The Cleveland Cavaliers are emerging as the top contenders in the Eastern Conference playoffs, challenging expectations set by teams like the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, and New York Knicks. The Knicks faced unexpected difficulties against the Atlanta Hawks, raising concerns about their playoff readiness.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are the team to beat in the East originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
At the start of the playoffs, it was fair to say that the path through the Eastern Conference was supposed to go through teams like the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, and maybe even the New York Knicks. They were the top three teams in the East to close out the regular season, and you'd think that every single one of them would roll into round two with relative ease.
It's for that reason why they play the games.
The third-seeded Knicks struggled to beat the sixth-seeded Atlanta Hawks, a team that is lacking the pieces necessary to make a legitimate playoff run. Having traded away their star guard this season, Atlanta was in the midst of an improbable run that saw them finish well enough to qualify for the playoffs. No one took them seriously, though. That was until the Hawks took the Knicks to a 2-1 series lead after three games. While the Knicks eventually rallied back and took care of business quite easily, the Hawks highlighted some real concerns in how the Knicks can be exploited on both ends of the court.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are viewed as the team to beat due to their strong performance and ability to challenge established teams in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The New York Knicks struggled against the Atlanta Hawks, who took a surprising 2-1 series lead, exposing vulnerabilities in the Knicks' gameplay.
The Atlanta Hawks managed to qualify for the playoffs and put up a strong fight against the Knicks, showcasing resilience despite their roster changes.
The Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, and New York Knicks were initially seen as the top teams expected to dominate the Eastern Conference playoffs.
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The same can be said for the number one seed in the East, the Pistons, who only advanced because the Orlando Magic had a historic collapse in Game 6. The Magic scored just 19 points in the second half of Game 6, allowing the Pistons to rally back and win. The Pistons would end up surviving being down 3-2 and on the brink of elimination. The Magic, a team without its best player in Franz Wagner, and a head coach on borrowed time, nearly did the impossible and sent the number one seed home early.
Lastly, the Boston Celtics, a team that was without star player Jayson Tatum due to an Achilles' tear for most of the season, saw this season as a bit of a lost one. If they did well, great. If not, oh well. Yet, it turns out they did quite well, in fact, and got to the playoffs as the second seed in the East. Not only that, but Tatum returned just in time to rejoin the team ahead of the playoffs. Despite all that, the Celtics would end up blowing a 3-1 series lead to the 7th-seeded Philadelphia 76ers.
Now, the Celtics are home, and the Knicks and Pistons look compromised, and somehow, the Cleveland Cavaliers look like the team to beat.
The fourth-seeded Cavs were the only team that had a matchup with a team that was supposed to be on their level, facing off with the fifth-seeded Toronto Raptors in one of the more grueling series of the playoffs so far. The Raptors had the length advantage, and that proved troublesome for Cleveland, but thanks to some of the best big man play of the playoffs and timely shots made by their star guards, the Cavaliers are moving on.
Now the Pistons and Cavs clash at least four times. They're a fairly evenly matched pair of teams on paper, with each team taking two wins during the regular season, but the Cavaliers never faced the Pistons at full strength. Not once has Detroit faced off with Donovan Mitchell and James Harden at the same time. The Magic guards gave them fits, and they aren't nearly the scorers that these two men are.
If the Magic nearly beat the Pistons, what would a series with the Cavs look like?
It's also fair to say that the Cavs may have the best rotation of big men left in the East as well, with Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, and Dean Wade all proving to be viable issues for any team to have to worry about. If not the East, at least compared to the Pistons, who's star center, Jalen Duren, had been criticized for shrinking in the playoffs against the Magic.
All of this should make for some fascinating playoff basketball.