2024 NBA Playoffs - East 1st Round: #4 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. #5 Orlando Magic (Series tied 3-3)

[JujitsuFlip]

His knee pain can clear up, that's certainly one possibility ... it can also come right back. That's the nature of tendinitis. Only long rest and time to heal will change that, but he doesn't look like he's 100% to me.

I mean consider, it's been just over a month ago since he had surgery on his nose. Just because he got frustrated with wearing that mask over his face doesn't mean he should have stopped wearing it ... but he's prioritizing his performance over his health like players are encouraged to do come playoff time.

Fact is Mitchell and Garland are contributing and the Cavs need both of them, but they are not and may never come close to 100% during these playoffs. I'm just hoping we don't see a situation again like when Kyrie bumped knees in the finals and his knee exploded. JBB has been running reasonable rotations so far, but when push comes to shove it wouldn't surprise me if he loses track of how many minutes he's played some of the guys again, and fatigue leads to stress, and stress can lead to knees exploding.

He's not playing at his absolute best, but most of that is rust/rhythm/feel which he missed because he was out for so many games and physically impaired in a lot of other ones. He might have a level or two of conditioning to get through, too. Suffice to say, though, that dropping 30 on Orlando in game 1 and his first quarter in game 2 both looked a lot closer to 100% than, say, the Denver or Phoenix games.

Yes, Donovan's knee might get bad again. It also might be perfectly fine. Evan could turn an ankle again, or not. Jarrett could get another hand injury. Garland's jaw could re-break on the next screen he sets. But it's probably more likely that they don't, especially since there's often two or more days of rest between games.

Don looked like a player trying to score while he could score because he knew it wasn't going to last and Orlando wasn't even bothering to put Suggs on him ... but we shall see.

I saw Mosley's game 2 post game interview and reporters asked him about Suggs not guarding Mitchell.

He said the thought is Suggs would get too beat up because of all the off ball and on ball screens Mitchell runs through, his words not mine.

Plus he mentioned they like having Suggs being able to float around when he's off ball to try and disrupt things that way.

[KokoKaizer]

I'll be happy if we take just one game, our backcourt is limited and our shooting just sucks big time

[JonFromVA]

He's not playing at his absolute best, but most of that is rust/rhythm/feel which he missed because he was out for so many games and physically impaired in a lot of other ones. He might have a level or two of conditioning to get through, too. Suffice to say, though, that dropping 30 on Orlando in game 1 and his first quarter in game 2 both looked a lot closer to 100% than, say, the Denver or Phoenix games.

Yes, Donovan's knee might get bad again. It also might be perfectly fine. Evan could turn an ankle again, or not. Jarrett could get another hand injury. Garland's jaw could re-break on the next screen he sets. But it's probably more likely that they don't, especially since there's often two or more days of rest between games.

Don looked like a player trying to score while he could score because he knew it wasn't going to last and Orlando wasn't even bothering to put Suggs on him ... but we shall see.

I saw Mosley's game 2 post game interview and reporters asked him about Suggs not guarding Mitchell.

He said the thought is Suggs would get too beat up because of all the off ball and on ball screens Mitchell runs through, his words not mine.

Plus he mentioned they like having Suggs being able to float around when he's off ball to try and disrupt things that way.

lol, none of that makes sense. Suggs is built like a linebacker, cheating off Garland is very dangerous, we run screens for Garland too, and he still can't sink a 3pter even though his offensive load has been pretty low as most of their offense is going through Banchero.

Perhaps Mosley has other motivations he doesn't feel like sharing with the media?

Of course, Suggs hurt himself cheating off LeVert trying to steal the ball from Mitchell.

If Mosley is going to dust off Anthony Black, I imagine he'll do so at home where you'd hope a rook will be less intimidated.

[JonFromVA]

I'll be happy if we take just one game, our backcourt is limited and our shooting just sucks big time

You have some guys who might get hot shooting, especially at home, but both coaches seem hesitant to compromise their defense and in the playoffs having just one guy you can cheat off of can be enough to stymie an offense.

