The Cleveland Cavaliers are still set to make the postseason but it looks like they’ll be limping into it.
The team is barely hanging onto its seventh seed position in the Eastern Conference.
After a brutal loss on Tuesday night, things got even more troubling for the Cavs.
Cleveland’s loss to Orlando was a costly one. The Cavaliers needed two wins in their last three games to guarantee avoiding dropping below eighth. Now they’ll have to beat Brooklyn Friday to do so.
The Nets, meanwhile, will move into 8th tonight after Atlanta’s loss to Toronto.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 6, 2022
The Cavaliers fell to the 15th-seed Orlando Magic, 120-115.
The stakes couldn’t have been higher: the team needed to win two of their last three games to avoid dropping below the eighth seed.
After the loss on Tuesday, they will have to defeat Brooklyn on Friday to stay in their current spot.
As for the Nets, they are sneaking up and just secured the eighth seed.
Things are getting tight in the last few days of the season.
Cavaliers’ Challenges
The injury-riddled Cavs have dropped seven of their last nine games.
It wasn’t always this way for the team.
Thankfully, they were on a roll earlier in the year so they have some leeway as the season concludes.
If they didn’t do so well earlier, this final rough patch would have eliminated them from participating in the play-in.
The injuries plaguing the team are really bogging them down.
Their star rookie, Evan Mobley, missed his fifth straight game on Tuesday because of a sprained ankle.
Meanwhile, All-Star Jarrett Allen missed this 16th straight game because of a busted finger.
Those two parts of the team were vital earlier in the season and they are desperately missed now.
The Cavs are praying that Mobley is able to come back for the playoffs.
If not, it might be a very short postseason and a disappointing end to a wonderful comeback year.
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