Until a reporter asked him, Cavaliers coach Mike Brown claimed not to know that if the Cavaliers won their final four games, they would match the 1995-97 Bulls as the only teams in NBA history to post consecutive 65-victory seasons.
Thus, the Cavaliers’ decision to rest LeBron James Thursday night shouldn’t have surprised.
“Any record that you get on this level is welcome because it’s hard to win in this league,” Brown said. “But I’m not going to sacrifice what I think is right for the team or for the individuals to chase a record.”
Thus, with the Cavaliers already having clinched homecourt advantage throughout the NBA playoffs and with the second of back-to-back games before home fans Friday, the decision to sit James became easy.
“He has some bumps and bruises,” Brown said. “We just decided to rest him.”
In the three previous meetings this season, James averaged 25.7 points, eight rebounds and eight assists against the Bulls.
Playoff preview? In the span of three days, the Cavaliers faced the Raptors and Bulls. One will be their first-round playoff opponent.
“I don’t care who it is,” Brown said. “You’re going to have to go through the best to get what we want anyway. Obviously Toronto being banged up with (Chris) Bosh, they’re in a tough situation going down the stretch. But we’ll play whoever is in front of us.”
Iron men: Taj Gibson and Brad Miller are the only Bulls to appear in all 78 games thus far, a pretty impressive feat for a rookie battling plantar fasciitis and a 12-year veteran who will turn 34 on April 12.
Miller’s career-high for games played is 79 with the 2005-06 Kings.
“I still have some old tricks,” Miller said.
