Orlando, FL – The Orlando Magic (29-31) were demolished by the Cleveland Cavaliers (48-10) last night at the Kia Center in downtown Orlando.
Coming into this game, where the Cavaliers are the team to beat, and the Orlando Magic are yet again battling the injury bug, it seemed the Magic had little chance of taking down the Cavs.
And that proved to be true, in spades.
Orlando simply didn’t have the offensive or defensive firepower to slow down the Cavaliers.
Cleveland shot 56% from the field and 59% from three-point range, making 19 threes against the Magic.
The Magic never held a lead in the game, and while they challenged and came back from deficits in the first half, outscoring the Cavs 27-23 in the second quarter, the second half was a blowout.
For the Cavaliers, Max Strus, Evan Mobley, and De’Andre Hunter each scored 17 points, Ty Jerome scored 20 off the bench, and Donovan Mitchell scored 11 points.
Jamahl Mosley offered his assessment of what happened.
“We weren’t closing out to shooters the right way,” Magic head coach Jamahl Mosley said. “Offensively, I think we shared it early on, and then we didn’t see shots go in, and I think then we started to chase a little bit. I think (not being able) to get stops in order to get runs. When you are taking the basketball out of the hoop (nearly) every time, it becomes tough.”
Paolo Banchero did the best he could under the circumstances, leading the Magic with 26 points. Banchero shot 9-of-22 from the floor, 1-of-7 from three-point range, and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line. Franz Wagner was the only other Magic player in double figures with 19 points.
Shooting still remains a serious weakness for this Orlando squad.
Surprisingly, Orlando held its own with Cleveland in the paint, but the Cavaliers out-rebounded Orlando by 12.
To add insult to injury, Cole Anthony hyperextended his left knee in the third quarter and will be re-evaluated by the team on Wednesday.
Mosley promised that the team’s performance was not up to par and that the team would be working on regrouping in today’s practice.
“You give Cleveland a ton of credit for how they’re playing and what they’re doing. We didn’t play our style of basketball.”
“We’ll practice tomorrow, we’ll get after it,” Mosley continued. “We’ll compete, and we’ll figure out how we get a game on Thursday. But tomorrow’s going to be a practice where we get after it, and we understand exactly what we need to do, getting back to the basics, back to the fundamentals, a simple, physical, aggressive style of Orlando Magic basketball that we need to play.”
Orlando has its work cut out for them, as the high-flying Golden State Warriors make their annual Orlando visit on Thursday. The Warriors have been on a tear since adding Jimmy Butler to their roster before the NBA trade deadline.
