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[Cleveland Cavaliers]

NBA announces the start date for Cavs first-round series

Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images

We won’t know who the Cavs will be playing until Friday evening.

We don’t know who the Cleveland Cavaliers will be playing in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. We do, however, know when that will take place.

The NBA announced early Monday morning that the Cavs will play at home on Easter Sunday, April 20. The time and opponent are yet to be determined.

The schedule for Game 1s in the First Round of the #NBAPlayoffs presented by Google

More information will be provided as it is finalized. pic.twitter.com/vBIQMNYa3C

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 14, 2025​

This is just an educated guess, but it seems likely that the Cavs will be the 1 PM game. They likely won’t put a Western Conference game in the 1 PM slot because it would be too early for teams in a later time zone. Additionally, it stands to reason that the league would like to showcase the Boston Celtics in a more coveted later slot, given their large fan base. By process of elimination, that would leave the Cavs as the 1 PM game.

Cleveland won’t know who they play in the first round until Friday evening. Three Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament games will take place to determine the seventh and eighth seeds.

The Atlanta Hawks take on the Orlando Magic on Tuesday at 7:30. The winner of that game will be the seventh seed. The loser of that game will have a chance to be in the playoffs as the eighth seed.

The loser of the Magic vs. Hawks game will take on the winner of Wednesday’s game between the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls. That third Play-In Tournament game will take place on Friday, April 18. The winner of that game will take on the Cavs.

Source: https://www.fearthesword.com/2025/4...-magic-atlanta-hawks-chicago-bulls-miami-heat

 

[Cleveland Cavaliers]

The Cavs need De’Andre Hunter to get a rebound

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Hunter needs to clean the glass.

The Cleveland Cavaliers should feel fantastic going into the NBA Playoffs. They’ve accomplished almost everything you can in the regular season and did it all while improving the roster by adding De’Andre Hunter at the deadline.

Hunter averaged 14.3 points on 42.6% three-point shooting one arriving in Cleveland. His knockdown catch-and-shoot efficiency made him an instant fit on the Cavalier bench. The Cavs can rely on him to space the floor and play the backup four on a nightly basis.

Then, on defense, Hunter is the theoretical missing piece. He’s an athletic, lanky wing with the size they’ve been missing. Hunter’s physical tools make him not only a good player on the bench but someone who could start and close games in the playoffs.

That is, if Hunter is able to fix one thing.

The Cavs have a rebounding problem​

See, the Cavaliers finished the season 24th in opponent offensive rebounding percentage and that actually got worse once they added Hunter. Rebounding has always been a concern for this team. The simple fact is, they need more defensive rebounding from their midseason acquisition.

The Cavs would rank ninth in rebounding percentage if you only included lineups that featured both bigs. In contrast, lineups without one of Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley are both far below league average in rebounding.

Cleveland rebounds at their best when Max Strus is next to Allen and Mobley. Lineups featuring those three place in the 93rd percentile and would be the best rebounding team in the NBA by a wide margin. Dean Wade also fills the gap fine enough Mobley or Allen. It’s Hunter’s minutes that have hurt them

Lineups featuring Hunter at power forward are in the 8th percentile for defensive rebounding percentage. Worst of all, the Cavs plummet to the unimaginable 0th percentile when Hunter is alongside Allen and Mobley. This is a small sample size of only 127 possessions, but it’s a trend that absolutely can not stick.

Hunter is capable of doing more on the glass​

The frustrating part of this is that Hunter has the skill to be an elite rebounder. He’s a big wing with long arms. There’s no reason, on paper, that he can’t rebound at a high rate. Yet still, Hunter has never had a full season where he ranked above league average in defensive rebounding percentage.

This has led to questions about Hunter’s motor and willingness to be a winning player. He was given a prime opportunity to answer those questions in Cleveland after going from a Play-In team to a bona fide title contender.

So far, the results are slightly more encouraging than our introduction would suggest.

