The Cleveland Cavaliers find themselves at home rather than spending a weekend in Las Vegas as they begin the post-NBA Cup portion of their schedule Friday night against the Washington Wizards.
The Cavaliers have won 21 of their first 25 games, giving them the best record in the NBA. Yet two of the four defeats came to the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks in NBA Cup group play, good enough to send the Hawks, not the Cavaliers, through to the event’s quarterfinals and give the final an unexpected four-day holiday.
Guard Darius Garland believes the time off — especially following a 122-113 loss at Miami in the team’s most recent outing Sunday — could be a blessing in disguise.
“We’ll go back to the drawing board,” he said of workouts this week. “Get ourselves back together, get our bodies back together and just get ready for Friday.”
Each team that didn’t make the Cup quarterfinals had two games added to its schedule. The Cavaliers caught the easiest of the additions, with a home game against the 3-19 Wizards followed Monday with a trip to Brooklyn to face the 10-14 Nets.
The Cavaliers, according to Power Rankings Guru, have played the easiest schedule in the NBA. It will get significantly more difficult the rest of the way, rated 17th-hardest among the 30 teams.
If previous results this season are an indication, starting with the Wizards should begin a smooth transition. The Cavaliers romped 135-116 at Washington in the first week of the season, then had an even easier time in a 118-87 home laugher as part of the NBA Cup.
The latter win came as part of a four-game winning streak that led into Sunday’s loss at Miami.
The Wizards went 0-4 in the same NBA Cup group as Cleveland. Those defeats were part of a general streak of 16 losses before their astonishing 122-113 home win over the Denver Nuggets last Saturday.
Washington returned to old ways Sunday when being thrashed 140-112 at home by the Memphis Grizzlies. Like Cleveland, the Wizards have spent the past four days off court.
To add insult to injury, the Wizards’ other add-on game will be Sunday at home against the Celtics.
Wizards coach Brian Keefe has been around losing. He was on the Oklahoma City coaching staff when the club began the 2008-09 season 3-29. The Thunder made the playoffs the next season, the NBA Finals three years later.
“It wasn’t like they just rolled out of bed and were winning 50 or 60 games,” Keefe recalled. “They had to go through some adversity, and I think we used that adversity as a foundation piece for what we were doing there.
“(The Wizards) are working and developing a work rate and effort and habit-building that’s setting us up for long-term success.”
Friday’s game pits the NBA leaders in 3-point shooting percentage (Cleveland at 40.4) against the team that allows the fourth-highest rate from beyond the arc (Washington at 37.4).
The Cavaliers defeated the Wizards 102-57 on 3s in the first two matchups, with Donovan Mitchell going a combined 10-for-19, Sam Merrill 7-for-16 and Garland 6-for-10 for 69 of those points.
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