Up until the moment it happens, when the Cleveland Cavaliers win their next NBA championship, whether it’s this June or a future year to be determined, this is a franchise constantly trying to accomplish things for the first time without LeBron James on the roster.
Well, they got another one of those things done Tuesday night, and it’s a biggie. For the first time in team history without LeBron in the house, the Cavs clinched the No. 1 seed in the East headed into the postseason.
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They did it by beating a red-hot but otherwise shorthanded Chicago Bulls team, 135-113, behind 28 points from Darius Garland. With the win, Cleveland secured a four-game lead over the Boston Celtics with three games remaining — which means it’s over.
The Cavs, who won 48 games last season and were predicted by most oddsmakers to do about the same in this campaign, would now host a deciding Game 7 in an Eastern Conference finals against the Celtics, or, for that matter, any other team that gets there instead.
This is the first time the Cavs clinched the No. 1 seed in the East since 2016 when, you guessed it, James led the franchise to its only NBA championship. Cleveland secured top billing in the East two other times, in 2009 and 2010, the last two seasons of James’ first stint with the franchise.
Last week, the Cavs picked up their 60th win … for … the first time in franchise history without LeBron. You’re beginning to see a trend.
“Whether we like it or not, Bron is the face of the city,” Cavs center Jarrett Allen said recently. “He’s done so much for the city, and it’s tough to break away from that notion … ‘the first to do it without LeBron here.’ We’re trying to do something special and hopefully we can do something special, but that’s just the path we’re on. We’re going to try to take it as far as we can.”
The Cavs won Tuesday without star Donovan Mitchell, who suffered a left ankle sprain in a loss Sunday to Sacramento.
With the loss, Chicago is now tied for ninth place with Miami for the Play-In tournament. Whoever finishes ninth between them will host the other in a must-win Play-In game next week. As fate would have it, the Heat and Bulls play Wednesday night in Chicago.
Perhaps to be as sure as they could be that they’re ready for the Miami game, the Bulls were missing Coby White, Josh Giddey, Nikola Vucevic, and Kevin Huerter against Cleveland. Even with the loss, Chicago is 12-5 over the last month. Should the Bulls survive the Play-In Tournament, they would face Cleveland in the first round as the No. 8 seed.
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The Cavs are just 7-6 since March 16, having eased up after sprinting out to a blistering 56-10 record with winning streaks of 15, 12, and 16 games along the way. Three of their players — Mitchell, Garland, Evan Mobley — were All-Stars. They have since seen Oklahoma City surpass them as the NBA’s best overall team and best home team. Cleveland still has the NBA’s top offense, but is no longer the league’s top 3-point shooting team.
With three games remaining and then a full week off before the playoffs start, Cleveland has time to get Mitchell’s ankle right and heal any other bumps and bruises — be they on players’ bodies or the team’s play. One of those winning streaks, the 15-game streak, came at the start of the regular season, so the Cavs have already shown they can flip a switch and raise their level of play.
They’ve never won, nor even reached an NBA Finals without LeBron. Is this the year? They took a step in that direction by nailing down the East.
“We wanna be remembered in history,” Mitchell said recently. “And I think … we’re on track, but we’ve got a lot of work to do to get there.”
(Photo: Phil Long / Associated Press)
