What's Wrong With the Cavs
The Cleveland Cavaliers accomplished a narrow defeat of the Orlando Magic 104-103 on Wednesday night. The Cavs' came into this game after losing 9 out of the last 10 contests, understanding that the team simply just needed a win to get the morale of the reigning Eastern Conference Champions going again. The tone of that thirst for a win was more prevalent in a post-game interview with reporters when LeBron James said, “Right now we’re in Strugglesville… But it felt like a win. We needed it. Definitely.”
The Cavs’ Isaiah Thomas, who recently returned from a hip injury that supposedly had been the reason he was traded to the Cavs from the Boston Celtics, led the teams scoring effort in the first. He led the game’s scoring with 21 points alongside his co-stars LeBron James’ 16 point effort and Kevin Love’s 12. Thomas had been searching for an opportunity to gain his play back with the confidence he had exhumed in the off season.
In the first half, the game got off to smooth start for the Cavs as it developed as a run and shoot type game. The Cavs' jumped out to a lead on 8-0 run with a fast paced offensive effort from the whole cast. They rallied the Magic to a 20 point lead, which pretty much had given anyone watching the idea that the Cavs were playing next to their top level. However that vibe would be diminished as the Cavs seemed to do any and everything in their power to make this game as stressful as possible for Cavs fans at the Quicken Loans Center.
The height of the deficit reach 23 before the Cavs stunk the place up with stagnant offensive play and even more shockingly bad defensive play. In the second half, the Cavs had managed to shoot a bewildering 5% from three-point range against the fourth worst defense in the NBA on their home floor. The Magic had come into this game 13-31 in the win/loss column and had lost 17 of their last 19 games. Nevertheless Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon experience great success on the offensive end where they outscored the Cavs 33 to 17 in the third, exploiting every whole in the defense.
In the fourth quarter of this bout, The Cavs gave more of the same effort, but the only difference shown came within the process of trading baskets with one of the league’s worst teams. Although the Magic outscored the Cavs 23-20 in the last quarter and even got their first lead of the game with 11 seconds to spare, Isaiah Thomas would go on to hit the game deciding free throws after being fouled on a lay-up attempt.
The NBA is becoming faster and stronger every season, but the Cavs have shown so many lapses within their collective performance and it can be said that they are doing some soul searching. With the overwhelming pressure on the Cavs to deliver with their aging, star-studded cast, will the Cavs learn to sustain their fire power over the length of 60 minutes? The expectation is for the Cavs to once again take the eastern Conference Championship with LeBron James at the helm, but quite evident in the play tonight, it takes more than one half to win an NBA game.