Hunter finished the final 27 games of the season in the 65th percentile for defensive rebounding percentage (the percent of opposing missed field goals the player rebounded). This is by far a career-high and would put Hunter right on par with what the Cavaliers need from him.

He’s had solid rebounding games since joining the Cavs. Hunter grabbed 11 boards in his final game of the regular season and is averaging more rebounds in Cleveland than Atlanta despite playing fewer minutes.

Below, we see what it looks like when Hunter is active on the glass. Because he’s locked in to what’s happening on the floor, Hunter is able to wall off Pascal Siakam and secure the defensive stop.

On this next play, we see that even when Hunter isn’t fully alert, he’s still big enough to win a contested rebound. He doesn’t put a body on Stephon Castle — but Hunter is able to beat the athletic rookie to the ball either way.

Finally, here’s one more example of Hunter being engaged. He turns his head to locate Keldon Johnson while the ball is in the air, uses his size to box him out and then cleans the glass for a textbook defensive rebound.

It’s clear that Hunter can be a good rebounder when he’s alert and active in pursuing the ball. How exactly do you ensure that happens for an entire playoff series? No one knows. But if Hunter wants to be the ultimate x-factor and take Cleveland to another level, he has the tools to do it.

Source: https://www.fearthesword.com/2025/4...avaliers-need-deandre-hunter-to-get-a-rebound

 

[Cleveland Cavaliers]

Cavs avoid a first-round playoff rematch with Magic

Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images

The Magic will take on the Celtics in the first round after advancing in the NBA Play-In Tournament.

The Cleveland Cavaliers don’t know who they’ll be playing in the first round of the NBA playoffs, but at the very least, it won’t be the Orlando Magic. The Magic secured the seventh seed on Tuesday night as they comfortably defeated the Atlanta Hawks 120-95 in the Play-In Tournament.

That win puts the Magic in the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and gives them a first-round matchup against the Boston Celtics. This means the Cavs won’t have to play the Magic in the first round again after taking seven games to defeat them last season.

Orlando won two of their three meetings with Boston this season, but the Celtics rested their entire starting lineup in their most recent meeting last week. We’ll see if any of Orlando’s regular-season success carries over to the playoffs.

The Cavs won’t know who they’ll play in the first round yet, but it will be either the Hawks, Miami Heat, or the Chicago Bulls.

The Heat and Bulls play on Wednesday night. The winner of that game will travel to Atlanta to take on the Hawks on Friday. The winner of Friday’s game will face the Cavs in the first round starting on Sunday.

Cleveland should take care of whoever they face in the first round pretty easily, although they did drop games against the Heat and Hawks during the regular season. Atlanta won two of their three meetings, while Miami grabbed one of their three matchups with Cleveland.

The four Eastern Conference Play-In teams don’t really have the potential to push the Cavs. But if you were going to pick one that could, it would’ve likely been the Magic due to their physical style and what happened last year in the playoffs. From that standpoint, the Cavs are likely happy with the result of Tuesday’s action.

Source: https://www.fearthesword.com/2025/4...-tournament-orlando-magic-cleveland-cavaliers

 

[Cleveland Cavaliers]

Jarrett Allen and the Cavs are NBA trendsetters

Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

This upcoming postseason will answer the questions surrounding the two big lineup.

This season, the two-big lineup made a comeback in the NBA. While trends come and go, every trend needs someone to start it. This latest two-big fad started with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Cleveland was the first to bring back a classic formula that was dominant in the NBA long before the pace-and-space era kicked in. Now, with small ball seeming to lose some of its shine, the league is shifting back to a more modern version of what worked for decades.

And the Cavaliers’ two-big lineup has been pretty tough to stop this season. Behind the pairing of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, Cleveland topped the league in offensive rating at 121.0. And guess what? The next two teams in net rating — the Boston Celtics (119.5) and Oklahoma City Thunder (119.2) — are also rocking a two-big lineup of their own.

