The first game of Thursday night's TNT doubleheader will feature the Washington Wizards heading to the midwest to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. Washington enters the game at 42-36 on the season, which has it tied for seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, the Cavs, at 48-30, are currently in a tie for third place.

This is the fourth and final meeting between these two teams in the regular season. Cleveland took the first two matchups, but the most recent meeting went Washington's way.

How to watch Wizards at Cavaliers

  • Date: Thursday, April 5
  • Time: 8 p.m. ET
  • Location: Quicken Loans Arena -- Cleveland, Ohio
  • TV: TNT
  • Streaming: Watch TNT
  • Follow: GameTracker  

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Analysis

All eight playoff spots in the Eastern Conference have been locked up, but there is still plenty to play for in terms of seeding -- especially for the two teams squaring off Thursday night. 

Despite winning nine of their last 10 games, the Cavs haven't been able to build up a cushion in the race for third place because the Philadelphia 76ers have rattled off 12 wins in a row. Due to that winning streak, the Cavs and Sixers are now deadlocked at 48-30. With how the Sixers are playing, the Cavs are basically in must-win mode if they want to hold onto third place. And given how beat up the Boston Celtics are, getting to play them in the second round instead of the Raptors makes the 3-seed much more enviable than the 4-seed. 

As for the Wizards, they were once in the mix for home-court advantage in the first round, but have now tumbled all the way down to seventh, where they're tied with the Milwaukee Bucks. There's a three-way battle down at the bottom of the conference, where the Heat, Wizards and Bucks are all within half a game of each other and jockeying for position. With eighth place having to play the Raptors in the first round, the Wizards will be eager to avoid dropping behind Milwaukee, and a big win over the Cavs would go a long way toward making sure that doesn't happen.