Orlando, FL – The Magic came into Cleveland with high hopes after sitting 3rd in the East and ended up getting themselves handed a 121-111 loss away from home.
The first quarter the Cavaliers were blazing hot, especially from 3 point range, whereas Orlando were less than lucky with their shooting stroke, with the Cavs making seven 3’s and the Magic missing every shot. Despite their poor shooting, the Magic were relentless attacking Cleveland’s menacing defense and were doing what they do best and trying to take control of the paint. The Cavs are a very tall team, which put a lot of pressure on the rim and forced Goga Bitadze into some tough scenarios early on, and seeing as he’s the only 7 footer Orlando’s side of the ball, the home team’s big men were able to efficiently get open looks. Franz Wagner wasn’t playing to his usual standard, missing all of his shots, but luckily Paolo Banchero was getting to his spots with ease and kept Orlando from slipping too far behind and helped them hang on by a thread for a 37-20 end to the quarter in Cleveland’s favor.
The second quarter wasn’t much better for Orlando, with the team continuing to have scoring struggles and missing shots that they are used to making and allowing for the Cavs to go on a little run about midway through the period and forcing two early timeouts from Coach Mosley. Jalen Suggs was seen having some struggles getting up and down the court and got subbed out to check it out but was eventually cleared and went back onto the court. The Magic struggled with playmaking, specifically in the halfcourt, and the display between the two teams’ offenses were like night and day with the Cavalier guards creating chances for their teammates, which wasn’t present on the visiting side. Near the end of the quarter Jalen Suggs went down again on the same leg and this time was unable to return to the game. Orlando saw themselves in a 23 point hole going into the second half of action.
The last two quarters weren’t much better for Orlando as their shooting woes continued, hitting just two
3’s all quarter long at a 15.4% clip. On the bright side, the Cavs cooled down and the Magic were slowly trying to creep their way back into the game on Banchero’s back, who was getting the majority of the team’s production this game and especially in the second half. He ended up getting a whopping 42 points, which is now his new career high night, but it wasn’t enough to dig the team out of their early deficit from the first quarter. Ultimately, that first 12 minute stretch of the game is what cost Orlando the win because the won or tied every other quarter and were playing some much better basketball, but after letting in so many points and being unable to extinguish the Cavaliers’ crazy scoring run, they lost by just 10 points in the end.
After back to back losses on the road the Magic will look to keep their home court streak alive with a game against the Detroit Pistons coming up in just a few days.
