Cavs Vs Magic: 5 Things We Learned

Last night the Cleveland Cavaliers once again blew out the Orlando Magic, this time by 25 points 104-79. With this win the Cavaliers added to their win streak, which is now at three games.

Most would think it was an off-shooting night for Orlando who came into the game winning 7 of their last 10 games, but it was actually the Cavaliers smothering defense that forced them into tough shots and almost no scoring in the paint uncontested.

The defense fueled the offense again, with LeBron James leading the way with his 29 point performance. The starters combined for 65 points, 11 assists and 34 rebounds. David Blatt got the entire team involved and all produced except Anderson Varejao who went 0/1 in 7 minutes. Mo Williams was the “sub of the game” having 8 points in 8 minutes at the end of the 4th quarter.

5 things that we learned in this game:

1.) With Kyrie playing 20+ minutes, the Cavaliers are a more efficient team.

With Kyrie Irving back and playing more minutes, the Cavaliers are capable of sharing the ball-handling duties better and relieve LeBron James of some of that burden. It also proves to be a good recipe for less turnovers, with only 4 turnovers by the Cavaliers in this game. Kyrie is becoming more and more comfortable playing again and it is showing with his shooting stroke returning. He had only 5 assists, but all came in the first half. Matthew Dellavedova led the team with 6 assists. The Cavs finished the game with 24 assists on 36 made baskets.

2.) Has the “Kevin Love is the focal point” experiment run its course?

Kevin Love’s touches have indeed gone down with Irving playing more minutes. He converted only 2 of 5 shots that he took, but was fouled twice at the three-point line and once from inside the arc for 5/8 free-throws. Yes, the Cavaliers still have to fine-tune their rotations now that all are healthy. Head coach Blatt seemed to do well in this game using all 13 players, allowing the bench to finish the game and giving the starter the chance to sit for the 4th quarter.

3.) The Cavaliers put together another impressive defensive game.

The most impressive thing that we got out of this game was that the Cavaliers can indeed play 48 minutes of defense. There was none of that first quarter woes we have seen before because the Cavaliers were keeping the opposition in front of them and helping when it was needed. Only two defensive breakdowns were apparent, one of them came in garbage time with less than a minute to go in the 4th quarter with the Cavs up 27.

4.) The bench of the Cavaliers is fully stocked and ready to go.

A nice thing to see is when the Cavaliers get a big lead like they did last night, they put in a mix of second and third string players and maintained the lead in the 4th quarter, while resting all the starters. The depth of the Cavaliers was fully utilized last night with all 13 players getting at least 7 minutes playing time. This depth is not only a necessity, but the kind of safety net that a team like this requires for the rigors of the regular season and keeping starters fresh for May & June.

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5.) The free-throw shooting woes continue – somewhat.

The Cavaliers could still use some free-throw shooting practice as they only shot 24/39 free-throws (61.5%). LeBron has worked on his stroke from the charity stripe and has improved for the most part, but Tristan Thompson still is shooting around 50%. Hopefully TT can get his free-throw stroke down , because you know that teams will take advantage of that in the playoffs and even in close games in the 4th quarter.

The Cavaliers look to make it four in a row with the Toronto Raptors coming to town on Monday the 4th, we will see if they are able to build on the positives from this game while adding more chemistry and keeping the ball moving.