Ugly loss to the Cavs has few bright spots for the Orlando Magic

The game was over by the second quarter, and the Orlando Magic looked more like spectators than players.

In their homecoming from a mostly successful road trip (three wins and two losses by a combined five points), the orlando Magic finally returned home to play the East-topping Cleveland Cavaliers.

For one quarter the Orlando Magic came out with a good performance against a good team, there was energy, intensity and high-level basketball after struggling out of the game.

It really is a shame an NBA game lasts another three quarters.

After the first quarter mark, the game became very hard to analyze. The effort, and dedication the Magic ended the first quarter with was simply gone. The Magic were beaten inside, on the break, to the ball, to the boards and anywhere else you care to think of.

The score reflected it as the Cavaliers defeated the Magic 111-76 at Amway Center on Friday.

LeBron James (CLE) — 25 pts., 8 assts.; Timofey Mozgov (CLE) — 17 pts.
Nikola Vucevic (ORL) — 14 pts.; Mario Hezonja (ORL) — 12 pts.

“It was just a bad game from an effort standpoint,” Nikola Vucevic said. “We just didn’t play well at all. It was a blowout and something that we are not proud of. We’ve got to know against teams like Cleveland, we have to bring it all otherwise it is going to be a blowout every time.”

What most fans will find frustration with is how there was no resistance to this wave. The Magic rolled over, pure and simple. Even their energy players — Elfrid Payton, Victor Oladipo and Aaron Gordon –failed to separate themselves in any way.

When the Magic faced similar certain circumstances in the past, the Magic would normally get to their basics and dig deep. But not this game. At no point did they threaten a comeback after the initial response in the first quarter.

The game was over half way into the second.

During the Magic’s first game with the Cavaliers this year, the Cavaliers obliterated the Magic with pure shooting. This was much worse. LeBron James, especially, was switched onto a different mode, and no Magic defender could keep with him.

“Things were out of hand about one minute into the game.” –Scott Skiles

“Things were out of hand about one minute into the game,” coach Scott Skiles said. “Things got out of hand quick for us. Even though we were kind of hanging in there, this would have been a good night to petition the league for 20 timeouts. I’m trying to let the guys play through some situations. Tonight, obviously, it did not work.”

One positive to take away is that Mario Hezonja, the rarely seen rookie, got a lot of minutes — a career-high 20:35. Many were filled with James scoring on them, but Hezonja also got a chance to show off his jumper, bring the ball up and run the offense.

This sort of experience is incredibly valuable for the young rook, and useful to play with no strings attached. He scored a career-high 12 points on 3-for-5 shooting, making two of his three 3-point attempts.

As for the rest of the roster? Nikola Vucevic (along with Hezonja) was the only player in double figures with 14. Oladipo, Fournier and Payton had 18 points combined. Starters Tobias Harris and Channing Frye were each held scoreless on a combined 0-for-8 shooting.  The Magic had four players with three or more turnovers.

It was a constant hounding all game as the Cavaliers, even up by 30-plus points would not relent.

“They were dialed in,” Skiles said. “They were up 35 points and still pressuring us to the point we could barely run our offense. You don’t want to make any quick judgments on anything. However, it is our fourth game where we struggled a little bit in a lot of areas — our coverages, coming out of timeouts and getting on the same page. We have to take a look at it.”

The team went into the final quarter with 52 points only because of a Vucevic heave from the 3-point line at the buzzer. Orlando was still down 31 points at that point. That is how rough it was.

The Cavs on the other end, to take nothing away from them, did not bring out some groundbreaking offense or some brilliant scheme. They just played like they wanted to win from start to finish.

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With the win, Cleveland maintains its grip on the top spot, while Orlando remain mired in a close-knit group in the East.

After the Magic’s great road trip and inspiring wins, they have now lost three of their last four games, and are at a turning point. The close losses to the Los Angeles Clippers and Phoenix Suns take their toll, and can easily boil over in a game like this.

Getting beat in this fashion is demoralizing. Skiles will have his work cut out for him making sure the team raise their heads and do not let it affect their future. He hinted that if things continue this way, he may have to make another lineup change but would only say it is something he and the coaching staff have to consider at this point.

The team Friday collapsed in the second quarter, and watched as the lead mounted. The offense crumbled into pass-pass-individual dribble move or jumper. Everyone looked like they were waiting for someone else to kick off a comeback.

They did not.

“You’ve got to give them credit, they played a really good game tonight,” Tobias Harris said. “Just a poor effort from us all around. We’ve got to bounce back from it, have a short-term memory, learn from it and get to the next one.”

The team has a favorable schedule on paper coming up, and must now work to make sure this does not affect them in future, correcting the mistakes rather than letting them mount.

Next: Mixing and matching Victor Oladipo and Evan Fournier

Philip Rossman-Reich contributed to this report.