Final Score: Cleveland Cavaliers shamelessly tank, lose to Charlotte Hornets

The Cleveland Cavaliers wanted nothing to do with the second seed and taking on either the Philadelphia 76ers or Miami Heat. They did everything in their power to throw the fourth quarter against the Charlotte Hornets to make that happen.

Nightly Notables

This was a difficult game to make too much of before they threw it in the fourth. The Cavaliers started the game without their backcourt rotation with Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Caris LeVert, and Sam Merrill being held out. Craig Porter Jr. took a hard fall at the end of the first quarter that depleted their remaining guards. This left Max Strus as the point guard for the majority of the game.

Strus made the most of the situation by playing an exceptional game. He recorded his first triple-double of his career with 14 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds.

Before the game, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said that his staff was going to monitor the other results. He clearly did so as he ensured a loss by playing four bigs in Tristan Thompson, Damian Jones, Isaiah Mobley, and Pete Nance down the stretch. They predictably blew the lead.

They avoid the Philadelphia 76ers and Miami Heat in the first round, but they will now have to go through the Boston Celtics in the second round if they make it that far.

Well, that happened...

This is the second year the Cavs have had two Mobleys on their team, but they don’t share the court together often. They made the most of their rare opportunity to play together. Evan grabbed a rebound and threw it out to the wing to Isaiah who promptly knocked down a three.

This was the first time either has assisted on the other’s basket.

Big Picture

This has been a difficult season for the Cavs for a variety of reasons. Mainly, the constant injuries they’ve had to deal with. They finished the season 48-34 which is two games worse than last season, but they likely believe they’re more suited for the playoff success this season compared with the previous.

There was nothing the Cavaliers could do during the regular season that would get the terrible taste of last postseason out of their mouth. Everything they’ve done since has been about trying to solve the issues the New York Knicks exposed last year. We’ll see in about a week whether anything has changed.