Opening act has left the stage

The regular season is over for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who lost their last four games of the campaign, each by more points than the last. But no matter. As you surely know, the Cavs had nothing left to play for except continued health until the real season gets going. They finished with a 61-21 record, the second-best record in club history, after last year's 66-16 mark.

The Cavs will open the playoffs Saturday against the Chicago Bulls, who beat the Bobcats last night to finish 41-41 and hold off Toronto for the eighth and final spot in the East. In a way, the Bulls have the Cavs to thank for getting them into the playoffs. We had the Raptors and Bulls in consecutive games on April 6 and April 8. On April 6, the Cavs were still trying to clinch home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, so they went full-bore after Toronto, and beat them 113-101. But on April 8, they had clinched it, and rested LeBron in a 109-108 loss. Had the two teams faced the Cavs on opposite dates, we'd be looking at the Raptors for our first-round match-up.

Game one starts at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Cavs went 2-2 against the Bulls this year; one of those losses, of course, was that April 8 game in which LeBron didn't take the floor. The other was November 5, which dropped Cleveland to 3-3, as part of the slow start they got while working Shaquille O'Neal and Anthony Parker and such guys into the rotation. The Cavaliers team that will take the floor Saturday is far different from the one that took the floor in either of those losses. I predict a four-game sweep.