Washington Wizards: Cavs in first round, Wizards have been waiting for this
By Matt Levin
If the playoffs were held today, the Washington Wizards would face off with the Cleveland Cavaliers. It’s the series that the Wizards have been waiting for.
With the win over the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday, the Washington Wizards officially clinched a playoff spot for the fourth time in the last five years.
However, with only five games remaining in the regular season, the Wizards’ seeding position isn’t yet set.
Currently, Washington holds the sixth spot in the East, but are only one game in front of the seventh-seeded Heat and eighth-seeded Bucks.
If the season were to end today, the Wizards would face LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs. While neither the Wizards nor the Cavs have clinched their seed, it’s a likely scenario.
It needs to be emphasized that a team with James on their roster has never lost a first round series. In fact, not even a game in the first round of the playoffs since May 6, 2012.
The four-time MVP has also won the Eastern Conference seven years in a row.
James has also owned the Wizards in first-round matchups, beating the Wizards three straight years in a row in the first round with a combined record of 12-4.
While these matchups were a decade ago, many in the DC area still want revenge. Maybe we can even get DeShawn Stevenson to come back to town.
It will be a daunting task for the Wizards to face the Cavs in the first round, almost reminiscent to a David vs. Goliath match. However, this is the matchup the Wizards have finally been waiting for.
Since 2013, the Wizards have fallen just short of facing a Lebron-led team in the playoffs three times in the last four seasons.
Last season, the Cavs had the first seed locked up, but “tanked” in the final stretch of the regular season to the two seed, causing the Wizards to face the Celtics in the second round of the playoffs instead of Cleveland.
Whether they actually tanked is debatable, but Wizard’s shooting guard Bradley Beal seemed to thinks so, stating:
"“Cleveland didn’t want to see us. I always said that. I felt like that’s the reason they didn’t play us in the second round. They didn’t want to see us in the second round. If they were going to go down, they were going to go down in the conference finals. They didn’t want to go down in the second round.”"
Wizard’s point guard John Wall agreed with Beal:
"“They didn’t want to see us, period, because we would have seen them in the second round. I think they wanted to see us in the Eastern Conference finals, and we fell one game short of it.”"
With the potential first round series looming, could the Wizards actually take down LeBron James in the first round? It will be tough, but it is not unrealistic. This is the series the Wizards have been waiting for.