NBA playoff games are fun because teams all over the league break out special shirts for fans to wear in the home arena, turning ho-hum regular season crowds into one raucous, loud wall of color. But Zach Lowe is calling out one team for their playoff shirt that goes well beyond one game – it’s the Cleveland Cavaliers and “The Diff.”
“The Diff” is notorious around the NBA for being unique to Cleveland Cavaliers games. It’s not only on their in-arena scoreboard, but it’s also made its way to the scorebug on local television broadcasts on FanDuel Sports Network.
And it’s very self-explanatory what “The Diff” actually is – the current score difference in the game between the Cavs and the opposing team.
While that may seem rather elementary, it’s because… it is. No other team in professional sports feels the need to do basic addition and subtraction for fans except the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But give credit to the franchise because they are all in on the bit. The team’s fan shirts for Game 1 were “The Diff” with the Cavs encouraging their crowd to “Be the diff” in Game 1.
Clever play on words? A way to try to salvage something that is completely unnecessary? Not according to Zach Lowe, who saw the basketball gods weighing in on the atrocity as the reason for Cleveland being upset by the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal.
“The Diff is what you’re going with? The Diff is so stupid,” Lowe said. “For those who don’t know, The Diff is something they put on their scoreboard, it stands for the difference. And it’s literally the difference in the game… thanks. Really needed the diff column.”
“It was stupid enough on the scoreboard, now it’s your shirt?!? And just like the Celtics deserve to start games down 5-0 when they wear their stupid black jerseys that nobody likes, the Cavs deserve to start yesterday’s game down 5-0 for the stupid Diff shirt and the basketball gods punished them with a loss. Light those shirts on fire, wear something else for Game 2” he added.
With the surprising home loss, maybe the Cavs will retire “The Diff” not just from shirts, but from their scorebug as well. The more likely outcome is that the “Ohio Against the World” mentality kicks in and we start seeing it on their alternate jerseys next season.
