Cavaliers Bedevil Magic in First Two Games

   The Cleveland Cavaliers struggled to the finish of the NBA regular season but have looked very sharp in winning their first two games at home in the Eastern Conference first-round matchup against the fifth-seeded Orlando Magic.

I missed game one due to my road trip (I'll be writing on that sometime next week), in which Cleveland won 97-83 behind thirty Donovan Mitchell points but I did watch Monday's 96-86 triumph to give Cleveland two games to nil advantage.

Cleveland dominated the first quarter in building a twelve-point lead and thereafter all they had to do was keep Orlando even the remainder of the way to post the win.

Donovan Mitchell led Cleveland with twenty-three points with Jarrett Allen contributing sixteen points and twenty rebounds in the victory.

Cleveland will travel to Orlando for games three and four on Thursday and Saturday nights.

Swashbucklings

1) The Cavaliers were favored in this series because the Magic are in the situation that Cleveland was in last season.

It was Cleveland who other than Donovan Mitchell needed the playoff experience from their young stars last season in their five-game loss to the Knicks, and Orlando requires the same "been there" in this series.

2) Part of learning about postseason basketball is learning how the physical play is turned up in the postseason.

Cleveland was bullied by New York last season and in the first two games, the Cavaliers are pushing around the Magic.

Can Cleveland do that if they move forward? Time will tell.

3) It's been defense-dominating for Cleveland as they held Orlando to 32 percent shooting in game one and 36 in the second game.

Orlando's young players haven't had the open shots or easy transition hoops that you can find in the regular season and the Cleveland defense has controlled this series in the two games.

4) Jarrett Allen received plenty of criticism in last season's playoffs for soft play but in the first two games against Orlando, he's combined for thirty-eight rebounds and has been the dominant frontcourt player in the series.

5) Orlando is one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the league and Cleveland has held them to only seventeen of seventy-two from outside the arc.

Cleveland isn't burning the nets from the outside but they aren't that awful!