April 23 – The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the visiting Orlando Magic 96-86 on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series. Donovan Mitchell scored 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Jarrett Allen had a career-high 20 rebounds.
For the fourth-seeded Cavaliers, Evan Mobley scored 17 points, Allen had 16, and Darius Garland contributed 15. Cleveland never trailed thanks to 10 points and four steals from Isaac Okoro.
For the Magic, Franz Wagner added eighteen points and seven rebounds, while Paolo Banchero scored twenty-one points. Moritz Wagner scored 12 points, while Gary Harris scored 14.
The best-of-seven series’ third game takes place in Orlando on Thursday.
The Magic had been playing poorly the entire time, but in the fourth quarter they erupted into a frenzy, scoring 13 points in a row. With 4:57 left in the game, Jalen Suggs made a three-point play to halt the surge and trim Cleveland’s advantage to 87-78.
But Mitchell responded with back-to-back baskets, and with 2:41 left, Mobley made a short jumper to increase the advantage to 15.
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Later, with 1:12 remaining on a dunk by Banchero, the Magic were within nine again, but they were unable to get any closer.
With 18.8 seconds remaining, Okoro’s slam gave Cleveland the win.
The Cavaliers made 12 of 39 3-pointers while shooting 41.5 percent overall from the field. Garland scored four threes.
Orlando went 9 of 35 from behind the arc and hit 36.2% of its shots from the floor.
With 24.8 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Moritz Wagner’s slam put the Magic down 80-65.
Before the Orlando uprising, the Cavaliers answered by scoring the first seven points of the fourth quarter, with Garland scoring the next five points, to extend their advantage to 22 points.
The Cavaliers lead 58-44 at the half thanks to 19 points from Mitchell in the first half. Orlando’s Franz Wagner scored 17 points in the first half.
After Garland made a three-pointer to start the second quarter, Cleveland led 33–18. With 5:53 remaining in the first half, Mobley’s two free throws gave the Cavaliers a 17-point advantage. The Magic responded with the next 10 points to trim their deficit to five.
With 4:02 remaining in the first quarter, Suggs was assisted off the floor with a left knee pain after he collided with Mitchell while attempting to assist on defense. He didn’t play for the remainder of the first half, but he came back at the beginning of the third quarter, when he ended with 29 minutes, nine points, six rebounds, and five assists.
