NBA bracket note: Cavaliers vs. Magic

Cleveland’s first-round opponent is not Orlando after all; the official bracket has the Cavaliers opening against Toronto on Saturday, April 18. (nba.com) The National Basketball Association’s playoff schedule lists Game 1 of Raptors at Cavaliers for 1 p.m. Eastern on Prime Video, with Game 2 in Cleveland on Monday, April 20. Game 3 shifts to Toronto on Thursday, April 23. (nba.com) The confusion comes from the Eastern Conference standings and play-in board sitting side by side. Orlando finished 45-37 and entered Wednesday’s 7-versus-8 play-in game against Philadelphia, while Cleveland finished 52-30 as the East’s No. 4 seed. (nba.com) Toronto, not Orlando, is the team locked into Cleveland’s side of the bracket. The Raptors finished 46-36 and clinched the No. 5 seed outright, which set the 4-versus-5 series as soon as the regular season ended. (nba.com) Orlando’s path is still unsettled because the play-in tournament runs from April 14 through April 17. The Magic can still claim the No. 7 seed by beating the 76ers on Wednesday, April 15, or fall into Friday’s final play-in game with the No. 8 seed on the line. (nba.com) That means Orlando can only face Detroit, the East’s No. 1 seed, if it comes through the play-in as the No. 8 team. Boston, the No. 2 seed, is also waiting on a play-in winner, while New York already has Atlanta and Cleveland already has Toronto. (nba.com) The standings show why Cleveland did not slide into a play-in matchup: the Cavaliers were eight games behind No. 1 Detroit and one game behind No. 3 New York, but six games clear of No. 6 Atlanta. The top six teams in each conference skip the play-in entirely. (espn.com) So the East bracket is partly set and partly waiting. Cleveland knows its opponent, arena, and tip times now; Orlando still has to win its way into the field. (nba.com)