Cavs stay perfect in run-away victory over Magic

Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley lead a complete team effort in another blowout win.

The Orlando Magic were dealt a tough blow Thursday evening with the news that Paolo Banchero missing the next several weeks. The Cleveland Cavaliers have been rolling. Instead of taking their foot off the gas playing against a wounded opponent, they decided to kick them while they were down leading to a lopsided 120-109 win. They remain undefeated and have won five of their six games by 10 or more points.

Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley got things headed in the right direction. They scored Cleveland’s first 17 points before being subbed out midway through the frame.

Their teammates kept it going in their place. Caris LeVert contributed eight points in the opening frame. This included a nice backdoor cut and find from Darius Garland that inspired Kenny Atkinson to take multiple steps onto the court to high-five Garland before heading back to the defensive end.

That sums up where things are with the Cavs right now. Atkinson has mentioned that they’re still a work in progress and that they’re very early in the process. But works in progress usually don’t continually and easily blow teams off the court like the Cavs have been.

The Cavaliers closed the first with an 18-point lead. Orlando cut the deficit to 11 and seemed like they were going to get back into the game just before halftime. Instead, the Cavs reeled off three straight steals and baskets after them. Two of those swipes came from Ty Jerome. Cleveland closed the half with an 8-0 run to stretch the lead back to 19.

Orlando fought back in the third quarter, but were once again unable to cut it to single digits. The Cavs ended the third with a 15-6 run to keep the Magic at arm’s length. Cleveland kept them there in the fourth leading to another stress-free victory.

Garland keeps reminding us how special he can be as he led the team in scoring with 25 points. He looks completely different from the player who seemed to have no confidence down the stretch of last year’s first-round series against Orlando.

Tonight, Garland played with a level of aggression that allowed him to attack the basket and set up great looks for himself and others. The off-ball movement and staying in his lanes in offensive transition have allowed him to get more out of his offensive skillset than we’ve seen in years past. This is far from the player we saw at the end of last season.

Mitchell had another strong showing as he contributed a point per minute (22) on 9-15 shooting. Against this team last year, it felt like he was the only source of offense. Even though the numbers were impressive once again, Mitchell’s isolation scoring is coming within the flow of the offense and also isn’t the only way the team is generating good looks.

Mobley continues to use the beginning of this season to test his powers. He opened the game by confidentially taking it cost-to-coast and finishing in the lane through Franz Wagner. Orlando began to help down from the corners when he would try to drive straight through the lane which resulted in a few turnovers. But, he kept attacking which is what you want to see at this point in the season. Especially whenever he got a guard switched onto him.

Overall, it was a solid showing from Mobley even if the stat sheet wasn’t eye-popping. He continues to attack in the ways that you want him to while being a great defender. Mobley finished with 14 points on 6-11 shooting with 12 rebounds, three assists, a block, and a steal.

The process was always going to be more important than the results early in the season. They’re trying to integrate a vastly different offensive system under a new head coach. There were supposed to be growing pains. Instead, the Cavs have looked and played like the best version of this care that we’ve seen. We don’t know what this team could look like when they fully grasp how Atkinson wants them to play.