The Cleveland Cavaliers are the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference entering the playoffs, but they don’t know who they are facing in the first round of the playoffs just yet.
The Cavs have to wait for the results of the play-in tournament, as the Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic are fighting for the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds in the East.
Technically, the Cavs could play any of those four teams in the first round depending upon how the play-in tournament shake out. As such, they aren’t doing any “deep film dives” just yet.
“Because there are currently four potential first-round opponents, the Cavs aren’t doing deep film dives on each one,” Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor wrote. “It’s too much information right now — even though a member of the coaching staff has been tasked with studying one specific team throughout the season. Following Tuesday’s first play-in game, the four options will be cut in half. That’s when the detailed scouting will commence amongst coaches. The players won’t sharpen their focus until late Friday night — less than 48 hours before Game 1.”
To clarify, Cleveland will be down to three possible first-round opponents after Tuesday’s play-in game between the Hawks and Magic. The winner of that game will clinch the No. 7 seed, and the loser will remain in contention for the No. 8 seed along with the Heat and Bulls.
Even though the Cavs won’t know their opponent in the first round until the completion of Friday’s play-in action in the East, head coach Kenny Atkinson still feels good about where his team is heading into the playoffs.
“We have things we’ve been working on, things we think will translate to playoffs, whether you’re playing Atlanta, Indiana, Boston, so kind of double down on those,” Atkinson said. “With this being the first time with this new staff, we had a big separate meeting of just playoff planning. I probably missed seven things, but there’s a lot of planning that goes into it because once it starts, you’re off and it’s just going to go quickly. It’s important to be super organized, and I feel good where we are right now.”
The Cavs put together a dominant regular season in Atkinson’s first campaign as the franchise’s head coach. Not only did they win 64 games (the second-most in the NBA), but they also held off the defending champion Boston Celtics for the No. 1 seed in the East.
Boston finished with the No. 2 seed in the conference despite winning 61 games, and it’s possible that the Cavs will meet the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals later on in the playoffs.
First, Cleveland has to get through the first round of the playoffs, something it has done just one time since franchise legend LeBron James left for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Cavs were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs in the 2022-23 season by the New York Knicks. However, they did win their first-round series in the 2023-24 season, defeating the Magic in seven games.
The Cavs will likely be expected to knock off their first-round opponent since they are the top seed in the East, but it will be a little tougher since they won’t have a lot of time to scout.
Cleveland went 1-2 against the Hawks, 4-0 against the Bulls, 2-1 against the Heat and 2-1 against the Magic in the regular season.
