On May 6, Beijing time, the first tie-break battle of the season came as scheduled, the Cavaliers sat at home to face the Magic, and the two sides fought for 48 minutes, and finally the Cavaliers narrowly defeated the Magic 106-94 and successfully advanced to the semifinals to challenge the Celtics.
It is worth mentioning that the Magic once led the Cavaliers by 18 points in this game, but in the third quarter, the Cavaliers fought back under the leadership of Mitchell and finally successfully reversed and won. However, before the Cavaliers had time to celebrate, they had to accept the indisputable fact that Allen, the team's star star, might not be able to play in the semifinals.
It is reported that Allen suffered a rib contusion in the series with Magic, and has missed G5 and G6 games in a row, and now G7 is still unable to play, which is enough to prove that his injury recovery is not ideal, and he can't even make a basic pre-game warm-up. And considering that the Cavaliers and Magic fought to tie-break, the Celtics locked in the semifinals early, and the two sides will usher in the series G1 on May 8, Beijing time.
From the tie-break to the semifinals G1, the overly tight schedule only leaves the Cavaliers with two days to breathe, and they will go to the Celtics' home court to start a new journey before they have time to prepare too much, although the G7 Allen injury list with the Magic shows that the battle is doubtful, but considering many factors in reality, at least the first 2-3 games of the Cavaliers as a center is likely to not be able to come back, can only temporarily withdraw from the team's game plan, focus on injury recovery, and return in the later stages of the series.
Of course, the premise of Allen's comeback is that the Cavaliers must hold on, and in the face of the Celtics' fierce attack, they must firmly bite the series score, and if the Celtics are given a chance to 2-0 or 3-1, then the series will be completely out of suspense. After all, along the way, the Cavaliers still relied too much on Mitchell's individual performance, and without the help of All-Star center Allen, the Cavaliers obviously couldn't compete with the Celtics Big Four, after all, the depth of the roster is a hard injury that cannot be erased.
But for the Cavaliers, they are not without a chance of winning, at least Allen can't play the official announcement of his retirement from the team for treatment, and the Celtics' star Boshen is also plagued by injuries or missed the semifinals, which means that each side has an All-Star inside, and the rest is to compete with other stars. It's just that in the face of Tatum, Brown, Holiday and even White's siege, can Mitchell still repeatedly cut down the big 30+ or even 50+ to lead the team to win like the series against the Magic?