Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson wasn’t buying that his team was guaranteed to end up with the top spot in the Eastern Conference before Wednesday’s action.
“I’m not paranoid,” Atkinson said. “But you know how hard this league is. Every game is so tough. It’s tough to win in this league. There’s no guarantees. We’re not guaranteed the first seed by any means. We still got work to do.”
The Cavs technically still have work to do after Wednesday, but the Boston Celtics' 124-103 loss to the Miami Heat brings them one step closer to locking up the top spot in the Eastern Conference. That, combined with Cleveland’s win over the New York Knicks, all but slams the door on Boston leapfrogging them in the standings.
The Cavaliers' magic number to clinch the top seed is now two. Any combination of two Cleveland wins or two Boston losses would do the trick.
Both teams have six games remaining. This would mean that the Cavs would have to go 1-5 or worse to surrender the one seed in conjunction with the Celtics going 5-1 or better. That just isn’t likely.
Securing home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs is important to the Cavs. Cleveland is tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the loss column for the best home record in the league at 33-5. This includes having an incredibly impressive 11.9 net rating at Rocket Arena.
If the Cavs are to secure the top spot in the conference, it would be the fourth time they’ve done so. The other three times were in the 2008-09, 2009-10, and 2015-16 seasons.