Recap: Cavs 105, Magic 92 (or, Blocks and Broken Glasses)

At the 2021 trade deadline, John Hammond, General Manager of the DeVos-family-owned Orlando Magic, decided to offload his three best players. That decision had reverberations around the Eastern Conference, and brought Orlando a slew of future draft picks. Amid that emphatic hitting of the “reset” button, Chicago’s young center Wendell Carter, Jr., became a new anchor for Orlando, later to be joined by Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs with the 5th overall pick in last year’s draft and rewarded with a handsome contract.

Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. has agreed to a four-year, $50 million contract extension — fully guaranteed — with the franchise, VP Basketball Operations Anthony Fields of Vanguard Sports Group told @TheAthletic @Stadium.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 15, 2021

Suggs may be shooting 25% from three, but unlike Evan Fournier  or Aaron Gordon, he’s part of the Magic’s future core.

Given the sheer volume of young players on the floor in this Cavs-Magic tilt, there was therefore a lack of back story and subplots, or intrigues. Was anybody even aware that the Cavs had lost seven straight to the Magic and were in the hunt for their first victory against Orlando since the days of a Kevin Love resurgence in March 2019? Did anyone care about the effects of lingering angst amongst the Cleveland fans at the Stan Van Gundy / Dwight Howard Magic’s Eastern Conference Finals obliteration of the Cavs, when Darius Garland was all of nine years old? Was it possible that the arrival of Orlando’s new coach Jamal Mosley would cause flashbacks to his run as an assistant coach during Cleveland’s first post-LeBron rebuild from 2010-2014? Still fewer considered this game as a momentary reunion of some of the fragments from the shipwreck of past Bulls rosters (including Carter, Markkanen, and Robin Lopez), or as an opportunity to ask why Otto Porter, Jr. ended up in that invincible citadel of basketball wins and Silicon Valley omnipotence of Golden State. And no one at all had hyped up this game in Cleveland as an extended heavyweight bout between traditional centers Robin Lopez and Jarrett Allen (be it their respective hook shots, box-outs, or coifs).

This is some major league hair between Jarrett Allen and Robin Lopez pic.twitter.com/jwWhn6YIJY

— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) December 14, 2020

If anything the narrative around this game was about the return of Evan Mobley. But for some viewers the game nevertheless was a chance to think about the ongoing reverberations from the Magic’s moves at the 2021 trade deadline.

First Half

The Cavs ended the first quarter up by 5 points, but the Magic more or less went toe-to-toe with Cleveland in this frame. With Orlando’s leading scorer Cole Anthony benched with a knee injury and four other players out with injuries, the Magic still came out with a balanced attack. Cleveland gave up open threes to Gary Harris and Wendell Carter, Jr. The Magic went on a sliding scale from three in this game, going from middling-hot (5-12 from three in the half), hit a third of their nine triple attempts in the third, and to an abysmal 0-11 from distance in the fourth quarter.

The Cavs came out with Jarrett Allen blazing again, netting 10 points on 5-5 shooting in the first quarter, and helping Darius get some way toward his 11 assists in this game.

Near the end of the first quarter, J.B. Bickerstaff went with a lineup of Rubio and Okoro at guards, and a frontcourt of Cedi Osman, Evan Mobley, and Kevin Love. There was some nice rookie or young vanguard competition here, with Suggs dropping in a bold take over Mobley, followed by big Mobley rebound and putback over Suggs. In addition to winning the Moritz Wagner vs. Evan Mobley game-within-a-game (both inside and on the perimeter), the Cavs showed crisp perimeter passing and Cedi was the recipient of something like a 50-foot outlet pass from Mobley.

Lamar Stevens got back on the floor; J.B. gave the defense-oriented shooting guard about seven and a half minutes of run, all in the first half. While Stevens shot an airball three in his only offensive take (wasting a gorgeous Love-Osman hockey assist), he contributed a block and kept the Wagner brothers in check. Even Kevin Love got into the block party, “returning to sender” an attempt by Terrance Ross.

Cedi was everywhere, diving for balls, running the break, and burying a half-court shot that, while it didn’t count, showed how his talent can approach Curry-esque levels. He was a little out of control on only one drive, rolling over a Magic player for a foul. Although not terribly consistent shooting (10 points on 3-11 for the night), Cedi contributed six boards, a steal and a block and helped to propel the second unit.

As halftime approached, the young franchise guards traded bad turnovers. While the TOs were expected from Orlando (league-leading in that metric), they were hardly encouraging for Cleveland’s end-of-quarter patterns. The Cavs still managed to open up a five-point advantage in the last 90 seconds of the half, thanks to Darius spinning in an and-one over Suggs, a fantastic Darius fake alley-oop to Mobley then lay-in on the break, and an unheralded but still amazing Rubio cross-court, no-look bullet to Mobley for a buttery open three.

Defense turning into offense … it's a beautiful thing 😍@betwayusa | #LetEmKnow pic.twitter.com/lqU9a8B6Q5

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) November 28, 2021

Second Half 

The third quarter saw Orlando’s offense default on multiple possessions to dumping it in to Robin Lopez, who ended the night 6-9 from the field and answering reporter questions about encouraging signals in the midst of a loss. Lauri Markkanen had an excellent half, dropping in 14 points (4-6 from three). Mobley looked good and apparently had no minutes restriction.

Evan Mobley contested 16 shots in his return from an elbow injury, the most of the 161 players who took the court Saturday night.

He's up to 14.8 contests per game (1st in NBA), with the Cavs defense allowing 9.4 fewer points per 100 possessions when the rookie is on the floor.

— Greg Swartz (@GregSwartzBR) November 28, 2021

Garland had a “dance to the hoop” (TM Austin Carr) while waiting for a logo three to carom around and up and drop into the net after a scrambled possession. Okoro looked a little shaky but stabilized in the final quarter, exploding for a baseline dunk in garbage time as his outside shot again was not falling (3-9 on the evening, 1-3 from three).

The Cavs opened up a cushion of about ten points for most of the second half, helped by putrid free throw shooting by Robin Lopez. Rubio and Garland showed off their creativity on the floor by lacing through and around the Orlando defense and setting up howling dunks by Jarrett Allen.

The final 2:22 of the game were really very curious. Robin Lopez had fouled out, flying into Jarrett Allen who sank his free throws and laughed about a hug he got from a fan. Up by 17, you might think that it was Kevin Pangos and Denzel Valentine time, but J.B. kept his starters on the floor. Allen gave Wendell Carter, Jr. a hard foul on the next possession, and Carter, enraged at the no-call on his poster dunk (losing teams got to take consolation in highlights), flung his broken glasses, evidence at Allen’s foul, at the official’s feet. Carter got tossed from the game and fined a large sum of money.

Rubio could hardly believe he wasn’t getting a breather and gave up a mindless turnover, Mobley hit a smooth turnaround from the free-throw circle, and Markkanen threw down a “I am a very, very large man” dunk. At this point the Magic put on full-court pressure on the Cavs, adding a turnover to Cleveland’s ledger. The Cavs crafty guards summoned one more of their endless tricks, setting up Markkanen with a confidence three in the final minute, a nice way to cap off a solid win.

Tonight the Cavs travel to Texas for a tilt against the only one of the Lone Star state’s NBA franchises currently over .500 — the Jason Kidd-coached Dallas Mavericks. Mobley looks great, Stevens looks as good as Okoro, and we can all strap on our glasses for what should be a good game. Go Cavs!