Recap: Orlando 116, Cleveland 104 (or, Turkey Turnovers)

My pet theory is that it’s always better to be the road team on holidays. There are fewer distractions. Everything is planned for you, and you have an edge because you’re irritated you’re away from home. Also, you’re bonding with your teammates over missing out on your favorite Turkey day side dishes you’re missing. I even swear I’ve done this recap on holidays past. The Cavs sure seemed to be looking ahead to Thanksgiving in this one, as they gave up 25 turnovers leading to 25 points for a Magic squad missing their two best players (Vucevic and Aaron Gordon). The Cavs were the beneficiary of 11 magic turnovers leading to 11 points, and yeah, you do the math.

Darius Garland was playing like he was already dreaming about turkey leftovers, committing a whopping eight giveaways in 31 minutes. As was noted in the live thread, Garland hasn’t seemed to have figured out NBA height yet, and keeps trying to lob passes over taller players and they keep stealing them. In addition, his footwork was abysmal in this one and he just kept traveling every time he received a pass, pivoted, etc. Garland’s shooting wasn’t awful. He put up 16 on eight shots, but one dime and one rebound, he didn’t do much else besides give the ball away.

Jordan Clarkson not playing out of his mind as he had the last few games also hurt Cleveland. JC put up a stinker, with three turnovers of his own (all travels), and shot 3-11 in 16 minutes. Collin Sexton also stunk it up with five turnovers. He seems to have a penchant for driving into three guys with no idea on what he’s going to do after he gets there. He did that routinely and it led to dribbling, passing, out of bounds, and traveling turnovers. Collin needs to realize when he doesn’t have the advantage and move the damned ball to someone who’s open.

Many of the Cavs turnovers came because they try to force the ball to players who aren’t open instead of making a simple swing pass and entering the ball to the post from a better angle, or just moving the defense. The Magic (rightly) were massively overplaying the passing lanes, and the Cavs were just throwing blind passes around the perimeter at times or trying to throw passes over Magic defenders. Orlando jumped the pass and got more than a couple easy layups. Making a simple pass and cutting multiple times would open up so many things for the Cavs, but they seem to think they can run an offense off just one pass and cut and then dribbling around forever. It was maddening.

Defensively, the Cavs weren’t awful, but this is a fairly lousy offense. Evan Fournier burned Cleveland for 19 first points off a lot of open looks from three where the Cavs either lost him in transition or off the ball. Cleveland’s on-ball defense hasn’t been too bad of late, it’s off the ball where they’re losing guys. Fournier was deadly from the left corner where he went 3-4, and the right elbow (4-7). Fournier finished 6-6 at the line and had 30 points on 22 shots.

The other scintillating Magic player was Mo Bamba who finished a perfect 5-5 from three when the Cavs just refused to cover him out above the break. Bamba is a weird  player. His per 36 numbers indicate he’d put up 12 points and 12 rebounds a night to go with 3.2 blocks, but his average of 5.3 fouls in those minutes means he’s not currently even capable of getting to 36 minutes. He’s also doesn’t display great roll timing, or an ability to finish anywhere other than at point blank, or at the top of the key, where he’s shooting 38% from three. He’s also just drawn six fouls in 250 minutes this year, which is abysmal for a 7 footer. He’s not particularly coordinated but maybe he just needs playing time? His seven-foot-nine wingspan would be useful if he weren’t a foul machine, and it’s telling that even with Vucevic injured, Khem Birch is still starting at the five spot for the Magic. I don’t know what to make of him, but you have to think that Bamba would be a requirement in any trade proposal.

The other Magic player that looked good in this one? Markelle Fultz who came off the bench to post 16/3/4 on 12 shots and led Orlando at +11. He’s quietly becoming a pretty decent guard who can score inside the arc. He even went 1-1 from three this game. Jonathan Isaac was held mostly in check (7-18, 1-7 from deep) but his three steals and a block loomed large.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um5HzYQHCv4

As far as the Cavs, Sexton volume shot his way into a a 20/7/6 night (though three of those rebounds were his own misses). Tristan Thompson was a dominant 15 and 15 on seven looks. Despite what would seem like an offensive advantage against Khem Birch, the Cavs failed to get him the ball more. Kevin Love was back and passive as he put up nine and five in just 24 minutes. He looks checked out again, and if I were him, I would be too. The Cavs were frankly better than the team they were playing Wednesday and gave the game away with the turnovers. Nance was solid again too with 11 & 10 in 25 minutes.

Kevin Porter Junior keeps making a case to join the starters, and some run for Larry at 3 could make up for his bench time. Porter shot 0-2 from three but had another nice 6/4/4 outing with some pretty decent passing in 18 minutes. His vision is frankly better than Sextons and moving Cedi to the 2 and KPJ to the 3 wouldn’t be a bad shakeup of the starters. Again, I lobby for more minutes for McKinnie who played 12 minutes and was 2-2 from the field.

Well, let’s hope the Cavs look better against the Bucks Friday, but call me skeptical. Regardless, enjoy your turkey, and the leftover turkey turnovers. Happy Thanksgiving, CtBers!