[IllMagic04]

It's a pretty boring series to discuss ( and watch if your not a fan of either team I'm sure). There not much to breakdown. If we keep laying bricks then the Cavs will keep packing the paint and this will be a sweep. The Cavs film study was probably boring as crap. "They can't shoot so let them shoot and pack the paint, so Paolo and Franz can't get in there." Thats about it. There's no major adjustments that's going to change anything other than making wide open shots.

[DowJones]

I just do not understand this obsession with Garland needing to score x amount of points. If his teammates have it going, there's no point for him to force it.

If we wanted that, we woulda just kept Sexton.

Garland is playing within the flow of the game and the flow of the offense.

Keep in mind, the Magic have led for 0 minutes and 0 seconds in this series. There's no need for anyone on this team to force anything. Take what the defense is giving ya, if that starts not to work, then pivot. Don't pivot before you have to, makes no sense.

I don't care about the points - although he is shooting well and I'd prefer he shoot more - but the turnovers are really bad

They're really nowhere as bad as fans make them out to be. He's tasked with running the offense and facilitating for his teammates, with the best defender on a good defensive team assigned to him.

If that is all he is asked to do, we made a huge mistake in giving him a max contract.
If that is all we ask him to do then it reinforces the idea that JB isn't the right man for the job.
If this is all he is asked to do then he isn't doing a good job. Our offense in the first 2 games against Orlando has not been good overall and on an individual level Garland is only averaging 6 assists to go with 4.5 turnovers.

We just need much more from Darius.

[thelead]

I don't care about the points - although he is shooting well and I'd prefer he shoot more - but the turnovers are really bad

They're really nowhere as bad as fans make them out to be. He's tasked with running the offense and facilitating for his teammates, with the best defender on a good defensive team assigned to him.

If that is all he is asked to do, we made a huge mistake in giving him a max contract.
If that is all we ask him to do then it reinforces the idea that JB isn't the right man for the job.
If this is all he is asked to do then he isn't doing a good job. Our offense in the first 2 games against Orlando has not been good overall and on an individual level Garland is only averaging 6 assists to go with 4.5 turnovers.

We just need much more from Darius.

He’s fine. Any time Suggs has been off of him, he’s been aggressive and scores with ease.

[jbk1234]

I don't care about the points - although he is shooting well and I'd prefer he shoot more - but the turnovers are really bad

They're really nowhere as bad as fans make them out to be. He's tasked with running the offense and facilitating for his teammates, with the best defender on a good defensive team assigned to him.

If that is all he is asked to do, we made a huge mistake in giving him a max contract.
If that is all we ask him to do then it reinforces the idea that JB isn't the right man for the job.
If this is all he is asked to do then he isn't doing a good job. Our offense in the first 2 games against Orlando has not been good overall and on an individual level Garland is only averaging 6 assists to go with 4.5 turnovers.

We just need much more from Darius.

First off, scoring is down and turnovers are up league wide as the league is really letting teams be physical in the playoffs.

You want your players taking what the defense gives them, especially when playing good defensive teams. Efficiency matters. Getting Allen and Mobley involved in the offense, particularly when they present a matchup issue for Orlando whenever Issac is off the floor, matters.

Not for nothing, but Garland would have more assists if Stus and Niang didn't shoot a combined 2-18 from 3 over the first two games.

Donavan scored 38 points on 30 shots in Game 1 against the Knicks. We lost. This complaining about what's working is just tiresome.

[JujitsuFlip]

I don't care about the points - although he is shooting well and I'd prefer he shoot more - but the turnovers are really bad

They're really nowhere as bad as fans make them out to be. He's tasked with running the offense and facilitating for his teammates, with the best defender on a good defensive team assigned to him.

If that is all he is asked to do, we made a huge mistake in giving him a max contract.
If that is all we ask him to do then it reinforces the idea that JB isn't the right man for the job.
If this is all he is asked to do then he isn't doing a good job. Our offense in the first 2 games against Orlando has not been good overall and on an individual level Garland is only averaging 6 assists to go with 4.5 turnovers.