Here is the final list of the top 10 offenses (based on Offensive Rating) for the 2024-25 regular season.

The teams in red are teams that often featured double big lineups (lineups with two modern centers). pic.twitter.com/D2BszalslB

— Sportscasting NBA (@SportcastingNBA) April 15, 2025​

Still, there’s one big question hanging over the Cavs as the postseason nears:

Can they close games with both Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen?​

For most of the season, especially in a big win over the Thunder on Jan. 8, the answer seemed to be yes. In that game, Mobley and Allen made history as the first duo since 1998 to each drop 20+ points, 10+ rebounds, and 6+ assists in the same game — a feat last pulled off by Tim Duncan and David Robinson.

Mobley’s clearly taken the next step. He’s in the mix for Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, and All-NBA honors. But if the Cavs fall short, it’s likely the blame will fall on their often-overlooked big man: Jarrett Allen.

This isn’t the first time Allen has faced this kind of heat. After the postseason loss to the New York Knicks in 2023, Allen admitted that “the lights were too bright” for him. That blame continued even though Allen’s postseason run was cut short after Game 4 of the first-round series against the Orlando Magic.

So, how can Allen finally get the recognition he deserves — as a player the Cavaliers can’t afford to overlook?

At the start of the season, it seemed like Allen wasn’t always going to be part of the closing lineup. With Mobley often sliding to center and Georges Niang or Dean Wade filling in at power forward, Allen’s role shrank. That continued after the Cavaliers added De’Andre Hunter.

But something changed during the Cavs’ West Coast skid: They couldn’t close games. It wasn’t until Allen was back in the final minutes that the Cavs regained their clutch gene — the one that had been key to their success all season.

When Allen is locked in, the Cavaliers have a serious weapon on both ends of the floor. His best traits — elite rim protection, quick switches, and dominant paint play — make him a game-changer. And with the NBA Finals within reach, now’s the time for him to put those traits to work.

In the East, the Celtics are the only team that has an answer for what Allen brings. Outside of Boston, no team can match Allen’s defensive versatility — his ability to switch, protect the rim, and clean up on help defense.

On offense, when Allen is at his best, he’s a nightmare for opposing defenses. His finishing around the rim is tough to stop, especially when the ball-handler dumps it off to him in the paint. We’ve seen him overpower some of the best rim protectors — just look at what he did to the Milwaukee Bucks and Knicks recently.

With Allen often being the forgotten man in the Cavs’ spotlight, a postseason run where he’s the difference-maker would remind everyone how important he is to Cleveland’s success. If they want to reach their full potential, they need him to be clicking on all cylinders.

Source: https://www.fearthesword.com/2025/4...s-two-bigs-kenny-atknison-cleveland-cavaliers

 

[Cleveland Cavaliers]

Changing one thing allowed Evan Mobley to improve his three-point shot

Scott Kinser-Imagn Images

The Cavs offense will need Mobley’s outside shot in the postseason.

The Cleveland Cavaliers' playoff hopes have rested on the shoulders of Evan Mobley for three straight springs now. Unlike previous years, Mobley’s offensive game is well-rounded enough to handle that burden. Taking a step up as a shooter is to thank for that.

Those improvements are due to one thing: Confidence.

“I just love his confidence right now,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said when asked about Mobley’s improvements as an outside shooter last week. “We’ve really pushed him and joked with him and really tried to empower him to shoot the ball.”

You can’t quantify confidence, but you know it when you see it. Mobley has continually shown his belief in his jumper throughout the season. That’s reflected in how his attempts per game have more than doubled from 1.2 last season to 3.2 this year while maintaining an impressive 37% mark from distance.

Mobley had been hesitant to pull the trigger in previous years. He’d often opt to drive into traffic instead of taking the three the defense willingly gave him. This usually wouldn’t go well as that meant at least a few defenders were waiting for him at the rim.

This screenshot perfectly sums up last season.

Someone with confidence in their outside shot takes this. Mobley didn’t.

