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)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia's Supreme Court on Monday declined to answer a federal court's question in an appeal in a landmark lawsuit over whether the distribution of opioids can cause a public nuisance.

The 3-2 opinion returns the case to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.

It's been nearly three years since a federal judge in Charleston ruled in favor of three major U.S. drug distributors who were accused by Cabell County and the city of Huntington of causing a public health crisis by distributing 81 million pills over eight years in the county. AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. also were accused of ignoring the signs that Cabell County was being ravaged by addiction.

U.S. District Judge David Faber in Charleston said West Virginia’s Supreme Court had only applied public nuisance law in the context of conduct that interferes with public property or resources. He said to extend the law to cover the marketing and sale of opioids “is inconsistent with the history and traditional notions of nuisance.”

Last year the appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, sent a certified question to the state Supreme Court, which states: “Under West Virginia’s common law, can conditions caused by the distribution of a controlled substance constitute a public nuisance and, if so, what are the elements of such a public nuisance claim?”

Had the state justices ruled that opioids distribution can cause a public nuisance, the case would have returned to the 4th Circuit anyway. Had the West Virginia court found that opioids can’t cause a public nuisance, the appeal would have ended, the 4th Circuit has said.

Instead, a majority of the West Virginia justices refused to get involved.

Justice Haley Bunn delivered the opinion of the West Virginia Supreme Court. Justice Beth Walker, who is retiring next month, issued a separate opinion. Chief Justice Bill Wooton was joined in a dissenting opinion by Circuit Judge Tera Salango. Salango and Circuit Judge Andrew Dimlich heard the case on temporary assignment after two other justices disqualified themselves.

Paul Farrell Jr., an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said Monday he was disappointed that the justices declined to answer the legal question.

“The fight isn’t over," Farrell said. "There’s still a long way to go. We continue on our path to seek justice.”

Farrell said the appeals court still must address a combination of factual and legal issues.

A Cardinal Health spokesperson declined to comment on Monday’s ruling. Emails seeking comment from AmerisourceBergen and McKesson weren’t immediately returned.

During arguments earlier this year before the state Supreme Court over the certified question, Steve Ruby, an attorney for the companies, called the plaintiffs’ arguments to grant the public nuisance “radical” and that, if granted, it would “create an avalanche of activist litigation.”

Thousands of state and local governments have sued over the toll of opioids. The suits relied heavily on claims that the companies created a public nuisance by failing to monitor where the powerful prescriptions were ending up. Most of the lawsuits were settled as part of a series of nationwide deals that could be worth more than $50 billion. But there wasn’t a decisive trend in the outcomes of those that have gone to trial.

The appeals court had noted that the West Virginia Mass Litigation Panel, which works to resolve complex cases in state court, has concluded in several instances that opioid distribution “can form the basis of a public nuisance claim under West Virginia common law.”

In his 2022 decision, Faber also said the plaintiffs offered no evidence that the defendants distributed controlled substances to any entity that didn’t hold a proper registration from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration or the state Board of Pharmacy. The defendants also had suspicious monitoring systems in place as required by the Controlled Substances Act, he said.

In 2021 in Cabell County, an Ohio River county of 93,000 residents, there were 1,059 emergency responses to suspected overdoses — significantly higher than each of the previous three years — with at least 162 deaths.

The plaintiffs had sought more than $2.5 billion that would have gone toward opioid use prevention, treatment and education over 15 years.

FILE - Signs are displayed at a tent during a health event on June 26, 2021, in Charleston, W.Va. (AP Photo/John Raby, File)