CLEVELAND — Paolo Banchero scored 24 points and the Orlando Magic ended the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 16-game winning streak with a 108-103 win Sunday afternoon. The victory snapped the NBA’s longest winning streak in three years.
The Cavs and Magic are certainly familiar with each other after they staged the best first-round series of last year’s postseason, and they could meet again this year. The Magic pushed the Cavs to seven games last year in the first round — and led Game 7 by 18 points in the first half — before the Cavs rallied to advance.
On Sunday, Orlando forced 12 turnovers in the second half and limited the Cavs to 25 percent from 3-point range, their second-worst 3-point shooting night this season.
Donovan Mitchell scored 23 points, but shot just 3-for-14 from 3 in his first game back from a groin injury, while Jarrett Allen had 20 points and 12 rebounds. Evan Mobley, the favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year, missed the game with a foot injury.
The Cavs maintain the league’s best mark at 56-11 and still hold a slim chance to become the third team in league history to reach 70 victories. They begin a five-game West Coast swing at the LA Clippers on Tuesday.
How Orlando did it
The Cavs led by 13 early in the third quarter, but Orlando swung the momentum by forcing turnovers on three consecutive Cleveland possessions late in the period. Anthony Black harassed Cleveland’s Ty Jerome into turnovers on consecutive possessions before Gary Harris poked the ball away from Mitchell moments later.
The Magic converted all three turnovers into points to tie the score at 78. Franz Wagner scored 22 points, Wendell Carter Jr. had 16 points and 14 rebounds and the Magic reaffirmed the one weakness remaining within the Cavs: How they respond to physicality.
“You get turned over once, twice and it’s like blood in the water,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said. “They were just all over us and they picked up their physicality. … Obviously, we didn’t respond.”
The Cavs moving forward
Cleveland is so deep and talented that there aren’t many weaknesses for opponents to expose. But teams that can get physical, get into them defensively and push them off their spots are generally the opponents that can generate success against them.
Mobley’s absence certainly hurt their cause, leaving the Cavs with one fewer defender to throw at Banchero. Nevertheless, the Magic have proven to be a team that can give the Cavs problems.
These teams are heading in opposite directions this season, but injuries have played a huge part in the Magic’s struggles. The Magic currently hold the eighth seed in the East. If it is a Cleveland-Orlando rematch in the first round, the fact Orlando would be without Jalen Suggs and Moritz Wagner greatly hurts their chances at an upset. But Sunday’s game proved again that the Magic remain a tough matchup for Cleveland because of their size and the physical nature with which they play.
Required reading
(Photo: Sue Ogrocki / AP)