On this play, all five defenders are in or near the paint, including Mobley’s, who has two feet in the paint when he catches the ball. Instead of taking the corner three, Mobley gives it up and opts for a two-man game with Max Strus.

Given that the whole defense was waiting for him inside, this didn’t work.

This all stands in stark contrast to what we’ve seen this season, specifically in the last two months, where Mobley’s three-point attempts have jumped to 4.2 per game since the beginning of March.

Now, if you give Mobley daylight, he’s going to go up with the shot. This is where the increased confidence is seen.

Mobley isn’t afraid to take threes in situations where his defender is closing out hard and has a hand in his face. Compare this screenshot with the one from earlier. This turnaround in one season is incredibly impressive.

Instead of teams actively allowing him to shoot, defenses are closing out. The Cavs now have lineups with four or five shooters that opposing defenses need to cover when he’s on the floor. That opens up lanes to the basket for others. This is part of the reason why the Cavs have converted 4.8% more of their shots at the rim with Mobley on the floor compared to when he’s been off.

Mobley will need to keep proving himself in the playoffs for teams to respect him. Los Angeles Clippers head coach Ty Lue opted to primarily guard Mobley with James Harden in their last meeting. The idea behind this was to protect Harden, who is notorious for being a poor defender, and to make Mobley beat them with his outside shot. He did so as he went 3-6 from three against the Clippers while putting up 22 points.

It’s safe to say that opponents will throw similar versions of that strategy at Mobley in the playoffs. We’ll see how he responds to it in the higher-pressure environments.

“Bigger teams are gonna pack the paint on him,” Atkinson said. “He’s gotta take [threes] for us to take that next step. It doesn’t mean we don’t want him to drive. It doesn’t mean we don’t want him to pass. Doesn’t mean we don’t need to have a good variety. But [the three ball is] really important. I think he understands that.”

It seems that Mobley does understand this. The strides he’s made as a shooter are incredibly impressive, but the playoffs are a different beast.

If the Cavs are going to get through the East like they have the skills to do so, it’ll be because of Mobley. The confidence he played with all regular season will need to carry over into the playoffs.

“His confidence level is through the roof right now,” Darius Garland said. “We really love that. ... I always say that he’s a unicorn. He’s going to take us wherever we want to go.”

Source: https://www.fearthesword.com/2025/4...y-atkinson-darius-garland-cleveland-cavaliers

 

[Cleveland Cavaliers]

Kenny Atkinson gives update on Donovan Mitchell’s ankle

Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

Mitchell missed Cleveland’s final four games with an ankle injury.

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell missed the last four games of the regular season after injuring his ankle in the April 6 loss to the Sacramento Kings. Mitchell initially hurt his ankle in the third quarter, but came back to play the final 15 minutes before being shut down for the remainder of the regular season.

It doesn’t appear that the ankle injury is going to keep him off the court. Mitchell was a full participant in practice on Thursday afternoon, as were the rest of his teammates.

“Really good,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said after practice on Thursday when asked about how Mitchell in particular looked. “He did everything. We did some live stuff today. He was a full go. No restrictions.”

The Cavs have been intentional with keeping the minutes off their best players, including Mitchell, considering the team wasn’t fully healthy going into the playoffs last season. That is something Atkinson has been bringing up since media day last fall.

“That was the most important thing,” Atkinson said when asked whether he could take pride in the team being healthy. “I’m really proud of the plan we had. How we managed guys, how they managed themselves, our performance team, or medical team. It’s such a group effort. It’s a lot of planning that goes into it.”

This approach seemed to work for Mitchell. The 71 games he played this season were the most he’s participated in since the 2018-19 season. Additionally, the 31.4 minutes per game were the least he’s played in his career and were nearly four minutes less than what he averaged last year.

The Cavs have a chance to win a championship this season. But for them to do so, they need their best players available and ready to play. Right now, it seems as if Mitchell and his teammates will be ready for Game 1 of the first round on Sunday.

