Cleveland Cavaliers vs. New York Knicks PREDICTIONS: Can Cavs Get Top Seed’s Magic Number Down to 3?

On Wednesday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks will meet for the first of two games in 10 days as the NBA Eastern Conference playoff picture sorts itself out. Earl Da Pearl and Cecil Shorts go over the night’s matchup and what they want to see from the wine and gold at Rocket Arena, including who could stand out in the stat sheet.

Reaching 60 wins is far from the ultimate goal for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to savor reaching the milestone.

Cleveland’s 127-122 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday afternoon gave the Cavaliers at least 60 wins for only the third time in franchise history.

“Celebrate the small victories, and we will,” said Donovan Mitchell, who had 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. “It’s been a great year. All of our sacrifices and hard work is paying off. It is big for the organization and the city.”

The last time Cleveland reached 60 wins was 2009-10, when it went 61-21. The franchise-high mark is 66-16 from 2008-09. Those were the final two seasons in LeBron James’ first stint with the Cavaliers.

Without being asked, center Jarrett Allen recognized how meaningful it was to do something again for the first time without James. The Akron native remains an icon in Northeast Ohio after he led the Cavaliers to the region’s first professional sports title in 52 years in 2016.

The Cavaliers have faced their share of adversity since they had a 16-game winning streak snapped by Orlando on March 16. The loss to the Magic started a season-high, four-game slide, but Cleveland has won four of its last five.

Atkinson said before the game that the focus was on his own team, instead of figuring out ways to contain LA’s James Harden, Norman Powell or Ivica Zubac.

The Cavaliers began separating themselves from James’ shadow last season when they beat the Magic in seven games in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. It marked the first time since 1993 they won a series without James.

Cleveland is 4 1/2 games ahead of Boston for the top seed in the Eastern Conference with seven games remaining. With a couple days to rest up before hosting the New York Knicks on Wednesday, Atkinson is stressing other things supersede getting that top spot.

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