The Cleveland Cavaliers’ injured playoff chances
The idea that the Cleveland Cavaliers have a chance to make the playoffs is embarrassing. This is a team that has been riddled with turmoil all year. They’ve had fights among players, summers free agent signing that had to be traded (Earl Clark and Andrew Bynum), rumors that their best player doesn’t want to be there, and they’ve fired their GM. However they’re only 5 games out of the playoffs. God Bless the Eastern Conference.
Coming out of the All-Star break I believed the Cavaliers were going to make the playoffs. They were playing as a team and had a 4 games win streak1. They ended up extending that streak to 6 games, and it looked like things were on track.
Then the injury bug hit. C.J. Miles had a back ankle sprain and Anderson Varejao…well he’s Anderson Varejao in February, completely broken. The most significant injury, is the hyperextended knee of Dion Waiters.
You can hate him or love to hate him, but Waiters is a huge loss for the Cavaliers. Not only is he the second leading scorer, but he can anchor the team when Kyrie is on the bench. Waiters has shown improvement during the last two months. It looked like he was going to continue to trend upwards post All-Star Break.2
The Cavaliers still have a very good chance to make the playoffs. I think it will depend on how quickly Dion Waiters can get back, and how effective he is when he I back.
1. It sounds ridiculous to compliment a team for winning 4 games in a row, but that a huge accomplishment for the Cavaliers. They have done that since you know who left.
2. By the way where are all the people that were talking about how bad Dion Waiters was? Oh here you are, I see you David Thorpe!
Editor-in-Chief of Comedic Prose
Follow Kortney Williams on Twitter @kortneyshane