The Cleveland Cavaliers have a big game on Sunday afternoon. LeBron James and co. will travel to Boston to take on the Celtics, which will draw the eyeballs of basketball fans. It’s a matchup of two squads with Eastern Conference championship aspirations, and of course, the Kyrie Irving vs. Cleveland subplot looms large.
But on Thursday afternoon, this game became way more intriguing. That’s because it is the first game where the Cavaliers will have the players it acquired at the trade deadline: Jordan Clarkson, George Hill, Rodney Hood, and Larry Nance Jr. While the Cavs played on Friday night in Atlanta, those players were not able to go yet.
We learned on Saturday afternoon, though, how the players will be introduced to the Cavs’ rotation. Of the four new guys, only Hill will start when Cleveland plays Boston.
Cavs starting lineup for the Celtics game per Ty Lue: George Hill, JR Smith, Cedi Osman, LeBron James, Tristan Thompson
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) February 10, 2018
As for Hill, Hood, and Nance, it does appear like they’ll get the chance to play on Sunday.
G Hill steps into starting lineup tomorrow with JR, Cedi, LeBron and TT..Rodney, Jordan, Larry will come off the bench with Kyle and JG..
— Fred McLeod (@CavsFredMcLeod) February 10, 2018
Obviously the lineup that will start against Boston won’t be the lineup the Cavs roll with in the playoffs, if only because Kevin Love’s return would push someone to the bench. But at the very least, James will get an idea of what the lineup will look like when he plugs this group into NBA 2K, which is nice.
