After record-setting Round 1 win, Cavaliers hope they're just getting started in NBA playoffs

MIAMI (AP) — Kenny Atkinson didn't need a few months, or a few weeks, or even a few games before figuring out the potential of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

He needed two practices.

Go back to training camp in Bradenton, Florida. The Cavaliers were in Day 2 there, and one of Atkinson's assistant coaches offered some early observations that have stuck with Atkinson for the seven months that have followed.

"He said, 'We're skilled, we're smart and we play really hard.' That was the immediate feedback,” Atkinson, in his first year coaching the Cavaliers, recalled this week. “Those three things stood out. Your first impressions count, I guess."

Those impressions were spot on, too.

Skilled, smart and hard-playing sums up the Cavaliers quite nicely, it turns out. They're headed to the Eastern Conference semifinals against Indiana. The top-seeded Cavs simply dismantled the Miami Heat in a four-game sweep in Round 1; Indiana ousted Milwaukee in five games, clinching the series with a 119-118 overtime win on Tuesday night.

Game 1 of Pacers-Cavs is Sunday in Cleveland.

Indiana went 3-1 against Cleveland this season, though two of those wins came in the final week of the season — and to be fair, the Cavs, who had long clinched the East's No. 1 seed, weren't exactly playing their postseason lineup.

“We have a challenge coming up,” Indiana's Myles Turner said in the televised post-game interview after ousting the Bucks. “But we're going to celebrate this one tonight.”

Margin of victory in the Cavs-Heat series: 122 points, the most one-sided matchup in NBA playoff history. Victory margins in Games 3 and 4, both on the road: 37 and 55 points.

“They’re going to be on probably a long run right now," Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said Monday night when Game 4 ended, tipping his cap to the Cavs. "They're well-coached. They have a group that fits and plays the right way. So, we were humbled — but they had so much to do with a lot of how we looked.”

And Cleveland has done this to teams all season. OK, maybe not to this extent; the 55-point win in Game 4 was Cleveland's largest this season, and the 37-point Game 3 win is now tied for its fourth-largest victory of the year.

But this Cavs team is doing something that not even the LeBron James teams in Cleveland did. Cleveland's average margin of victory this season is now 10.5 points per game, on pace to be the best in franchise history. Only nine teams have made it through a regular season and the playoffs with such a margin.

Cleveland star Donovan Mitchell was sitting with Cavs rookie Jaylon Tyson during the Game 4 runaway. His message was simple: “This is your first playoff series ... and this (stuff) isn't normal,” he said.

“We have a bigger goal in mind,” Mitchell said. “For us, it's understanding that this is special. We've been doing special things all year. But we didn't come here just to sweep in the first round and get to the second.”

They're 68-18 so far this season, including playoffs. There are two teams in Cavaliers history that won more games in a full season: The 2008-09 team went 76-20, and the 2015-16 team — the NBA champions that season — went 73-30.

They'll be favored in Round 2. They're riding high right now, too. A team that had winning streaks of 16, 15 and 12 games this season — the second team in NBA history to do that, joining the 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks — is rolling, just like it has been since pretty much the start of that Bradenton training camp.

“There's a fit and a feel. They know how to play," Atkinson said. "I don’t think we’re like super-athletic. But we've got a lot of guys who know how to play.”

And how to win, too.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley (4) scores against the Miami Heat during the second half in Game 3 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra shouts instructions to his team during the first half in Game 3 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Michael Laughlin)

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Max Strus, left, shoots around Miami Heat forward Haywood Highsmith, second from left, during the first half in Game 4 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series, Monday, April 28, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rhona Wise)

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson reacts during the second half in Game 4 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Miami Heat, Monday, April 28, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rhona Wise)

OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — By the time Phil Mickelson reached the 18th green at Oakmont on Friday evening, the once-packed grandstand was maybe a quarter-full. Same for the luxury suites.

There was no grand gesture as the 54-year-old Mickelson loped up the hill. No wave to the crowd the way Arnold Palmer did in the same spot on the same course 31 years ago. No lengthy standing ovation from the gallery in return either.

The man whose decades-long pursuit of the U.S. Open made him a fan favorite in his prime — not unlike Palmer in some ways — instead quietly marked his ball 16 feet from the hole, then walked over to the far edge of the green and stared at the leaderboard that glowed in the rainy twilight.

A birdie would have let Mickelson stick around for the weekend at his 34th — and perhaps last — trip to the national championship. Wearing a white hat featuring the logo of his LIV Golf team, the HyFlyers GC, Mickelson stood over the line trying to get the right read.

When the putt slid a foot left of the hole to keep Mickelson one outside the cut at plus-8, a small groan arose from those who stuck around. There was a shout or two of “We love you Phil!” Along the railing, a man leaned toward a friend and said, "His exemption is done. No more U.S. Open for you Phil.”

Maybe, maybe not.

The five-year exemption into the tournament that Mickelson received when he captured the 2021 PGA Championship is expiring. Whether he'll be back to make a run at the one major that has eluded him is anyone's guess.

Mickelson sure isn't saying. He politely declined to talk to reporters after emerging from the scoring area, disappearing into the clubhouse and an uncertain future at a tournament where he's been a runner-up six times.

There are a number of ways for Mickelson to make it to Shinnecock next June. The USGA could offer him an exemption, as it did at Torrey Pines in 2020, though that doesn't appear to be USGA chief championship officer John Bodenhamer's first choice.

“I think the way that we would also think of Phil is we hope he earns his way in, and I think he’d tell you the same thing,” Bodenhamer said Wednesday. "That’s what he did last time. We gave him one and then he went out and won the PGA Championship. So wouldn’t put it past him.”

Mickelson became the oldest major champion ever when he triumphed at Kiawah in 2021 at age 50. A lot has happened since then. Both on the course and off it.

The man known universally as “Lefty” played a major role in LIV Golf's rise, a move that has taken a bit of the shine off of his popularity back home.

And while Mickelson's game can still show flashes — he really did knock a sideways flop shot into the hole during a LIV event last week in Virginia — and he looks fitter now than he did two decades ago, the reality is the swashbuckling approach that once endeared him to so many doesn't work that much anymore at the U.S. Open.

Mickelson appeared to be in solid position to play the weekend when he stood on the 15th tee. He even on the day and 4 over for the tournament, well inside the cutline. A tee shot into the ankle deep rough at the 489-yard par 4 led to double bogey.

He still seemed to be OK when he got to 17, a short uphill par 4. His tee shot sailed into the rough above a greenside bunker. There would be no magic this time. His attempted flop splashed into the sand instead. He blasted out to 25 feet and three-putted for another double bogey.

That put him in a position he's been familiar with for a long time: heading to 18 at the U.S. Open needing to make a birdie of consequence. It didn't happen. And as he disappeared into the clubhouse, along with it came the realization that at this point, it likely never will.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Phil Mickelson watches his tee shot on the 13th hole during the first round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)