The Cleveland Cavaliers avoided an ugly first-round exit from last season by defeating the Orlando Magic handily in Game 1 of the playoffs on Saturday. When the teams square off again for Game 2 on Monday night, they’ll want to seize complete control of the series.
Conversely, the Magic will be hoping to feel more at ease after what was their youthful core’s first playoff game. They had their worst shooting performance of the season as a team, going 28 of 86 (32.6%) from the field. Game 1 was awful, even for a squad that finds it difficult to score goals sometimes.
Here’s all the information you need to know before Game 2:
Magic versus. Cavaliers, Game 2
•When: Monday, April 22 at 7 p.m. Eastern Time
•Address: Cleveland, Ohio’s Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
•NBA TV is the TV station; test Fubo’s live streaming for free.
•Cavaliers -5.5 | O/U 203.5 is the odds.
Tales
Cavaliers: The good news for the Cavaliers in Game 1 is that Donovan Mitchell, who ended with 30 points on 11 of 21 shots from the floor, looked like his old self once again. Their inability to get a better seed was mostly due to him struggling in the closing minutes of the season, at one point failing to score 20 points in five straight games. If they want to win this series, he must perform like the All-NBA version of himself, which he did in the first game. Can he now hold it up against Orlando’s top defense?
Magic: Considering that it was their first-ever playoff game, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner performed well on Saturday, but they had zero assistance. The combined field goal totals for Gary Harris, Joe Ingles, Cole Anthony, and Markelle Fultz were 0-of-19, while Jalen Suggs’ 4-of-16 performance wasn’t much better. That’s just not good enough, and going forward in this series, the Magic need a much stronger supporting cast.
Forecast
The Magic wanted a game like this, and neither team surpassed 100 in Game 1, yet they still lost by large digits. That does not seem good for their remaining aspirations. The Cavaliers to win and cover is what I’ll take. Selection: Cavaliers-5.5
More in Sports: https://buzzing.today/sports/
Photo Credits: https://commons.wikimedia.org/