{"id":694349,"date":"2026-04-02T18:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694349\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T18:04:27","slug":"cavaliers-are-wasting-the-golden-opportunity-just-handed-to-them-by-the-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/694349\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavaliers are wasting the golden opportunity just handed to them by the Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again, the Eastern Conference playoff race has been one of the tightest in recent years. Dropping a couple of games can be the difference between making the playoffs or falling to the Play-In, and no one can afford to bat an eye at this point in the season.<\/p>\n

That’s why it’s been slightly disappointing to see the Cleveland Cavaliers unable to make the most of the New York Knicks’ recent slump. Mike Brown’s team has already clinched a playoff spot, but they could still fall from No. 3 to No. 4 if the Cavs win out.<\/p>\n

Instead, both teams have gone 7-3 in the past ten games. That could come back to haunt the Cavaliers<\/a> in the first round of the playoffs, as they’re currently slated to square off with the up-and-coming Atlanta Hawks.<\/p>\n

The Cavs should’ve already gotten past the Knicks<\/p>\n

Two of the Cavs’ past three losses have come against teams they should’ve beaten. There was no excuse not to beat the Dallas Mavericks a couple of weeks ago, and dropping the first of a back-to-back series vs. the Miami Heat also held the team back. Then, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers made a bit more sense, but it still probably sealed their fate as the No. 4 seed.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the Knicks had some bad losses of their own, dropping consecutive games vs. the Detroit Pistons, with a shocking setback to the Indiana Pacers in between. They are struggling on offense and look like a team that won’t go deep in the postseason.<\/p>\n

As things stand now, the Knicks are looking at a matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers. Even with Paul George and Joel Embiid back on the court, Nick Nurse’s team is brittle and inconsistent, and they look like a more favorable matchup for the Cavs.<\/p>\n

The Hawks, on the other hand, have been one of the best teams in the game since moving on from Trae Young. Moreover, the Cavs struggle to contain big on-ball players,<\/a> and going against Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson could spell trouble for their rather small defense.<\/p>\n

There’s just a handful of games left in the regular season, and it’s hard to believe the Cavs can catch the Knicks now. Then again, they won’t even give themselves a chance if they continue to drop games they should’ve won. That’s not how you want to enter the playoffs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once again, the Eastern Conference playoff race has been one of the tightest in recent years. Dropping a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-694349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-knicks","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116336437900393493","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}