The Cleveland Cavaliers can match the second-most regular-season wins in franchise history on Wednesday when they welcome the visiting New York Knicks.
With Sunday’s 127-122 win over the Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland (60-15) reached 60 wins for just the third time since debuting in the NBA in 1970. The Cavaliers can surpass the organization’s single-season win record of 66, set in 2008-09, if they win out.
“It’s the first time without LeBron (James that) Cleveland has got to 60 wins. It’s something special for the city, it’s something special for us,” Jarrett Allen said.
“It’s been a great year,” added Donovan Mitchell, the Cavaliers leading scorer at 24 points per game. “Everybody has continued to take a step.”
Cleveland holds a four-game lead over reigning NBA champion Boston for home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Cavaliers are three games behind NBA-leading Oklahoma City for the top overall record and home court in a potential NBA Finals series.
Solidifying first place in the East will not be easy for Cleveland, which plays two of the conference’s top four teams four times in the final seven regular-season games. Wednesday’s matchup with New York is the first of two between the Cavaliers and third-place Knicks down the stretch.
Cleveland also sees fourth-place Indiana twice in the coming weeks.
The Cavaliers took the first two games against the Knicks this season, 110-104 on the road on Oct. 28 and 142-105 on Feb. 21 in Cleveland. Mitchell scored 27 points, Evan Mobley added 21 and Ty Jerome went for 19 off the bench in the most recent meeting.
Jerome was on a seven-game streak of scoring in double figures before sustaining a knee injury that sidelined him the past three games. He will not play on Wednesday, but Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson expects the reserve guard back before the playoffs.
“He definitely wants to get three or four games in,” Atkinson said. “We want him to get his rhythm before that.”
New York (48-27) has a similar situation with its 26.3-point per game scorer Jalen Brunson. He last played on March 6 due to an ankle injury, though he was cleared at the beginning of this week.
Brunson told reporters on Monday that he is “hoping to play before the playoffs.”
The Knicks improved to 8-5 since Brunson’s injury and extended their winning streak to three games on Tuesday with a 105-91 defeat of floundering Philadelphia.
OG Anunoby’s 27 points led short-handed New York, which also was playing without Karl-Anthony Towns due to knee soreness.
Mitchell Robinson made his second start of the season in Towns’ place. Robinson collected 14 points and 14 rebounds with two blocked shots against the 76ers.
“We’ll deal with tomorrow, tomorrow,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said about Towns’ availability against the Cavaliers.
Thibodeau, meanwhile, tied Pat Riley with the fourth-most wins for a head coach in Knicks franchise history, the 223rd victory of his tenure in New York.
“All that stuff, it’s a byproduct of having great players,” Thibodeau said. “You share that with your team.”
