Heading into their game on Friday against the Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers fans had to be confident that their squad would be able to keep their winning ways going at home.
The Cavaliers have admittedly had their inconsistencies on the road, where they last had a disappointing loss at the Toronto Raptors on Monday night, and are currently 5-7 on the season. Fortunately, at home, the Cavaliers have been dynamite.
The Cavs took care of a Philadelphia 76ers team that was without James Harden and Tyrese Maxey still on Wednesday night, but from the second quarter on, Cleveland was running away with that one.
So, ahead of Friday night’s tilt against the Orlando Magic, a 5-17 squad coming in, it was apparent that the Cavs could very well cruise again then. The Magic have had their share of injures themselves this season, like the Cavs, but they’re a really young squad that is still rebuilding and is a ways away.
With that in mind, while Orlando did make things somewhat interesting with how they kept scratching and clawing in the fourth quarter, and did cut the game to single digits, Cleveland would eventually regain control and made shots when they needed to. The Cavs would then go on to win 107-96.
As for some notable performers that popped, Evan Mobley only had 10 shots from the field in starting minutes again at the 5 for Jarrett Allen, but Mobley hit nine of those, and had four assists, two blocks and was a plus-15.
Orlando not having Wendell Carter Jr. didn’t help them yesterday once again, but injuries have long been an issue with him in his career, and Mobley, regardless, was great.
From there, other key contributors included Donovan Mitchell, who hit a bunch of shots, and set the tone, and while he was only six-of-15 from the field, Darius Garland did make some crucial plays down the stretch. He would have 18 points and six assists, to only one turnover; it was far from his best outing, and he was a minus-5, objectively. On a positive note, though, after taking a hit to the left side of his face in the fourth quarter, he would return, and seemed fine.
Along with those players we touched on, Kevin Love was very productive in his return from being sidelined with a hairline fracture in his thumb, as he shot four-of-seven, and would have 11 points, 11 rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes off the bench. He was a plus-16, too, and would draw two charges Friday night.
Other bench guys, such as Isaac Okoro, Caris LeVert and two-way contributor Mamadi Diakite aided the Cavaliers on defense last night, also. And Cedi Osman, to some degree, did on that end, despite an uneventful offensive game from him.
Overall, it was a solid game from the Cavaliers, though, and they’re starting to tighten some things up on defense, and when the ball movement is there, they can go on their patented runs. The home crowd brought some added juice at points, too, and after last night’s W, Cleveland is now 10-1 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse thus far in 2022-23.
Moving along then, let’s get into our Cavaliers stud and dud from Friday’s W over the Magic.
First, we’ll begin with the Cavs stud here from that one.
Cavaliers stud: Donovan Mitchell
It was difficult to not go with Mobley here, given what he did as a finisher, rebounder and team defender, and one could’ve had two studs.
But, in the end, Mitchell make bucket after bucket after bucket, and he made some plays in other ways with anticipation and grit as well.
In the end, his shot-making was huge for the Wine and Gold here once again. Mitchell had 34 points on 12-of-21 shooting, and was lights out from beyond the arc. He hit seven of his 11 attempts from three, and was simply sizzling from range, as he’s often been throughout the season. Through 22 games, he’s canned 43.5 percent of his deep attempts.
Mitchell did have five turnovers in Friday’s game, with some of those as a result of him being overzealous with passes in transition, and that’s something he’ll need to clean up. He was human in the fourth quarter, too, as an aside, and didn’t hit any field goals.
With the thought there, though, and with how he puts so much pressure on opposing defenses, and can manipulate them in early offense to create looks for others, those aforementioned turnovers are ones the team should live with. And his rim pressure and finishing has been incredible so far this year.
Generally, anyways, Friday night Mitchell was in his bag in the shooting sense, and despite only having three free throws, he was hyper-efficient and his shot-making has been superb.
Cavaliers dud: Darius Garland
I don’t have a ton of conviction with this latest dud for the Wine and Gold, but I’ll go with Garland here.
It’s again seemingly somewhat harsh to have him as Cleveland’s dud from Friday night, as Garland didn’t assert himself too much, and that was fine, early on. Mitchell had it rolling, and the Cavs as a group seemed to be moving the ball well for much of the contest, even despite some shots not falling from quality looks having been generated.
And to that point, Garland himself did still get the group engaged it appeared, and it was fine for the Cavs to play at times through Mobley, to some extent, and Love in his minutes.
But, when watching the contest, it did seem as if Garland was in other stretches pressing just a bit, and while he’s a lethal shooter off-the-bounce, and a player of his caliber is going to inherently self create in sequences, he just looked a tad off for much of his shots.
Now, to reiterate, it wasn’t a bad performance, and Garland made some key plays down the stretch, and he had only one turnover. Still, some of the looks were forced and unnecessary it seemed like, based on how Cleveland was controlling things.
However, with his shot-making abilities, playmaking feel and his handle, it’s tough to grill him too much after this one. Garland had been on quite a tear of late as a deep shooter, too, and most importantly, he did appear to be fine after that elbow to the face late in the contest.
By and large for the Wine and Gold, Friday night’s game was a solid performance, anyways. Next up, the Cavaliers will take on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Sunday evening, after which Cleveland will have three home games next week.