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

[Rainwater]

If you win 47 games without an all NBA caliber player, you’re definitely a good team.

They do have an all star though

All star and all NBA caliber players are two different things. Banchero is a great talent but he’s not at that level yet.

You got to admit he played like an All NBA player tonight.

[RookieStar]

Well there is the one game win i was expecting for us before the eventual going down fighting...

[basketballRob]

Not gonna lie. Did not see this coming. Props to the ORL folks.

The Locked-On Magic guy was predicting a blowout earlier today.

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[Residual-Heat]

I have been so busy i havent even been able to watch game 2 or this one. So far though as i expected before the series began.

I think the Cavs learned from their experience from the Knicks and added shooters in the offseason. I think if they faced the Knicks this year, they wouldve faired better than they did last season.

I would guess Cavs in 5. G1 cavs win, G2 Cavs win, G3 Magic win, G4 Cavs win, game 5 Cavs win.

I definitely did not expect this kind of win in game 3 though. The Magic are so much better at home and it seems like WCJ is healthier now and able to start. I love Isaac and think he's a beast, but I believe he only started the first two games because WCJ was not healthy. I got time to watch the games tonight. I think i will start with game 3

[Duke4life831]

Not shocked by this. I knew this ORL team wasn’t going to go down without fighting. This team just plays so damn hard.

I still don’t think they will find enough offense to win 3 more games.

But ya if you’re in the ORL franchise or an ORL fan, how can you not be be over the moon about this year.

Paolo became an all star in year 2. Suggs became a 40% 3pt shooter. Franz struggled from 3, but the rest of his game improved.

Make the playoffs without even going through the play-in. Win at least 1 game in the playoffs and 3 games in Paolo is putting up stats for a young player in the playoffs that only other guys like LeBron and Luka have put up.

Wins all around for the team this year.

[thelead]

A few more angles

Read on Twitter

[Rainwater]

Not shocked by this. I knew this ORL team wasn’t going to go down without fighting. This team just plays so damn hard.

I still don’t think they will find enough offense to win 3 more games.

But ya if you’re in the ORL franchise or an ORL fan, how can you not be be over the moon about this year.

Paolo became an all star in year 2. Suggs became a 40% 3pt shooter. Franz struggled from 3, but the rest of his game improved.

Make the playoffs without even going through the play-in. Win at least 1 game in the playoffs and 3 games in Paolo is putting up stats for a young player in the playoffs that only other guys like LeBron and Luka have put up.

Wins all around for the team this year.

Win or lose this was an amazing season for the magic, most weren't expecting what has happened. Just hoping that the Front office steps up with all this cap space they have.

[tmorgan]

I dunno man, PotG in this one might have to go to Suggs. Paolo was a horse, but Suggs was scary.

[Duke4life831]

Not shocked by this. I knew this ORL team wasn’t going to go down without fighting. This team just plays so damn hard.

I still don’t think they will find enough offense to win 3 more games.

But ya if you’re in the ORL franchise or an ORL fan, how can you not be be over the moon about this year.

Paolo became an all star in year 2. Suggs became a 40% 3pt shooter. Franz struggled from 3, but the rest of his game improved.

Make the playoffs without even going through the play-in. Win at least 1 game in the playoffs and 3 games in Paolo is putting up stats for a young player in the playoffs that only other guys like LeBron and Luka have put up.

Wins all around for the team this year.

Win or lose this was an amazing season for the magic, most weren't expecting what has happened. Just hoping that the Front office steps up with all this cap space they have.

Yup. I think before the season started, if you were to make a realistic check list of what you wanted to see this year. I think everything has to be checked off. From here on out, they’re just playing with house money now.

And ya to follow all this up. The front office better not get lazy and just go with the thought process of, “hey we’re young and getting better, let’s keep this entire group together.”

They better go out and get some offensive firepower to help out this young trio.

[Rainwater]

Not shocked by this. I knew this ORL team wasn’t going to go down without fighting. This team just plays so damn hard.

I still don’t think they will find enough offense to win 3 more games.

But ya if you’re in the ORL franchise or an ORL fan, how can you not be be over the moon about this year.

Paolo became an all star in year 2. Suggs became a 40% 3pt shooter. Franz struggled from 3, but the rest of his game improved.

Make the playoffs without even going through the play-in. Win at least 1 game in the playoffs and 3 games in Paolo is putting up stats for a young player in the playoffs that only other guys like LeBron and Luka have put up.

Wins all around for the team this year.

Win or lose this was an amazing season for the magic, most weren't expecting what has happened. Just hoping that the Front office steps up with all this cap space they have.

Yup. I think before the season started, if you were to make a realistic check list of what you wanted to see this year. I think everything has to be checked off. From here on out, they’re just playing with house money now.

And ya to follow all this up. The front office better not get lazy and just go with the thought process of, “hey we’re young and getting better, let’s keep this entire group together.”

They better go out and get some offensive firepower to help out this young trio.

Completely agree

[KGDirkTD_Fan]

the magic are legit honestly, that defense is something. I still don't know if they can pull out offensive firepower like that for 3 more games - I'm still on the Cavs in 6 or 7 part of this but I can't tell if im underestimating/overestimating here. I just have low trust in this Cavs team to get it done until they get that fourth win.

[RookieStar]

And to think... after game 2 1st quarter a lot of us thought we wpuld be seeing Suggs play again in the 24 season opener already...

[Statlanta]

Garland looks broke this series. It's one thing to get defended by an veteran on-ball stopper, it's another thing when it's a third year guard.

Even with the injury excuses.

[Message Boar]

Garland looks broke this series. It's one thing to get defended by an veteran on-ball stopper, it's another thing when it's a third year guard.

Even with the injury excuses.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say?

Which is preferable for Garland to be guarded by, Gary Harris or Jalen Suggs?

[SOUL]

I'm not sure what you're trying to say?

Which is preferable for Garland to be guarded by, Gary Harris or Jalen Suggs?

Watch on YouTube

[Rainwater]

Garland looks broke this series. It's one thing to get defended by an veteran on-ball stopper, it's another thing when it's a third year guard.

Even with the injury excuses.

This makes no sense considering the third year guard is one of the best defenders in the league

[tooler]

This makes no sense

Right. So anyway, how about that game?

[Magicman125]

I voted Magic in 6 before the series, so I'm stuck with the prediction. But feeling better about it today than I did before the game yesterday lol.

[Roger Murdock]

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.

I think the entire team is underutilized except Jarrett Allen because we have a coach who struggles using every player on the roster effectively. Allen is a bit of an exception as him games more simplified and min maxed than dynamic so you can’t even misuse him.

Fire JB and hire Bud and watch everyone on the team go up two levels. This is an ECF team hiding in plain sight because the coach is horrible.

[JonFromVA]

The Magic playing better and knocking down shots was a big part of the blow out, but for a Cavs team still suffering nightmares from the beat down they received from the Knicks last year, it's very relevant how Orlando was allowed to be physical in their 1v1 matchups.

Specifically, it started out looking like Mobley was going to shutdown Paolo again, but then Paolo started elbowing him in the chest to create space and then shooting over him.

Will another set of refs allow that? What would they do if Mobley flopped? Can the Cavs return the favor? Will they bring in one of the more physical defenders sooner? Or maybe try a smaller defender where the flopping might be more believable?

And then on offense, the Cavs regressed in this game as JB Bickerstaff continues to focus on defense and toughness even though his team hasn't scored more than 97 points in 3 games.

It doesn't help that Mitchell took another blow to his knee in the game, but at this point it's to be expected - at least to me.