Cleveland Cavaliers Post Historically Slim Winning Margin in 4-Game Sweep

The Cleveland Cavaliers finished off their sweep of the Indiana Pacers with a 106-102 victory Sunday, but it wasn't as dominant a showing in the first round as the series score would indicate.

Cleveland won the first contest by just one point and followed that up with wins by just six, five and four to complete the series outscoring the Pacers by just 16 points in total. The 16-point differential ties the lowest of any four-game playoff sweep in NBA history, per the Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN.com).

The Golden State Warriors posted the same point differential against the Washington Bullets in 1975, but that was in the NBA Finals and earned the club an NBA title. Cleveland now has to prepare for the winner of the series between the Toronto Raptors and the Milwaukee Bucks after battling through a four-game, first-round set. Fortunately, the team's stars will have plenty of time to rest with the Bucks and Raptors currently tied at two games apiece.

The Cavaliers struggled to find their footing toward the end of the regular season as well. In fact, the group lost each of its last four tilts entering the postseason—likely due to resting players—and went just 19-11 in the second half.

Many of the supposed struggles can be attributed to the fact that Cleveland had secured firm playoff positioning by the early portions of the second half and missed out on the services of Kevin Love for a significant chunk of time due to a left knee injury. He returned to the floor in mid-March and the team is fully healthy in the playoffs.

While they haven't been dominant down the stretch, the club sports enough talent to remain among the favorites to win the championship. For now, LeBron James and company get an opportunity to rest up and study their potential second-round opponents.