The Cavaliers look to remain undefeated as they host the Magic.
The Cavs will take on the Magic in a rematch of their seven-game first-round series from last year.
Who: Cleveland Cavaliers (5-0) vs Orlando Magic (3-2)
Where: Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, OH
When: 7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 1
TV: ESPN, FanDuel Sports Network Ohio (previously Bally Sports)
Line: Cavs -6.5
Expected Cavs starting lineup: Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Dean Wade, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen
Cavs injury report: Max Strus – OUT (ankle), Craig Porter Jr. – DOUBTFUL (thumb), Emoni Bates – OUT (knee), JT Thor – OUT (two-way), Luke Travers – OUT (two-way)
Expected Magic starting lineup: Jalen Suggs, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Wendell Carter Jr.
Magic injury report: Paolo Banchero – QUESTIONABLE (abdominal strain), Goga Bitadze – QUESTIONABLE (foot), Franz Wagner – QUESTIONABLE (illness)
What to watch for
Changing styles
Offseason changes are largely influenced by what happens in the playoffs. Last year’s first-round series was a rock fight won by the team that was finally able to hit some shots in the second half of Game 7.
That lack of offense was addressed by both teams last summer. The Magic signed Caldwell-Pope to add some much-needed shooting depth. Cleveland brought in Kenny Atkinson to revolutionize the offense.
The Coldwell-Pope addition hasn’t worked out as intended thus far. He’s hitting just 16.7% of his outside shots through five games. While he will break out of that slump, it’s resulted in Orlando’s attack going as Banchero does which is just like last year.
The Cavs have looked like an entirely different team offensively under Atkinson as evidenced by being second in the league in offensive rating (124.5) That will come down as their three-point shooting has been unsustainably hot.
We’ll see if either offense looks too different than what we saw last postseason.
It’s too easy
The Cavs have made Atkinson’s system look easy. They’ve come out of the gates better than even they could’ve possibly imagined. It’s something that Atkinson didn’t see coming.
“Yeah, because I’ve got so much respect for the parity in this league,” Atkinson said when asked about whether he was surprised by their impressive start. “You look at every game on the schedule [and think], ‘man, how are we going to beat them?’ . . . There’s more parity than ever, so yeah, honestly, I’m a bit surprised.”
The Cavs aren’t going to continue to make it look this easy. The league is too good for that to happen. The Magic are better suited than most for challenging the Cavs, and particularly their offense. We should get a good look at how this offense looks when it faces a level of adversity we haven’t seen much of so far.