While the Cleveland Cavaliers appear to be peaking at the right time to win home-court advantage in the first round of the postseason, the Brooklyn Nets may have to play at least one more game to make the playoffs if they lose in the wrong way.
Thursday night in Brooklyn, where the Nets are hoping to avoid a season-worst fifth loss in a row, Cleveland aims to sweep the two-game set and continue its recent surge.
Cleveland (46-28) is well-positioned to win the postseason at home for the first time since LeBron James’ final season in his second stint, in 2018. When the Cavaliers lost to the Nets in a play-in game, they had already surpassed last year’s win total. They were three and a half games ahead of the fifth-place New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference going into Wednesday after their 115-109 victory over the Nets on Tuesday.
Cleveland is 8-3 over its beyond 11 games since losing three straight Feb. 15-24. On Tuesday, the Cavaliers trailed by seven points in the first quarter, took control in the second, and led by a lot in the third before letting a 24-point lead slip away in the final few minutes before struggling in those final few minutes.
On 10-of-22 shooting, Donovan Mitchell scored 31 points, including a thunderous dunk in the second half. After making just one of 19 attempts from behind the arc in his previous three games, he also hit five of Cleveland’s 14 3-pointers.
Brooklyn (39-33) was two and a half games behind the Knicks and half a game ahead of the Miami Heat when Cleveland’s preferred opponent was the Nets.
In its last three games, Brooklyn has lost by 17 points or less in the second half against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday and by 22 points or less against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.
The Nets are currently in their second straight four-game losing streak. The other was from February 24 to March 1, and the Nets won five of their next six games, including victories over Boston and Denver.
The Nets have shot 43.8 percent from the field and are averaging 103.5 points per game since their two-point victory over Denver on March 12. The fact that Brooklyn shot 27.3 percent (9-for-33) from behind the arc on Tuesday was the fourth time since the All-Star break that it has failed to shoot 30 percent or better is perhaps even more concerning for the team.
The Nets are shooting 31.8 percent from 3-point range during the losing streak. Mikal Bridges is one of those shooting poorly from three points. He was 0-for-8 on Tuesday and is 5-for-23 in his last three games.
