CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Cavaliers survived a three-point shooting slump and a second half run by the Magic to take game 1 of the best-of-seven series.
Led by 30 points from Donovan Mitchell, the Cavs never trailed and beat Orlando 97-83 Sunday afternoon at a raucous Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
“Just seeing the towels, seeing the white out, it is just something you dream of as a kid,” Mitchell said of the atmosphere. “I always tell people I never lose that, what it means and it brings out, but also setting the tone from a more professional standpoint, setting the tone. But yeah, it's exciting. I love this. This is something that's great, but in the same token, this game is over with.”
Here’s our top Wine & Gold Nuggets from Game 1.
Wire-to-wire – In a playoff rarity, the Cavs led start to finish as the game featured no ties outside 0-0 or lead changes. The closest the Magic got was 55-50 in the third quarter before the Cavs pulled away again. “That's the maturation of this basketball team,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “It's one of the things that we've been talking about. You go through experiences and then you add experience like we did, and it adds maturity and you understand what the moment is and you understand how to play forcefully, but still play basketball and get the job done.” Cleveland led by as many as 20.
Fast start – Mitchell looked healthy and like his usual explosive self as he put up at least 30 points in his fifth consecutive Game 1 and 21st time in the playoffs. “This is who I am,” Mitchell said. “That's kind of been my message all year. This is why I'm here and is one game. I could have had 10 tonight as long as we got the dub, I'll do anything it takes to win, but for me, I know I'm capable of this. I've shown it, so now it's just continually doing it on a night-to-night basis. This isn't something that I did and it's like, oh, okay, no, this is who I am.” Mitchell shot 11 of 21 from the floor to go with three assists, three steals and two rebounds in 36 minutes. “He has the ability and the understanding of how important the start is, whatever that may be, like the start of a series, the start of a quarter,” Bickerstaff said. “Now teams are chasing you. Right? Now they're trying to one up you throughout the game and then he has a way [to] just make big shot, big shot, big shot, and you're never chasing your opponent.”
Crash the glass – Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley helped Cleveland win the battle of the boards soundly – 54-40. “We wanted our guys to be aggressive, especially against this team,” Bickerstaff said. “They got a lot of guys who crash the boards, you watch their smalls like even after you rebound, they come and try to get steals and those types of things. So it was extremely important for us to finish the possessions and then that gives us an opportunity to get out and run.” Allen finished with 16 points and 18 rebounds while Mobley chipped in 16 and had 11 boards. “That was our main priority coming in,” Allen said. “JB challenged us – Evan and I – to go get every board and I feel like we did an excellent job on that tonight. We still have to keep doing it. We still have to keep on the boards and Max Strus, Max is an excellent job too. Don't forget him. He had nine rebounds.”
Fire and ice – The Cavs hit their first five three pointers of the afternoon but went ice cold after that from deep in the first half. “It's not always going to be pretty,” Mitchell said. “I've sat up here a few times this year and said that, but we're going to find a way. So this is what's expected of us. You know what I mean? This still two is one game. We did it for one game, so we're not going to sit here and pat ourselves on the back and get excited over it.” Cleveland missed their next 18 tries from beyond the arc. “Who the hell put a lid on the rim,” Georges Niang joked. Garland, who finished with 14 points and a team high eight assists, ended the drought by hitting a three to open the scoring in the fourth quarter. “He dictated the game. He dictated tempo for us when we're trying to play a little quicker,” Bickerstaff said. “He did that, played through, got a little tight in his back. But that's the type of thing for me to watch as a coach. Been with a guy for as long as Darius and I have been together and just watched the continued growth and the grit that he showed tonight. He could have very easily taken some time off, sat down, but he wanted to stay on the floor and he played through it and was extremely effective and this is how much it means to him. This is how much his teammates matter to him. So I was proud of Darius and I thought he was phenomenal.”
Mobley from deep – Evan Mobley hit a pair of threes to help the Cavs jump on the Magic early. “If he's making those shots, you can't shift in and protect the paint as much as you want to because you're just giving him wide open looks,” Bickerstaff said.” Mobley pent 15 minutes after practice on Friday working on those two spots on the floor. Mobley had a career-playoff high 16 points by halftime. “When Evan was hitting the threes, I think it was in the first quarter, I think that whole run sparked the whole game,” Allen said. “He played an terrible part in just setting the tone for the whole game.”
Getting chippy – It didn’t take long for these two teams to show their dislike for each other. Isaac Okoro drew a technical for retaliating after Mo Wagner shoved Mobley to the floor. A few minutes later Georges Niang went after Markelle Fultz after Fultz bumped into him as Niang tried driving to thew basket. Fultz was charged with a flagrant-1 and Niang received a technical for taunting. “I don't even think it needs to be addressed,” Niang said. “That's just something that, yeah, alright, it happened. We're moving on. I don't even think we thought twice about it. I mean, if I was standing up for someone or I'm standing up for myself, that's just how this year has been. It's unfortunate. I don't know how much I can [say about] refereeing that I got a technical, but I mean, it is what it is.” Bickerstaff liked the composure his team showed. “I thought we stood our ground first and foremost, but we didn't allow ourselves to get caught up in the s***,” Bickerstaff said. “We continued to play good basketball, share the ball, execute the things that we wanted to do. I thought that was their intent, was try to disrupt the game and our guys didn't take the bait.”
Lock ‘em down – The Cavs held Orlando to just 32.6% shooting from the field, including 8-27 from the three-point line. “You guys laughed at me when I said that too, but I told you it's going to be a defensive game all throughout,” Allen said. “It was physical. Nothing was easy for anybody, whether it was a layup or even shooting threes. Everybody had a man on them at all times and that's just the way that it's going to be during this whole series. It's going to be a tough for anybody to score.” It was just third time this season that Cleveland held an opponent under 90 points and the 15th under 100. The 83 points allowed to the Magic were the fewest allowed in a playoff game by the Cavs since holding the Celtics to 79 points on May 27, 2018 at Boston.
Round 1 schedule – Game 2: Monday, 7 p.m. on NBATV; Game 3: Thursday at Orlando, 7 p.m. on NBATV; Game 4: Saturday, April 27 at Orlando, 1 p.m. on TNT; Game 5: Tuesday, April 30, TBD; Game 6: Friday, May 3 at Orlando, TBD; Game 7: Sunday, May 5, TBD.
Starting 5 – Bickerstaff went with Evan Mobley, Max Strus, Jarrett Allen, Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland Sunday afternoon.
