The Cavaliers had about as strong a Wednesday night as you could have on the court. The team's game presentation folks, though? It was rough. 
 
 It started with the cancellation of a widely-panned arm sling giveaway, meant to be a show of support for injured forward Kevin Love. Then, during the game, they showed this video: 
 
 That's a guy throwing his significant other to the ground because she's a Bulls fan. At the end of the video, she has an ice pack on her head and has changed into a Cavaliers "All In" shirt. In light of all the domestic violence news in the sports world recently, this, of course, was not well-received: 
 
 While understanding now it was parody, & while Cavs in-house does much creative/funny stuff, don't think it was great judgment in climate. — Ethan J. Skolnick (@EthanJSkolnick) May 7, 2015 
 
 LRT: "ha ha ha sports clothes are a reason for abuse" - @cavs, basically. Absolute garbage. — denny (@dennymayo) May 7, 2015 
 
 Social standards and human decency apparently mean very little to the Cavs employees who made and approved that video. — Andy Resnik (@AndyResnik) May 7, 2015 
 
 @CarrieNSwain it's really odd. There are other cute funny ways to show rivalry, throwing your GF not one of them. — Kim (@Princesswikki) May 7, 2015 
 
 So to summarize, I'm not offended, I don't really care, but in a sports landscape of domestic violence, that was fairly brainless. — David Jason (@DJ84) May 7, 2015 
 
 Cavs skit really bad. But is it impossible these days to admit something is in really poor taste AND not be outraged at an attempt in humor? — Anthony Lima (@SportsBoyTony) May 7, 2015 
 
 The biggest crime is no one on the "award-winning" QTV team saw that and said "Nope, that's not funny. Lose it." — Michael Curry (@ViewFrom216) May 7, 2015 

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 The Cleveland Cavaliers aired a promo ad for their playoff game against the Chicago Bulls that is so thoughtless about domestic violence that it's more baffling than it is offensive. In it, a couple reenacts the “Time of My Life” dance scene from Dirty Dancing; when the woman goes in for the jump, and her Cavs-loving boyfriend, realizing she's wearing a Bulls shirt, drops, or maybe throws, her to the floor, where the camera lingers over her curled up in pain. Last we see her, she's chastened and snuggling on the couch with her boyfriend, wearing a Cavaliers shirt and holding an ice bag to her head while he continues to needle her for the crime of being a Bulls fan. 
 
 The ad is a platonic narrative of domestic abuse: a woman lulled into thinking she has a loving relationship, then cowed into submission by a seemingly out-of-the-blue act of violence. Thanks for making me rethink my plan to root for you, Cleveland, even if you do have LeBron James now. 
 
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 The inevitable rebuttal is “It's just a joke,” because we all know that abusers come up with the idea to abuse all on their own, with no cultural input guiding their choices. There is no reason to believe an advertisement, which exists solely to mold behavior, could mold anyone's behavior. 
 
 What's more, as comedian and science educator Raj Sivaraman explained in a 2013 blog post, long-standing research that shows that disparaging humor toward a group of people increases willingness to be aggressive—even violent—toward those people. Taken together, it becomes increasingly hard to argue that humor has no effect on people's attitudes about domestic violence.
– The Cleveland Cavaliers have apologized after airing a video promo during last night's playoff game widely seen as making light of domestic violence, reports Cleveland.com. In the Dirty Dancing spoof, a male Cavs fan lets a woman crash to the floor after she jumps toward him because he realizes she's wearing a Chicago Bulls shirt. She's shown on the floor in pain, then later holding an icepack and wearing a Cleveland shirt. It's actually a "textbook narrative of domestic violence," says a blogger at Slate. The team "should have thought a little harder about this promo," adds a post at Deadspin. It seems the Cavaliers agree: "Domestic violence is a very serious matter and has no place in a parody video that plays in an entertainment venue," says a team statement. "We sincerely apologize to those who have been affected by domestic violence for the obvious negative feelings caused by being exposed to this insensitive video."