A clean slate awaits the Cleveland Cavaliers no matter the outcome of Sunday’s Game 7 against the Toronto Raptors.

Beat the visiting Raps to escape the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs and it’s on to the East semis against a fellow tired foe coming off an improbable deciding game, Detroit or Orlando.

Lose and it’s a date with the drawing board. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert surely couldn’t run it back with the same core after another early postseason exit, right?

How this series got pushed to the brink is the stuff of facepalms in Northeast Ohio and of fist bumps in “We the North” Country.

Even with everything that went south for Cleveland during Friday’s Game 6, a surge that forced overtime and provided a late lead in the extra session still had the Cavs in position to advance.

Instead, a head-shaking turnover gave host Toronto new life, and the guard playing before his hometown crowd capitalized. RJ Barrett’s game-winning 3-pointer hit the back of the rim and bounced high above the backboard before dropping through the basket with 1.2 seconds left.

Moments later, Cleveland settled for an Evan Mobley 3-point attempt at the other end. The shot harmlessly caromed off the front of the rim, preserving a 112-110 Raptors victory.

“Sometimes, the basketball gods aren’t with you,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said.

Atkinson likely wouldn’t have delivered that lament if Donovan Mitchell and James Harden had performed up to par.

With respect to Mobley, who scored a game-high 26 points, how did either of the Cavaliers’ two leading scorers not take the last shot? Atkinson said Cleveland was looking for Mitchell to come off a curl screen, a sequence that obviously didn’t materialize. Harden similarly seemed to be stuck in quicksand.

Outscoring Toronto 23-12 in the fourth quarter aside, the Cavaliers succumbed to too many stagnant possessions down the stretch. Can they bank on an overdue star turn to move on?

While building balance is important, a heroic effort from Mitchell on Sunday would go a long way toward a positive outcome. After contributing 32 points to begin the series — his league-record ninth straight effort of at least 30 in a postseason Game 1 — Mitchell has been uneven at best since another 30-burger in Game 2.

Mitchell is shooting 24-for-67 (35.8 percent) in the past three games, but he’s ostensibly the same guy who was a combined 55.8 percent in the first two games.

As with their counterparts, the Raptors also envision an open canvas as Game 7 looms. Things are arguably less precarious for Toronto, however, as Scottie Barnes and Barrett have stabilized a team that’s without point guard Immanuel Quickley and is uncertain about the status of forward Brandon Ingram (sore right heel).

“Forget everything that’s happened so far,” Barrett said. “We’ve got one game to decide it all. This group has been tough and resilient, and we’ve fought through the toughest of tasks all year long. Going to Cleveland, Game 7, is going to be a tough task, but that’s what we’re built for.”

The Cavs would like to think the same. So far, history agrees.

The home team has won each game in the series, while the Raptors are 0-10 all-time in playoff games in Cleveland.

“Protect home court,” Mitchell said. “It doesn’t matter if we lost by 30 or two, protect home court. That’s all you can do.”

The Boston Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora this past week, and the Philadelphia Phillies did likewise with Rob Thomson, not even bothering to wait for May flowers to bloom. Your team’s manager might be next. At least five other Major League Baseball teams have managerial situations ripe for change.

The manager of the team with the worst record in the league has been on most short lists for the next manager to be canned, but it didn’t happen Friday. Instead, New York Mets president David Stearns gave manager Carlos Mendoza what some cynics call the “dreaded vote of confidence.”

Sometimes when a team struggles, the front office makes a point to express confidence in the manager’s job security. Reporters long ago identified such talk as the “dreaded vote of confidence,” because the struggling team frequently would fire the manager anyway. Maybe not that day or that week, but relatively soon.

Stearns told MLB.com as the Mets had approximately 99 things wrong with them, but Mendoza was not the one at fault.

“We don’t view this as a manager problem,” Stearns said.

OK.

“And we don’t intend to make a change,” he added.

Oof, there it is. The Mets don’t intend to make a change. Intentions are about as stable as momentum, which in baseball is only as good as your next starting pitching performance or horrendous injury. Stearns’ intentions are liable to flip 180 degrees if the Mets have one too many arduous nights at the ballpark.

Apparently not wanting to risk telling a lie to the New York media, Stearns couldn’t even bring himself to say: “We won’t make a change.” Instead, he should have phrased it: “We’re not considering making a change.” After all, nobody can publish what Stearns was considering unless he confirms it.

Regardless, a vote of confidence gives Mendoza more time. Only, more time for what? Juan Soto is back in the lineup and raking, but Francisco Lindor remains out because of a calf strain, and Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr. also remain sidelined. Mendoza won’t have a full complement of players for weeks. In the meantime, the Mets lineup and bullpen remain full of holes, no matter if it’s because of injuries or not.

The Mets, heading west on a road trip to Anaheim and Denver, probably banked on getting healthy against weaker opponents. They got the upper hand in the series opener against the Los Angeles Angels after falling behind by three runs early. Showed some grit and gumption. A good show for the perception of Mendoza’s motivational profile.

But the Mets remain 11 1/2 games out of first place in the NL East already. It’s possible Mendoza gets a full season to get the Mets back to the playoffs. But it’s more likely Stearns schedules another Mendoza vote in about a week, and he’s the next manager to go.