Cavaliers will rest stars against the Heat, wave white flag in pursuit of the No. 1 seed

With two games left in the regular season and tied with Boston atop the Eastern Conference, the Cavaliers have decided that resting their starters is more important than the No. 1 overall seed.

Before the two losses to the Atlanta Hawks, head coach Tyronn Lue stated that the Cavaliers will not rest anyone until the No. 1 seed was locked up. To put in perspective, the Cavs had just beaten the Celtics in a statement game and it seemed like the No. 1 overall seed was well within reach.

But that changed dramatically for Cleveland. With a 114-100 loss to the Hawks’ JV team and a 26-point blown lead on Sunday, Lue decided to rethink his earlier statement. After the Cavs blew that historic lead at Atlanta, Lue said that he’d have to think about whether rest or chasing the No. 1 seed was important. 

With a the second half of a back-to-back in Miami on Monday, Lue decided to punt on this game and “rest” all of his starters.

The Cavaliers have sneakily avoided the issue of resting their stars, by assigning different ailments to their starters. Cleveland has typically struggled with Miami, losing two of three this season to the Heat. 

The Cavaliers are currently tied with the Boston Celtics for the No. 1seed, but hold the tiebreaker after their win in Boston last week. LeBron and Co. have games against the Heat and Raptors remaining and they will likely be resting for both of these games.

On the other hand, Boston has games against Milwaukee and Brooklyn and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Celtics surpass the Cavs in the standings. It’s been a very up and down finish to the season for the Cavaliers, as they had a vintage victory against the Celtics, but ugly losses against the Hawks.

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With Lue deciding to rest his stars on Monday night, it might be the first step towards on waving the white flag on the No. 1 seed.