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Cleveland radio host says Cavaliers are ‘scared’ of facing the Celtics in the playoffs
"They don't want to play Boston in the second round because they're scared."
The Cavaliers have not made it past the second round of the playoffs since the Warriors swept them in the 2018 NBA Finals.
They’ve endured a second-round exit each of the last two postseasons, with the earlier one coming at the hands of the Celtics in 2024.
With the final week of the regular-season here, teams are competing for playoff seeding. The Cavs are currently fourth, and the Celtics are in second.
Cleveland is one game back of the Knicks for the No.3 seed. If they were to pass the Knicks and win their first-round series, it could set up a potential rematch with the Celtics in the second round this year.
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That’s not the desired outcome for the Cavs, according to an ESPN Cleveland radio host
“They want the four seed, not the No. 3 seed,” ESPN Cleveland’s Andrew Goldhammer said. “They don’t want to play Boston in the second round because they’re scared.”
The Celtics have won 10 of their last 12 games. Jayson Tatum has begun to work through some of his shooting struggles, shooting 46 percent from the field over his last three games.
Jaylen Brown continues to be a potent scoring threat, leading the team in points in nine of the last 11 games. The Celtics’ core is battle-tested, and they’ve also enjoyed an infusion of youthful energy from their bench contributors.
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The Celtics swept the three-game regular-season series with Cleveland. The Cavs have been playing well, winning eight of their last 10.
But, as the regular-season draws to a close, Goldhammer seems convinced that the Cavs will do what they can to stay in that fourth seed and avoid a potential matchup with the Celtics as long as possible.
Keeping the No. 4 seed would make a matchup with the top-seeded Pistons more likely for Cleveland. They wouldn’t face the Celtics until the Conference Finals if both teams made it that far.
Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, Sam Merrill, and Dean Wade missed the Cavs’ matchup with the Pacers on Sunday.
Cleveland has four games left in the regular season.
“The Cavs are banged up,” Goldhammer said. “The Cavs don’t know who their starting lineup should be, as admitted by their coach.”
“They don’t know who should be in their rotation and who shouldn’t be, but they’re going to spike a bunch of games down the stretch because they’re just afraid of Boston, and I’m sure they’ll just be ready to go in time for the playoffs.”
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