With their blue chip players resting the Cavs fell to the visiting Toronto Raptors, 98-83, finishing the 2016-17 season with a 51-31 record.
"We all did our job to get us into the playoffs", Butler said. "We always work on things we could possibly use in the playoffs". Tavares was a second-round pick of the Atlanta Hawks in 2014, but played in only 12 games for them over the past two seasons before being waived. With Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and basically the same supporting cast as past year, they could turn it on and have a chance against whichever team survives the brutal Western Conference playoff.
LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are the second seed in the East heading into the 2017 NBA Playoffs.
Over and over, Cavaliers players have bemoaned the lack of energy and defensive execution displayed in the past several games, but Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said now is the time for his team to "put up or shut up". If the Cavs can't win a game on the road even against the bottom feeders in the west, how are they supposed to just walk through the east to the finals and repeat as champions? "You guys are trying to drain my energy right now, I just told you I felt great".
"We got a lot of veteran guys who know what's going on here and know what it takes to be successful", Thompson said. "LeBron's a competitor, he wants to win and me tapering his minutes down, he thought it would be bad, especially with the things we was going through at the time", Lue said.
Don't Want Conflict in Muslim Society over Triple Talaq: Modi
The BJP also challenged Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to accept the open challenege of Election Commission to hack EVMs. Ramesh said these were figures released by the Reserve Bank of India and go against the tall claims made by the BJP.
Cleveland, the second favorite behind Golden State at +333 on the National Basketball Association championship odds, has a lot of work to do to get back to the Finals for the third consecutive year and faces a tough path in 2017.
The duo of James and Irving should certainly be able to outduel the Pacers tandem of George and point guard Jeff Teague. "I think the direction with our team is that he's a player that would be better off somewhere else and using his talent somewhere where he can win or chase that championship". Boston has gotten better. They should win that series 4-1.
Speaking of which, Kyle Lowry will probably get some minutes tonight too, if only to continue to get him back up to speed with the team's rotations and his new teammates. "We'll see how it goes". They lost their final four games, in part because Love, Irving and James were rested the final two games. It's schemed more towards a specific opponent than the regular season.
The two remaining playoff berths will be decided, along with the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and the site for Game 1 of the series that starts this weekend between the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers. So I'm no less confident. "We're going to need that same intensity if not more, it's just a different game". "We're focused on ourselves and the Milwaukee Bucks".
And it's now or never.
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