Friday night’s matchup with the Magic was an odd affair. The Cavaliers never seemed out of the game and, for most of the evening, they never seemed in it. Either way, the finally tally was the same – with the Wine and Gold dropping a 93-80 decision at the Amway Center.
The Cavaliers fell behind by double-figures late in the first quarter, and a 9-2 Magic run to end the first half sent them to the locker room down 15.
The third quarter began how the second ended and Orlando pushed their advantage to 20 – 64-44 – three minutes into the second half. But Cleveland clawed back and Kryie Irving’s jumper at the third quarter buzzer got them back to within single-digits, 72-63.
The Cavaliers kept within striking distance throughout the final period, but J.J. Reddick and Hedo Turkoglu canned three-pointers to ignite a 9-0 Magic run that put the ballgame out of reach.
“We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and understand the number one thing is it’s a 48-minute game,” said Coach Scott. “You can’t have the lulls that we’ve had offensively or defensively.”
Antawn Jamison led five Cavaliers in double-figures with 16 points on 8-for-18 shooting, adding nine boards.
Rookie Tristan Thompson did very well in his first start against Dwight Howard – doubling up with 15 points, a team-high 11 boards and the Cavaliers’ only two blocked shots of the game.
“Being able to play against (Howard) for the first time is definitely something I am going to take notes from and look at film to see what I did good and what I need to work on,” said the freshman forward. “The next time I play him, I want to make it more difficult for him.”
Kyrie Irving finished with 13 points and six of the Cavaliers’ 10 assists. Irving went 6-for-15 from the floor and added four boards, but didn’t make a single trip to the stripe and failed to score in limited fourth-quarter action.
Alonzo Gee rounded out the starters in double-figures with 10 points, but shot just 3-for-12 from the floor. Omri Casspi led the second team with 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting.
As a team, the Wine and Gold shot 38 percent from the floor, including 22 percent from long distance. Orlando shot 47 percent from the field and had 24 helpers to just 10 for the Cavs.
Ryan Anderson led Orlando with 17 points and Dwight Howard added 16 to go with a game-high 13 boards.
The Cavaliers wrapped up their three-game roadie at 1-2 and return to The Q for a Sunday afternoon meeting with Steve Nash and the Suns.