Harris aims to stay positive
CLEVELAND — Like most players on the Orlando Magic roster, Tobias Harris is still finding his comfort zone in Scott Skiles’ brand-new offense. But Harris faces an additional adjustment: getting accustomed to playing power forward, where he tends to face taller and stronger defenders.
Perhaps Harris has started to turn a corner. He scored a season-high 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting in the Magic’s loss to the Sacramento Kings over the weekend, and he had an opportunity to carry over the momentum into a game Monday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I’m always going to play in the flow of the game and try to see opportunities where I could be effective,” Harris said as tipoff approached. “I felt like there were some opportunities there [against Sacramento]. I had a lot of open 3s that weren’t able to fall. I’m just going to stay aggressive and just try to help our team win games.”
Harris entered Monday averaging 14.9 points per game, down 2.2 points from last season. After he made 36.4 percent of his 3s last season, he started this season shooting 30.6 percent from beyond the arc.
“We feel like he’s been good in general considering we kind of have got him all over the floor,” Skiles said. “He’s at the four. He’s at the three. One time, he’s kind of posting up. Another time, he’s at the 3-point line. Considering all that, those sort of hybrid players are valuable, but that doesn’t mean that that doesn’t cause a little confusion in [a] hybrid player as well in exactly where he’s supposed to be.”
LeBron’s quip
The Golden State Warriors tied the NBA record for best start to a season by improving to 15-0 on Sunday night. The Warriors have played the entire season so far without their coach, Steve Kerr, who is recovering from back surgeries. On Monday, Cavaliers superstar LeBron James was asked how impressive Golden State’s start has been considering that the Warriors — who defeated Cleveland in last season’s Finals — have won without their coach.
“It’d be more impressive if they were doing all this without Steph,” James deadpanned, referring to Warriors point guard and reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry.
Earlier in the interview session with Clevelandbased reporters, James praised the Warriors for playing at a high level for a lengthy period of time.
“They’ve been the most healthy team I’ve ever seen in NBA history,” James said. “And they have great talent, and those guys all play for one common goal, and that’s to win and that’s all that matters.”
Skiles’ quip
Skiles was asked before tipoff to describe how James has changed over the years.
“Well, he’s gotten better,” Skiles began. “I first saw a tape of him when he was, I believe, a sophomore in high school. So he doesn’t look a whole lot different than he did then, amazingly. Maybe his hairline, but that’s about it.”
Turning more serious, Skiles continued: “He’s just become an incredible leader. He’s always been a great player, but he’s been able to, as he’s gone on in his career, elevate all the other players around him, which is what the great ones really do.”
Layups
■ Cleveland’s proximity to Erie, Pa., enabled the coaches from the Magic’s NBA Development League affiliate, the Erie BayHawks, to attend Monday’s game.
■ Backup Magic PG C.J. Watson missed his sixth consecutive game because of a strained left calf.
■ The Magic entered Monday on a 10-game losing streak to the Cavaliers.
Josh Robbins