrace the lesson of his acquisition

NBA teams rarely lose games intentionally, but it would be hard to find a better explanation for how the Cleveland Cavaliers handled their regular-season finale against the Charlotte Hornets. A win could have vaulted the Cavaliers as high as No. 2 in the Eastern Conference. A loss guaranteed the No. 4 seed. Cleveland sat basically its entire guard rotation due to injury in that season finale against the moribund Hornets. The Cavaliers still managed to build a 13-point lead. So in the fourth quarter, they stuck their thumb on the scale. 

Not only did they close the game with five reserves, but those five reserves were all 6-foot-8 or taller. Second-round picks Emoni Bates and Isaiah Mobley played the entire fourth quarter. So did undrafted free agent Pete Nance and journeyman center Damian Jones. Veteran Tristan Thompson joined them for the stretch run, replacing Max Strus, because the stakes were apparently too high for even a single, proven perimeter player to be on the floor down the stretch. Charlotte predictably won the fourth quarter 32-14 and walked away with the 120-110 victory to end their season. The Cavaliers got their wish: the No. 4 seed.

The logic behind this chicanery was seemingly to rig the bracket to set up what looked, on paper, to be an easier first-round matchup. Though the bottom half of the bracket wasn’t set on the last day of the season either, the likeliest outcome was that the Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic would hold seeds No. 5 and No. 6 while the older and star-heavier Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers would duke it out for No. 7 in the Play-In stage. The prospect of facing Jimmy Butler or Joel Embiid scared Cleveland so much that it willingly ceded ground to the superior teams in their range on the bracket.

To most teams, home-court advantage in the second round would be enough of a motivator to play that finale to win. If that alone wasn’t enough, the prospect of avoiding the 64-win Celtics until the Eastern Conference finals might have meant something to a team with real championship aspirations. It’s hard…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/donovan-mitchells-cavaliers-tenure-could-end-soon-but-cleveland-must-embrace-the-lesson-of-his-acquisition/

Author : Sam Quinn

Publish date : 2024-05-16 02:01:03

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