Cavs To Face Heat In First Round Of Playoffs

Game 1 between the Cavs and Heat is Sunday at Rocket Arena (7 p.m. EST, TNT).

With the No. 1 overall seed, the Cavaliers are heavily favored, though it should be noted that the Heat advanced to the Finals via the play-in tourney and the No. 8 seed two years ago. This version of Miami is different, though, with Tyler Herro as their new Jimmy Butler.

The Heat also won two road play-in games to advance to face the Cavs. They raced out to a 10-0 lead over the Hawks in Friday’s clincher, fell behind, then bounced back to finish the job in OT. In the process, Miami became the first No. 10 seed to advance to the playoffs — though it is now officially No. 8.

Anyway, the Cavs have been sitting in Cleveland, practicing, and just waiting for the second season to begin. They now have one day to focus on the Heat specifically.

“As far as talent, chemistry, deep bench, we have it all. It’s really going to be the mental battle,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said. “The question that needs to be answered with this team is if they have a belief level that’s at a championship level.

“Do you really believe you can beat Boston? Do you really believe you can beat Indiana? Do you really believe you can be a conference finalist? That’s the first step. Only going to answer that when we are faced with it. That’s probably the lingering question.”

As for expectations … well, the Cavs haven’t been getting much love from the national media. But guard Ty Jerome indicated they don’t care.

Cleveland (64-18) won at least 60 games for just the third time in history and the first without LeBron James on the team. These Cavs boasted regular-winning streaks of 15, 12, and 16 games.