On Sunday afternoon, Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers officially punched their ticket to the second round of the NBA playoffs with a come from behind home win over the Orlando Magic in Game 7 of that series. The Cavs initially found themselves down by 20 points earlier on in the game, but ultimately, the Magic’s lack of experience and perimeter shooting allowed Cleveland to come back thanks to another Herculean effort from Donovan Mitchell following his 50 point outburst in Game 6.
Still, as the Cavs now prepare for their upcoming matchup vs the Boston Celtics, not everyone is so convinced that they are a legitimate threat in the Eastern Conference.
One of those people is ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst, who recently took to The Hoop Collective Podcast to point out how the Cavs essentially tanked down the stretch of the season to draw Orlando in round one.
“The Cavs were under significant pressure to improve this season and they did some stuff to make sure they got a weaker opponent in round one,” said Windhorst, referencing the losses the Cavs appeared to take at the end of the year in order to draw the more favorable matchup.
“They embarrassed themselves to get a weaker opponent in round one, let’s just call it like it is. And by the way I don’t even think they got a weaker opponent, that’s the craziest part, I think they would’ve had a lot easier time against Indiana than they did against this Orlando team,” added ESPN NBA insider Tim Bontemps.
Windhorst also noted just how horrible the Magic looked on the offensive end of the floor for the majority of the series.
“But I just want to say like, the Sixers would’ve pummeled the Magic. I think, and this is going to get me in some water, I think the Warriors would’ve pummeled the Magic. They just couldn’t do anything,” said Windhorst.
The Celtics are not the Magic
Needless to say, things figure to get a whole lot tougher in a hurry for the Cavs in round two, as they will be taking on a Boston Celtics squad that eviscerated what was left of the Miami Heat in Round One, losing only one game thanks to what was an anomaly of a shooting game from some of the Heat role players.
The Cavaliers at times throughout the first round looked like a one man show around Mitchell, with fellow backcourt running mate Darius Garland struggling once again in the second playoff series of his career and the Cavs’ slew of role players not necessarily lighting the world on fire from beyond the three point line.
One person on the Cavs roster who does have some success against the Celtics in the playoffs is three point marksman Max Strus, who helped eliminate the men in green from the postseason a year ago as a member of the Heat. However, Strus and his teammates will have to shoot the ball a whole lot better than they did against the Magic to have a puncher’s chance.