Cavs Use Home Edge to Beat Magic in 7; Will Meet Boston Celtics in the Semi-Finals
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 06 May 2024
In the only first round series to go the full seven games route, the home team, who else, prevailed.
The Cleveland Cavaliers exploited their homecourt advantage to turn back the Orlando Magic, 106-94 and advance to the semi-finals in the Eastern Conference against the top seed Boston Celtics.
All previous six games in this series had gone to the home team hence the Cavaliers needed their home crowd and familiarity with their Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse Arena to keep it that way.
In the first two quarters, things did not seem to go that way.
With Paulo Banchero pouring 24 points supported by center Wendell Carter and point guard Jalen Sugg, the Magic took early control of the game, even enjoying an 18 point lead on the way to 53-43 halftime bubble.
The Cavs staged a rally through Donovan Mitchell backed up by Caris LeVert, Max Struss and Darius Garland with Evan Mobley anchoring the defense with his rebounding and rim protection leading to a 33-15 third quarter fightback to wrest the lead 76-68.
In the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers continued to shoot and defend better, extending the lead to a dozen points with five minutes left. Cleveland outscored Orlando in the whole of the last quarter 30-26 to secure the comfortable win.
Mitchell who scored a playoff high of 50 points in the sixth game loss in Orlando, still led the attack in this game but tempered his output to 39 to allow more Cavs to join in the fray, so to speak. LeVert contributed 15 points, Struss 13 points, Garland 12 points and Mobley scored 11 points and 16 rebounds. Isaac Okoro and Sam Merrill chipped in 8 points each.
For Orlando, Rookie of the Year top candidate Banchero topped with 38 points but could only draw 13 points from Sugg and 10 from Carter. The usually high scoring Franz Wagner was limited to just 6 points although he also had as many rebounds and assists. Cole Anthony and Merkelle Fultz came off the bench and had 8 points each.
The Cavaliers will begin their series against the Celtics on May 8 at the TD Garden arena in Boston.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
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