Cleveland Cavaliers: Analyzing The Remaining Schedule

By Joshua Howe | Feb 16, 2015

Feb 12, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls forward Tony Snell (20) knocks the ball away from Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) during the second quarter at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports /

The life span of the 2014-15 NBA regular season is now more than half over. All-Star weekend is finished and spring isn’t too far ahead, which means that teams around the league are beginning to gear up for the final stretch with their eyes set on the prize that lies in June.

The unofficial second half of the season means lots of things. It’s when the MVP race can change or solidify, it’s when rosters are finally grounded and most rotations are cemented and it’s when teams try to amp up their play so that they can be in a good rhythm heading into the postseason and perhaps snatch a higher seed to boot.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers are no exception to any other squad. LeBron James will undoubtedly make a case in these final 27 games that he deserves to be in the MVP discussion, David Blatt will hopefully have his team healthy and every position filled, and the entire club will try to keep their recent hot play rolling.

Right now, Cleveland sits in the fifth spot in the East with a 33-22 record. Ahead of them, in order, are: Atlanta (43-11), Toronto (36-17), Chicago (34-20) and Washington (33-21).

While the top spot is nearly impossible to steal, the other seeds may see a shift. Finishing in that four-five spot is always a dangerous place to be come playoff time. Most often, the two teams in those positions are a great match for one another and this results in an entertaining series. But if you’re the Cavs, you don’t want to have to play one of the better teams in the first round.

At the moment, it would be Washington, who is almost a sleeper when talking about the top five teams in the East. They haven’t been playing extremely well recently, but they’ll certainly get back on the horse during the remaining schedule.

Besides that, who really wants to play a team that boasts the human lightning bolt John Wall, the sleek shooter Bradley Beal, the terrifying-when-he’s-hot Nene and the killer clutch shot-making of The Truth himself? Certainly not the Cavs.

If Cleveland managed to move up two spots, they might even get a team like Milwaukee in the first round. Though underrated, they’re a lot less fear-inducing than the Wizards or Bulls.

But how does the schedule favour the Cavs? Will it crush them or aid them? Well, let’s check it out.

Out of the 27 games left, Cleveland has to play 13 teams that have a record of above .500. Six of those teams are from the West. There’s also one killer five-game stretch that will see the Cavs take on Toronto, Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas and San Antonio.

Here’s the list, in order:

@ Wizards
Vs Warriors
@ Rockets
@ Raptors
@ Hawks
Vs Suns
@ Mavs
@ Spurs
@ Bucks (2X)
@ Grizzlies
Vs Bulls
Vs Wizards

As you can see, most of the games are on the road as well. Yuck. This will be an important time to see if they can keep playing like they have been while seldom seeing their home floor.

On the flip side, they also get to play 14 games against sub .500 teams. But unfortunately, more than half of these games are on the road as well. Still, having these games scattered among their more difficult ones will be a blessing:

@ Knicks
@ Pistons
@ Pacers
Vs Celtics (2X)
@ Magic
@ Heat
Vs Nets
Vs Pacers
@ Nets
Vs Sixers
Vs Heat
@ Celtics
Vs Pistons

Cleveland has five back-to-backs left to deal with and a deadly four games in five nights scenario, in which the teams they play are Boston at home, Toronto on the road, Atlanta on the road and Phoenix at home.

This isn’t going to be a joyride. This is one of the tougher schedules to close out the season and it will be a defining period for this Cavaliers club. If they can carve out a decent record for themselves, then they should feel pretty good heading into the postseason knowing what they have had to deal with to end the season.

With substantial challenges ahead of them, it won’t be easy for the Cavs to move up the rungs of the Eastern Conference. But they certainly understand that if they remain where they are right now, that desired path to the Finals is going to become much rockier.

Great teams rise to the occasion. I suppose we’ll be finding out if Cleveland is one of those teams in the coming weeks. Game on.

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