CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers have their first-round playoff opponent, and now they have all of the dates for their best-of-seven Round 1 series.
The Cavs (52-30), as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, will face the No. 5 Toronto Raptors (46-36) in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The Raptors clinched the No. 5 seed on April 12, the last day of the regular season, via a tiebreaker with the Atlanta Hawks.
The Cavs and Hawks recently played one another twice, with the two teams splitting those games, in what appeared to be a first-round preview, but Atlanta’s loss on the last day of the season combined with two other results dropped it to the No. 6 seed.
While the East’s play-in tournament is needed to fill out the bracket, the NBA released the first-round schedule early on the morning of April 15.
Cavs playoff schedule. NBA releases dates for entire first round
The Cavs-Raptors series will start with Game 1 at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 18, in Cleveland. It will be televised by Prime.
Eastern Conference playoff bracket 2026
Ryan Lewis covers the Cleveland Guardians and Cavaliers for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: When do Cavs play in 2026 NBA playoffs? First-round schedule vs Raptors
Reporting by Ryan Lewis and Nate Ulrich, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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