CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – All-Star Donovan Mitchell got to rest due to an illness after a busy All-Star weekend, but the rest of his teammates looked at times like they were still on break too.
Orlando’s Moritz Wagner led all scorers with 22 points and seven rebounds off the bench as the Magic left town with a 116-109 win over the Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Here’s our top Wine & Gold Nuggets from Thursday night’s loss.
Let’s get physical – Physicality was the buzz word coming out of the Cavs locker room following the loss. “It's definitely frustrating when you're not playing with physicality,” Isaac Okoro, who scored 17 points, said. Everyone used that word, physicality. “It was on both sides of the ball,” Caris LeVert said. “The offensive rebounds really hurt us. They got more possessions than we did. Their second unit did a great job with Jonathan Isaac and [Moritz] Wagner of kind of junking the game up. So obviously it's frustrating when you lose. It's always frustrating, but it's just something we got to clean up.” Both teams pulled down 33 rebounds, but the Magic got 10 of them on the offensive glass. Matching physicality has been a point of emphasis this season following their quick playoff exit courtesy of the Knicks last spring and Thursday night was a reminder it needs to continue to be. “It just shows us a lot of teams are going to be like this,” Jarrett Allen, who notched another double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds, said. “A lot of teams are going to pressure us on the defensive end. They're going to make us work for our buckets. It was a great test for us tonight and we still have a lot of things to figure out for it.”
Give it away – Turnovers killed the Cavs Thursday night. “It was very uncharacteristic,” LeVert said. “We usually do a great job at taking care of the ball. I think their length kind of bothered us a little bit. Obviously the time off as well. I think rhythm a little bit was, I think a little messed up to start the game, but it's just one game. We got another one tomorrow.” The Magic, who used their size to disrupt passing lanes, create contact and knock the ball away, scored 28 points off 19 giveaways. “Hard to win when you turn it over 19 times, but they have great size, great length that makes them a really good defensive team and it's on us to move them around a little bit more, make them chase us a little bit more, get the ball from side to side and then be strong with the ball,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “I thought they did a good job of fouling us and helping create some of those turnovers, but being physical, slapping, reaching, grabbing, holding, that helped them create some of those turnovers.”
Teed off – Orlando’s Moritz Wagner is quite the agitator, which is great if he is on your team but frustrating when going up against him. “We all know he's a physical player that gives 110% of his energy for 48 minutes,” Allen said. “That's what he brought into this league. That's what he's always been known for. So it's just up to us to match it.” Unfortunately, the Cavs didn’t, and it cost them. With 2:21 to play in the third quarter Bickerstaff drew a technical foul after arguing a block call on Evan Mobley. Moritz Wagner drove his shoulder into and then cleared Mobley off with his arm, a technique he uses and gets away with quite a bit. “He’s effective and he knows his game and knows exactly who he is and knows how to play on that gray line,” Bickerstaff said. “Again, there was a lot of offensive fouls when he had the ball in his hand. I don't know how our guys are supposed to defend when they're in legal guarding position and he's allowed to launch himself through their body over and over and over and over again. So again, I'm not taking anything away from him. He understands what they allow him to get away with and he's an extremely effective player and he impacts winning.” Less than a minute later Wagner was teed up for arguing a block call defending Max Struss, who drove into the paint. “They're a tough team,” Struss, who started in place of Donovan Mitchell, said. “They play hard. They got a lot of talent with guys, so it was a good test for us coming first game out of All-Star Break, so it didn't go our way. We wanted it, but we'll learn from it.”
Slow start – With Mitchell out, Darius Garland didn’t take charge early. Although he finished with his first double-double of the season – 18 points and 10 rebounds, he only scored three points in the first half, and he committed four turnovers in the game. “I thought he was good,” Bickerstaff said. “I thought he built, as the game kind of went on, he got more aggressive, more comfortable, was putting pressure on the defense. So I think quarter by quarter he got better.”
Bench punch – Orlando’s bench, led by Moritz Wagner, outscored the Cavs bench 63-24. The Magic's reserves also accounted for 20 of their 33 rebounds where as Cleveland's pulled down just seven.
Starting 5 – Bickerstaff went with Darius Garland, Max Strus, Isaac Okoro, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen Thursday night.
