Magic blow lead,
fall to Cavaliers 117-103 as LeBron James, Kevin Love dominate.
CLEVELAND — As tipoff arrived Monday night, Scott Skiles never expected his players to shut down LeBron James completely. Skiles has faced James enough times to know James will inflict damage no matter which schemes a coaching staff devises and no matter how energetically an opponent plays.
On Monday, however, James and his Cleveland Cavaliers teammates encountered so little resistance from Skiles’ Orlando Magic starters that Skiles has decided that changes must be made. Not only did the Magic lose a 117-103 rout, but the starters’ poor performance perpetuated a pattern of subpar play early in third quarters that needs to be addressed.
“It’s time to change the lineup,” Skiles said after the game. “That’s pretty much the reality we’re going to have to face here in the next 48 hours before we play again. That lineup, there’s just been too much of this, and we’ve got to see if we can find something else that works.”
Asked what changes he plans to make, Skiles answered, “Pretty much everything is in consideration.”
The Magic fell behind 22-10 in the first quarter and were outscored 30-13 to begin the third
quarter. James dictated the rhythm of both quarters, decimating Orlando with his passing and court vision in the game’s opening minutes and hurting Orlando with his power and driving ability at the start of the third quarter.
James finished with 15 points and 13 assists, and the Cavaliers outscored the Magic by 29 points when he was on the floor.
“They are the best Eastern Conference team,” starting small forward Evan Fournier said. “Every time LeBron has the ball, it’s a problem, pass or shoot. I feel like it’s one of those nights where there’s really nothing to say.”
Yet early first-quarter problems and early thirdquarter struggles have plagued the Magic (6-8) repeatedly this season.
“It’s very frustrating,” starting power forward Tobias Harris said. “We started the game off bad also. We have to be better if we want to win big games like this. If we want to be a great team, we have to be better. We’ve got to trust each other a lot more offensively and defensively. It’s not a good effort. We have to be better.”
The third quarter ended with the Magic trailing 92-76, and Fournier, Harris and fellow starters Elfrid Payton, Victor Oladipo and Nik Vucevic sat the entire fourth quarter.
Orlando entered Monday with the third-best field-goal percentage defense in the NBA, but the Magic played horrendous defense against the Cavaliers (11-3).
The Cavaliers’ 117 points are the highest point total the Magic have given up in a non-overtime game this season, and the Cavs made 53.1 percent of their shots.
“I think the biggest thing is they just put the ball in LeBron’s hands, and he just made the right play for them,” Oladipo said.
James joined Oscar Robertson as the only players in league history to rank in the top 25 in career points and assists.
Kevin Love benefitted from James’ brilliance on Monday. Love finished with a season-high 34 points, including 17 consecutive Cleveland points during the second quarter. James set the tone. Early in the third quartrademark ter, James overpowered the smaller man guarding him, Fournier, and scored three of the Cavs’ first five baskets of the period.
“Their starters versus our starters tonight, it was kind of men against boys,” Skiles said. “Just look at the plus-minuses of the starters. Our second unit got us back into it in the first half. We needed to come out in the third quarter and get off to a good start again, and we didn’t and fell behind. And that was it.”
With almost four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Love gathered a defensive rebound and hurled one of his outlet passes to James as James sprinted forward.
James finished off the play with a thunderous dunk, extending the Cavs’ lead to 109-94.
The fans inside Quicken Loans Arena usually would’ve roared. But many of them already had left. The final result to Monday’s game had been settled long before, thanks to James.
And, now, lineup changes are imminent for the Magic.