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By John DentonNov. 24, 2014
CLEVELAND – Clearly on edge because of his Cleveland Cavaliers’ massive struggles despite assembling a quasi all-star team over the summer, LeBron James said sternly on Monday morning that he would ``do whatever it takes to win the game’’ later that night.
That had to be an ominous warning for a short-handed Orlando Magic squad that ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time and ran head-first into James’ one-man buzz saw.
An Orlando team without its own high-scoring forward in Tobias Harris offered up little resistance in slowing down a determined James on Monday as Cleveland rolled to a somewhat predictable 106-74 romp past the Magic.
``LeBron is a champ and LeBron is LeBron,’’ said Magic guard Evan Fournier, who scored just eight points on two-of-nine shooting and struggled in his matchups against James. ``They had lost four straight and we knew that he would play very hard tonight and I’d say we just got smacked.’’
An Orlando squad still looking for a signature win in the young season made a couple of charges midway through the first quarter and early in the third quarter, but it never led after a 6-4 start to the game. The Magic (6-10) have already equaled last season’s win total on the road, but those victories have come in Philadelphia, New York, Detroit and Charlotte – all teams likely headed to the draft lottery.
Cleveland (6-7) had shockingly played like a lottery team much of the season’s first month despite adding Kevin Love and James to a squad that already features point guard Kyrie Irving. But a Cavs team that came into Monday riding an unsightly four-game skid got off to a strong start and never looked back against the outmanned Magic.
``I just think we didn’t play with a sense of urgency tonight,’’ said power forward Channing Frye, who had just three points and one field goal and is still having trouble meshing on the floor with his new teammates. ``We just didn’t battle. Most of the year I think we’ve kind of started making our name on battling and getting stops. But against a good veteran point like this we have to be on point and we weren’t on point.’’
A noisy sellout crowd at Quicken Loans Arena reveled in James pumping in 29 points, handing out 11 assists and dunking a couple of times off his three steals. James, who played just three quarters because of the lopsided nature of the game, followed through on his pregame prediction to make sure the Cavs awoke from their slumber.
``For me, I look to do whatever it takes to win the game. If that’s passing, scoring, defending or rebounding – it’s whatever it takes. At that point, that’s what (the mindset) is.’’
Orlando shot just 36.3 percent from the floor and made on five of 17 3-point shots. Cleveland hit 51.9 percent from the floor and got 30 points off its bench – two more than the last two games combined.
``That would have helped us if we could have seen the basketball go through the rim, go through the hole a little bit and come out of the opposite side of the net,’’ Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said. ``The start was decent and I thought we were prepared to play, but we couldn’t get ourselves going by making some buckets.’’
Like James, Orlando center Nikola Vucevic played just three quarters, but for dramatically different reasons. He had 18 points and 13 rebounds for his NBA-best 12th double-double of the season. Vucevic came into the game as the NBA’s fourth highest rated player – a statistic compiled by CBSSportsline.com – and he did nothing to hurt his standing on Monday with his stellar work on the glass (six offensive rebounds and seven defensive boards).
Orlando was without high-scoring small forward Tobias Harris, who had hoped to play through a calf strain but was scratched from the game about 90 minutes prior to tipoff. Orlando could have used Harris’ size and versatility to cover James and it certainly missed the 18.8 points and 8.4 rebounds that he usually provides.
Third-year pro Maurice Harkless started in place of Harris and struggled to slow down James. He had three fouls in the first 11 minutes of the game and finished with two points on one-of-six shooting.
The loss of Harris combated the injury issues that are already plaguing the Magic. Shot-blocking power forward Kyle O’Quinn (sprained ankle) hasn’t played since the season-opener on Oct. 28, rookie Aaron Gordon (foot surgery) is out indefinitely and forward Devyn Marble (sprained rotator cuff) is still in the rehab phase of his injury.
Victor Oladipo, who is still playing with a protective mask to cover the surgically repaired fracture beneath his right eye, was Orlando’s only other reliable offensive option on Monday. He scored 22 points and chased down nine rebounds in 36 minutes.
``I’ve just feel like I can get to the rim. When I do that, I can find kick-outs and make something happen,’’ said Oladipo, who made eight of 15 shots and five of six free throws. ``I have a lot of options when I have a full head of steam and I’m going downhill.
``I just have to be aggressive,’’ Oladipo continued. ``When I play passive, that’s when I make mistakes and do dumb stuff.’’
Monday’s game was Orlando’s 16th game and the 10th road game of the young season – both of those numbers being highs in the NBA. Things won’t get any easier for the Magic over the next two weeks what with them hosting the high-powered Golden State Warriors on Wednesday and then leaving town on Thanksgiving night for a 10-day, six-game roadtrip. The jaunt will take Orlando to Indiana, Phoenix, Oakland (Warriors), Los Angeles (Clippers), Salt Lake City (Jazz) and Sacramento.
Down 56-38 at the half, Orlando briefly made a run to start the third quarter when Oladipo got in the paint for three baskets. A 10-4 spurt got the Magic within 60-48 and had to have them thinking of their massive 23-point rally to beat Charlotte four days earlier.
But that momentum would be short-lived as Anderson Varejao (14 points on seven-of-nine shooting) buried two more jumpers. And by the time James slapped the ball away and dunked on the other end, Cleveland had regained a commanding 72-48.
Orlando got systematically picked apart in the first half by both the scoring (22 points) and passing (seven assists) from James, who led Cleveland to a comfortable 56-38 advantage at the intermission.
An irked James said early Monday that he woulddo everything in his power to will the underachieving Cavs back on track, and that were certainly the case in the first half. He scored off hard cuts to the rim, run-outs on the fastbreak, post-ups against smaller defenders and he got to the free throw line seven times (all makes) in the first 24 minutes. He had a torrid 16-point start in the first quarter and had made seven of his 12 shots by halftime.
``With a guy like (James), you can’t give up that offensive rebound and you can’t turn it over and you’ve got to get a great shot every time,’’ Vaughn said. ``He’s one of the best in the game and he’s going to do great things. That’s what they do every single night.’’
Missing Harris, the Magic were a mess offensively in the early going. Hopes were high midway through the first quarter when Orlando pulled within 17-14 on an Oladipo layup. However, the Magic failed to get points from their next seven possessions, missing six shots and turning the ball over. That stretch allowed an opportunistic Cleveland team to expand its lead out to as much as 12 points in the first quarter.
Orlando had little else going outside of Vucevic in the first half. The blossoming big man did all he could to keep the Magic within striking distance by scoring 16 points and grabbing eight rebounds in the first 24 minutes. Vucevic, who was coming off a career-best 33-point performance against the Miami Heat, picked up where he left off on Saturday with a follow-up dunk on the game’s first possession.
Five of Vucevic’s eight boards in the first half came off Magic misses, and there were certainly plenty of those to grab. Orlando made just 10 of its first 30 shots and shot only 33.3 percent from the floor in the first half.
And as long and arduous as the first half was for the Magic, the second half was even more brutal to suffer through as James flexed his consider muscle and the Cavs pushed Orlando’s deficit to a somewhat embarrassing 33 points in the fourth quarter.
As for James, he said that he was fully aware that his first season back in Cleveland would be filled with some pretty dramatic highs and lows. He is looked to solely for leadership for the first time in his career. And he delivered on Monday, willing his new-look team and helping the Cavs avoid getting stunned by the scrappy Magic.
``It’s a different feeling, but it’s something that I’m ready for,’’ James said of being a team leader. ``I knew this was going to be the biggest challenge of my career thus far. I accept the challenge. When we lose I take full responsibility and when we win, the team wins. That’s what it’s about.’’