Dribbles: Cavs Fend Off Feisty Magic, Move To 6-And-Oh-So-Unified

November 1, 2024

CLEVELAND — Random dribbles from the Cavaliers’ 120-109 home win over the Orlando Magic on Friday. …

1. It wasn’t always pretty. Far from it. But that’s just life against the Magic. They like to muck up the game.

2. Yet the Cavs still led most of the night by double digits, going up by as many as 22 points, and winning by 11.

3. And hey, what do you know? The Cavs didn’t even hit 130-plus points or shoot 60 percent from the field (50.6 percent, to be exact). So make it 6-and-oh-so-good as they head to Milwaukee for the second night of another back-to-back.

4. For the sixth time this season, the contributions came from everywhere. Darius Garland scored 25 on 8-of-16 shooting. Donovan Mitchell again looked like Michael Jordan in the first quarter, finishing with 22 points. Evan Mobley scored 14 and grabbed 12 rebounds, and Caris LeVert went for 13 points and seven assists off the bench.

5. But those are just numbers, and they don’t tell the whole story. Maybe not even half.

6. Prime Example No. 1: Mobley was the only starter on the floor near the end of the third quarter — along with LeVert, Sam Merrill, Ty Jerome, and Georges Niang. The Magic made a little run. Coach Kenny Atkinson stuck with that group, anyway.

7. It paid off, as the Cavs increased the lead to 17 by the start of the fourth. Afterward, Atkinson spent a lot of time talking about “trust.” As in, it’s not always easy for a coach to have faith in the bench. But this coach clearly couldn’t have been happier with how the bench delivered. Clearly.

8. Atkinson on that very topic: “Part of my job is to keep that trust. The tendency is to say, ‘Oh man, (the opponent) made a little run,’ and then you sub in your starters.” Sometimes, though, you just have to preserve those starters and believe that the bench can get it done.

9. Isaac Okoro (nine points, endless hustle) was definitely among the reasons why that happened. Same with LeVert and Jerome (also nine points). Basically, the Cavs have been doing all this as a team in the truest sense of the word. “It’s a whole team effort, it’s a group thing,” Mitchell explained.

10. The Magic are a physical team, and on a few occasions, yes, they got the Cavaliers to bend. But the Cavs never broke, and you never got the sense they were in any real danger.

11. This is just fun, isn’t it? Only twice before (2016-17 and 1976-77) have the Cavs started 6-0.

12. Garland on being unbeaten: “The vibe is pretty immaculate right now, everybody is feeling good. But it’s 82 games. We’re just taking it day by day.”

13. With 4:00 minutes to go, the Cavaliers led 111-95. At the time, Mitchell, Garland, Jarrett Allen and Mobley were in the game. Atkinson subbed them all out — with Okoro, Jerome, Merrill, Tristan Thompson and two-way man Luke Travers checking in to finish the job.

14. Travers put together an impressive display, burying a 3-pointer, making a couple of nifty passes and swatting a shot into next week. “He played his tail off,” Atkinson said. “I love discovering new players. He’s 6-foot-8, can really pass. He was fun to watch tonight.”

15. Allen took just three shots and scored but two points. But he did grab 11 rebounds. Orlando (3-3) is a big team, even without injured star Paolo Banchero. “Their strategy was to take away that lob pass (to Allen),” Atkinson said. “But that didn’t affect him on the defensive end. He’s gotten off to a great start.”

16. The Magic received a game-high 28 points from Jalen Suggs, a physical guard who just makes winning plays. Franz Wagner and rookie Tristan Da Silva added 17 apiece. They played the Cavs closer than anyone but the Knicks, and that game was in Madison Square Garden. In short, Orlando will again be incredibly dangerous once Banchero gets returns.

17. So it’s off to Milwaukee, where the Cavaliers face a struggling Bucks team that still has plans for contention. The Cavs get the Bucks again on Monday in Cleveland. If they win both, they will have tied the 1976-77 team — led by Campy Russell, Austin Carr and Jim Chones — for the best start in franchise history.

18. Mitchell with the final word: “The biggest thing is resiliency, for us to continue to be who we are throughout.”