CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers wrapped up their regular season Sunday with a loss to the Charlotte Hornets, a defeat that locked them into the fourth seed of the NBA playoffs, which in turn sees them scheduled to face the Orlando Magic in the opening round.
Cleveland is looking to turn the page on the ups and downs of the regular season, but how does that look in terms of shifting the mindset?
For many on the team, gearing up for the playoffs is something they believe should have already been happening.
"I would say it was more of a ramp-up. It's not something that you can turn on going into the playoffs, you have to play with this kind of energy in the regular season. It's hard to do it for the whole regular season, but like I said, just ramp up to these important games," said center Jarrett Allen.
The Cavs have had stretches of playing postseason-style basketball this season, but those have ebbed and flowed through injuries and struggles. It remains to be seen if the season's highs will be enough to prepare the Cavs for the playoffs, but players like Max Strus are hopeful it will be with the playoffs just around the corner.
"The mindset should have shifted probably a week ago. It's that time of the year now and we've been talking about it all year. It's time to play," Strus said. "So I hope we're ready for it and I hope we have a good week preparing for it and be ready for it."
The Cavs roster has a variety of playoff experience on it. There are players like Strus and Georges Niang who have that experience from their time on other teams, and there are players like Evan Mobley who got their first taste of the playoffs last season in the untimely exit in their matchup with the Knicks.
Mobley said his mindset has shifted for the postseason, and this week will be about taking what he learned last year and applying it in his preparation for the first-round matchup with the Magic.
"Just your experience and knowing how the playoffs work, the atmosphere, everything about it, it's definitely changed," Mobley said. "I know how the game is played and obviously it's a little bit different than the regular season, so I'm just trying to get ready for it and spend these days just working out and, and mentally preparing for the playoffs."
Niang is working to prepare himself and some of the younger Cavs players for a mindset he said is centralized around intensity.
The Cavs lacked some intensity against the Knicks last year—a mistake they don't want to repeat this time around with Orlando. When talking about the mindset shift, Niang recalled stories of a Cleveland fan favorite and his intensity back in 2016.
"The intensity of everything just goes through the roof. Your preparation and then how you're attacking each play while you're out there— they're going to go 'til exhaustion," Niang said. "I know people around here are telling the [Matthew] Dellavedova story of how he had to get IVs and was exhausted, but that's the type of intensity that's needed to compete at that high level and that's play basketball."
The Cavs know the Magic are going to come out and play hard. Their defensive intensity needs to be both matched by the Cavs' and outdone by an offense the Cavs hope can look like they did earlier in the season when they were playing together and free. Their brand of basketball.
And with that in mind and the focus turning to postseason hoops, the Cavs know that they need to come out strong against Orlando and set the tone early with hopes of advancing in the playoffs this year.
"They're a young team, they're going to be fighting for a lot and I think that we just have to go in with the mentality that we have to throw the first punch," Allen said.
"It's a different animal. The playoffs are a different beast. We've got to be ready to compete. It's going to be tough, any series is tough in the playoffs, so we have to be ready to bring our best," Strus said.
