Boston Celtics
“They don’t want to play Boston in the second round because they’re afraid.”
Fans hold up signs during the 2024 Celtics-Cavs series Daniel Parhizkaran/Global Staff
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the Cavaliers They haven’t made it past the second round of the playoffs since the Warriors swept them in the 2018 NBA Finals.
They have endured a second-round exit in each of the last two seasons, with the previous season coming at the hands of Celtics in 2024.
With the final week of the regular season here, teams are competing for playoff seeding. The Cleveland team currently ranks fourth, and Celtics In second place.
Cleveland is one game away from the Knicks for the No. 3 seed. If they can get past the Knicks and win a first-round series, it could set up a potential rematch with the Celtics in the second round this year.
This is not the outcome the Cavs wanted, according to the ESPN Cleveland Radio host
“They want the four seeds, not the No. 3 seeds,” ESPN’s Andrew Goldhammer said Cleveland. “They don’t want to play Boston in the second round because they’re afraid.”
The Celtics have won 10 of their last 12 games. Jayson Tatum has begun to work on some of his shooting struggles, shooting 46 percent from the field over his last three games.
Jaylen Brown remains a potent scoring threat, having led the team in points in nine of the last 11 games. The Celtics’ core has been battle-tested, and they’ve also enjoyed an infusion of youthful energy from contributors off the bench.
The Celtics swept their three-game regular season series with Cleveland. The Cavaliers have played well, winning eight of their last 10 games.
But, with the regular season coming to a close, Goldhammer seems convinced that the Cavaliers will do everything in their power to stay in that No. 4 seed and avoid a potential showdown with the Celtics for as long as possible.
Holding the No. 4 seed would make a matchup with the top-seeded Pistons more likely for Cleveland. They won’t face the Celtics until the conference finals if both teams get that far.
Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, Sam Merrill and Dean Wade missed the Cavaliers’ matchup with the Pacers on Sunday.
Cleveland has four games remaining in the regular season.
“The Cavs got beat up,” Goldhammer said. “The Cavaliers don’t know what their starting lineup should be, their coach admitted.”
“They don’t know who should be in their rotation and who shouldn’t be, but they’ll have a bunch of games down the stretch because they’re just scared of Boston, and I’m sure they’ll be ready to go in time for the playoffs.”
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