The NBA regular season continues, and the East ushers in a strong dialogue, with the Raptors sitting at home to meet the Cavaliers.
Despite the injuries this season, the Cavaliers have maintained excellent competitive form, becoming one of the dark horses in the East, ranking sixth in the East before the game, but only one win ahead of the opponents of this game, the Raptors, so this game is a crucial card battle.
On the other hand, the Raptors, the team and the Cavaliers are exactly the opposite, this season is low and high, the beginning of the season was once at the bottom of the East, but with the advancement of the schedule, the team played better and better, ranking seventh in the East before the game, with excellent body shape and strong confrontation ability, the Raptors became the nemesis of some strong teams.
As soon as the game began, the Cavaliers countered and quickly established a lead, but the Raptors filled in the point difference during the quarter.
The two teams then fell into a tug-of-war, the score has been very sticky, but at the end of the quarter, the Cavaliers suddenly muted, the Raptors drummed up, directly pulled the point difference to double digits, and ended the first quarter with an 8-point lead.
In the second quarter, the Cavaliers regained their touch and quickly narrowed the point gap, but the Raptors were full of resilience, multi-point blossoming to maintain the score, and as the Cavaliers' feel declined again at the end of the quarter, the Raptors took a 10-point lead at the end of the half.
Easy side to fight again, both teams into the state, the point difference has been maintained between 5-10 points, the two teams continue to pull, the point difference has always remained in this range, until the end of the third quarter, the Raptors still hold an 8-point lead.
Entering the final quarter of the scramble, the Raptors quickly pulled the point difference to double digits and maintained a lot of firepower, and the Cavaliers briefly forced the point difference to single digits.
But the Raptors showed no signs of slackening, and continued to exert their strength in the second half of the quarter, once again pulling the point difference apart, and the suspense of the game ended, and the Raptors, who played at home, took the Cavaliers 117-104 lightly and won this important card battle.
As a result, the Raptors' record improved to 41 wins and 32 losses, successfully equaling the cavaliers in the sixth place in the East, but due to the win-loss relationship, the Cavaliers still ranked sixth in the East.
However, according to the state and hard power of the two teams, it is almost only a matter of time before the Raptors reach the top six, which also makes the pattern in the East more confusing.
The first is the scramble for the top half of the zone, the current First Heat position in the East is not stable, only 1 win ahead of the Bucks behind them, the Bucks with the game to beat the Wizards, successfully overtook the 76ers, to the second position in the East.
The third and fourth teams are the 76ers and Celtics, respectively, with no win difference between the two teams, and both are 1.5 wins away from the first-place Heat.
However, the 76ers had a slight advantage in overall winning percentage in the case of two games less, and barely pushed the Green Army to the third place in the East.
In other words, the ranking gap in the top four in the East is very small, and almost two games can completely change the ranking of the upper half of the East.
This was followed by the 5-7th place, and it was very difficult for the teams in this gear to reach the top half, but the gap between the three teams was minimal.
The fifth-place Bulls lost to the Pelicans, leading the Cavaliers behind them by only one win, while the Cavaliers lost to the Raptors, and both teams had the same record.
Although the eastern pattern is confusing, the most noteworthy point is who the Nets will play, because after Irving's return, they have undoubtedly become the hot potatoes in the lower half, and no team in the upper half wants to meet the Nets in the first round.
Not surprisingly, the Nets will enter the playoffs as eighth in the East, and most likely against the Cavaliers, so the Nets will most likely enter the playoffs in seventh place in the East.
This makes the second position in the East extremely tricky, and the team in the upper half of the East is currently very small, the defending champion Bucks are temporarily in second place, the original 76ers are in second place, and the Bucks beat the Wizards by a large score to directly complete the rebound, which undoubtedly makes Harden breathe a sigh of relief.
Because from the 76ers and the Nets' encounter, it is not difficult to see that Harden seems to be reluctant to face his former teammates, but the current ranking in the East is still confusing, and anything can happen, but I believe that in the end, the first half of the team will still fight and avoid the nets as much as possible.