Source: https://www.fearthesword.com/2025/4...a-playoffs-kenny-atkinson-cleveland-cavaliers

 

[Cleveland Cavaliers]

Preview Cavs First Round Playoff matchup on Playback

Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

We’ll be watching Hawks vs Heat tonight.

The Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks will play at 7 pm Eastern to determine who plays the Cleveland Cavaliers in round one of the 2025 NBA Playoffs. We’ll be starting our stream on playback around 8:30 to catch the second half and then preview the upcoming series.

Tonight is the last night of the Play-In Tournament. That means Miami, Atlanta, Memphis and Dallas will be playing for their playoff lives. In addition to the second half of Hawks/Heat, we’ll be watching at least the second half of the Grizzlies and Mavericks game while chatting about the Cavs.

If you want to watch the games live with us, you only have to make a free account on Playback.

• Head over to playback.tv and create an account with your email address
• Connect and select your NBA League Pass login as your streaming account (sign up for League Pass here first if you don’t have it)
• Go to https://www.playback.tv/fearthesword and hit the JOIN button
• Make sure to activate push notifications so you know when we’re going live

Source: https://www.fearthesword.com/2025/4...liers-first-round-playoff-matchup-on-playback

 

[Cleveland Cavaliers]

Watch Denver Nuggets vs LA Clippers NBA Playoffs Game 1 on Playback

Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post

Watch NBA Playoffs live on Playback!

The NBA Playoffs begin today! We will be streaming Game 1 of the Denver Nuggets and LA Clippers live on Playback. Stream starts at 3:30 pm Eastern.

This is one of the most highly anticipated matchups of the first round. Nikola Jokic might not win the MVP award this season, but he still holds the crown as the league's best player. He will pose all sorts of problems to a Clippers team that has a Defensive Player of the Year candidate at center. Because even Ivicia Zubac will have a hard time holding his own against the Joker.

If you want to watch the games live with us, you only have to make a free account on Playback.

• Head over to playback.tv and create an account with your email address
• Connect and select your NBA League Pass login as your streaming account (sign up for League Pass here first if you don’t have it)
• Go to https://www.playback.tv/fearthesword and hit the JOIN button
• Make sure to activate push notifications so you know when we’re going live

Source: https://www.fearthesword.com/2025/4...s-la-clippers-nba-playoffs-game-1-on-playback

 

[Cleveland Cavaliers]

Kenny Atkinson wins NBCA’s Coach of the Year Award

Photo by Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images

Atkinson was well deserving.

The National Basketball Coaches Association has announced Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson as the recipient of the Michael H. Goldberg NBCA Coach of the Year Award. The official 2025 NBA Coach of the Year winner has yet to be announced.

“Kenny Atkinson has long been respected by his peers as an innovative and humble servant to the game,” said NBCA President Rick Carlisle. “Congratulations to Kenny on a historic season along with this prestigious recognition by his peers.”

Atkinson led the Cavs to one of the most successful seasons in franchise history. His guidance helped unlock a middling Cleveland offense and transformed it into the best in the league. Atkinson’s coaching helped the team win 64 games and secure the first seed in the Eastern Conference.

“I’m also grateful to our assistant coaches and support staff, whose tireless work ethic allows me to coach to my highest potential. Individual accolades are special, but I must give a ton of credit to Koby Altman for assembling the collection of talent we have in Cleveland,” said Atkinson. “A special thank you as well to Dan Gilbert for consistently providing incredible resources and assistance in our chase for NBA Championships.”

Cleveland has made the leap from good to great under Atkinson. His first season with the team couldn’t have gone better.

Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault won the award last year. Mike Brown and Monty Williams won the previous two. All three coaches went on to win the NBA’s Coach of the Year Award, as well.

Source: https://www.fearthesword.com/2025/4/19/24411962/kenny-atkinson-wins-nbcas-coach-of-the-year-award