NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is big on the integrity of the league. Minimize rest for starters so fans don’t get cheated when they pay full price for tickets. Teams should always try their hardest to win so the league brand isn’t tarnished.
Except when a team is trying to massage the standings on the final day of the regular season. Not making winning a priority apparently is OK if by losing a team can avoid a first-round match-up with a more worthy foe in the playoffs. It is sound if not noble strategy.
The Cavaliers were fourth in the NBA East when the sun dawned on April 14. Coach J.B. Bickerstaff made sure they would still be fourth when the sun set. The Cavaliers, 48-33 heading into their final game, led the 20-61 Charlotte Hornets, 96-88, at the start of the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, Cavaliers assistant coaches were keeping track of other games pertinent to the Cavs; the Orlando Magic were pounding the Milwaukee Bucks and the Chicago Bulls were beating the New York Knicks, 82-76, to start the fourth quarter. All three games were being played simultaneously.
The Cavaliers before the game chose not to play Donovan Mitchell (knee), Darius Garland (back) and Caris LeVert (knee). They led the Hornets, 96-88, after three quarters. By then the starters who had replaced the regular starters were on the bench, leaving Damion Jones, Emoni Bates, Pete Nance and Isaiah Mobley on the floor with Isaac Okoro. Max Strus was subbed in for Oroko with 10:25 to play in the fourth.
“We were aware of some of that stuff (other games) going on, but once we sat our guys at the end of the third quarter and they had the mindset they weren’t going to go back in, I didn’t want to take any risk putting them back in the game,” Bickerstaff said.
The Hornets outscored the Cavs in the fourth quarter, 32-14, and won the game, 120-110. The Magic held on to its large lead and beat the Bucks, 113-88. The Knicks rallied and beat the Bulls, 120-119, in overtime. The Cavs watched the end of the Bulls-Knicks game on the television in their locker room.
Now the Cavaliers know they will face the fifth-seeded Magic in the first round of the playoffs. But had they beaten Charlotte, and had the Knicks and Bucks both lost, the Cavs would have finished second. As it is, the Knicks are the second seed behind the top-seeded Celtics, followed by the third-seeded Bucks and then the Cavs.
Normally finishing with a higher seed would be better, but not in the NBA East this year.
Seventh-seeded Philadelphia and eighth-seeded Miami meet in a one-game play-in on April 17. The winner of that game will play the second-seeded Knicks in the first round.
Bickerstaff would never say he was coaching to avoid playing the 76ers or Heat, but the Cavaliers have a better chance of advancing against the Magic than they would have had against Miami or Philadelphia.
One result of using his players the way he did was Strus finished with a triple-double for the first time in his career as a pro — 14 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds. The game against the Hornets was No. 259 of his NBA career. Strus did not feel like celebrating.
“I wanted to win,” Strus said. “I don’t know what else to say about it. I’m kind of mad we didn’t, but I’m glad the younger guys got the chance to play a little bit more.”
The Cavs are likely to face the Celtics in the second round if they don’t get ousted by Magic. There will be no way to avoid that match-up as long as Boston isn’t upset in the first round against an opponent yet to be determined.