We just need much more from Darius.

You still have failed to acknowledge how good the Magic have been all season, on defense.

You understand the Cavs are playing a top 2 defense in defensive rating and a top 3 defense in PPG, right?

I mean give me a break with these repetitive rudimentary takes.

[Roger Murdock]

Garland is the smallest player on our team, broke his jaw; drank through a straw for 2 months, and lost 15 LBs

He’s working his way back. He’s gone through a lot. **** on him feels disengous

We also have a coach who really struggles tactically and doesn’t utilize his second-fourth best players effectively.

[JonFromVA]

You guys know I've been on team Darius since he was drafted and yes there are reasons he's struggling, but it's ok to admit his turnovers have been a problem and that our offense has struggled.

Personally, I'd like to see more floor leadership from him. I wish we had a coach who could teach and encourage him to do it. We wouldn't need more offensive IQ out of our coach if DG was more of a floor leader, but it seems to be a chicken & the egg problem.

And given he only played 5 games in the NCAA before entering the league, it's a pretty predictable short-coming. Hopefully I don't have to explain myself, you've all seen LeBron on the Cavs for years and have seen him directing other players even telling our coach what we need to be doing.

[yoyoboy]

The Garland excuse making is laughable. The standards seem to just keep dropping for the kid. Are we talking about an All-Star/max contract player/top 5 pick? Because the way some of you Cavs fans talk about him, you seem content with him playing like a low-level starter and expect nothing more just because the Cavs are winning on the back of their DEFENSE - not their struggling offense (both in these playoffs and the regular season). A defense he has little to do with.

I mean he’s averaging close to as many turnovers (4.5) as he is field goal makes (5.5). He’s aimlessly pounding the life out of the ball at times without creating any real offensive advantages. No one is asking him to “hijack the offense” and freeze out the bigs. He simply needs to stop throwing the ball away so much, be quicker to make decisions, and be more of a threat to score. Especially down the stretches of games, he’s just been terrible.

I really don’t care to hear excuses about him coming back from injury because that’s the story of his whole career. He’s always in an out of the lineup with little injuries here and there.

[jbk1234]

You would think the Cavs were losing this series 0-2 with some of the whinging coming from the fans.

[RookieStar]

This is the game I envision where we win 1 for the series.

I still maintain my expectations/hope that this young guys can win 1 game despite being punched in the face while popping their PO cherries. lol

[Shock Defeat]

Orlando might be the worst 5 seed of all time.

[JujitsuFlip]

This is the game I envision where we win 1 for the series.

I still maintain my expectations/hope that this young guys can win 1 game despite being punched in the face while popping their PO cherries. lol

I think this is the Magic's best shot to win a game this series for sure.

Sleeping in their own beds, shooting on their own rims, feeding off their fans.

This Cavs core hasn't won a post season game on the road yet. Albeit just 0-3 but we'll see how they handle the road in 90 minutes.

[Dirk]

Cavs fans.

[IllMagic04]

Orlando might be the worst 5 seed of all time.

I can't argue with you right now.

1. We have been historically awful shooting the ball
2. I don't even remember who was last years 5 seed, let alone remember enough of them to really name a worst one.

[JonFromVA]

Cavs fans.

Haha, personally I'm fine with mashing both buttons; albeit I'm not in favor of firing JBB just to fire him. If the players want him gone? Sure. If we've got a replacement lined up that we think can do better? Sure.

But we could do worse.

[djsunyc]

Orlando's team is going to be scary good when they work out the kinks and develop internally. They have so much talent and are very deep. I'm glad they're getting the chance to experience this so they can get better as a team.

every year there's a suprise team that makes the playoffs only to not make it the following year. nobody can predict what happens with the magic. just look at the kings.

magic's defense is sustainable which should help in the regular season since alot of teams wont play as hard but they desperately need scoring.