Love is sitting versus the Heat tonight, and Lebron has recently said that a Miami/Cleveland matchup in the first round would be great for the league...
If they come out and lose to the Heat tonight helping them maintain that 7th seed, that's going to look super suspicious from a league corruption standpoint. That series would be GOLD for the league, and it'd just fit perfectly into this narrative that they're trying to build: Lebron going home, redemption, beats his old team, etc...
I am totally on board with a lot of conspiracy related themes about the NBA. Specifically, I do think that certain teams get favored by the refs in certain situations (perhaps this is changing under Silver) and that the games are called very strangely sometimes. However, I don't think that I can sign off on this one.
1) Even if Lebron says that he would like to play the heat, he definitely would prefer to play a less talented team like the Celtics in the first round (and would never in a million years want to risk having a close series against his former team). It is also possible if anyone, the Heat would play him a little better than other teams because they have played against him every day for 4 years and know his tendencies. Lebron has also taken the path of least resistance many times in his career so tough to see him ever choosing a tougher matchup.
2) There are way too many moving parts. If it was the last day of the season and a win set the matchup, you could maybe stretch the argument if you don't agree with point 1, but with 5 teams competing for 3 spots and Cleveland still needing a few wins to lock up the 2 seed I don't think you can say tonight's game even makes a matchup more likely.
All that being said I don't know what to even root for. It is really hard for me to ever root for Lebron, but obviously want the Heat to lose. Might just hope for a tie and some injuries.
