Win over Cavaliers could be a turning point — or not

CLEVELAND — Five and a half years had passed since the Orlando Magic last celebrated a win at Quicken Loans Arena.

No wonder Magic players smiled as they chatted with each other, read text messages on their cell phones and nibbled on postgame dinners inside the visitors’ locker room around 10:45 Saturday night.

They achieved something, no question, by dominating the Cleveland Cavaliers 114-93 just minutes earlier. The Magic outplayed LeBron James’ Cavaliers, plain and simple. According to the company Stats Insights, the Magic joined the Golden State Warriors as the only other team to lead the Cavaliers by at least 37 points in Cleveland since April 2012.

But what, exactly, does the victory mean? Well, that depends. If the Magic don’t sustain the

momentum, if the victory isn’t a harbinger of additional achievements to come, then the win will mean nothing other than a happy, fleeting memory. But if the Magic truly will respond to adversity consistently, then the night will be remembered as a turning point for a franchise that desperately needs a turnaround after five awful seasons.

“We are really happy about tonight,” Evan Fournier said. “Tomorrow is always another day. We’ve got to work and be about our business, and when we play Brooklyn on Tuesday, it’s got to be [like] nothing happened.”

Translation: The Magic haven’t accomplished anything permanent.

Not yet, anyway.

“It’s, to me, too early to make any big judgments about this game,” coach Frank Vogel said. “But it’s an early sign, an early positive sign.”

Indeed, the Magic have endured false starts before. During the 2015-16 season, they held a 19-13 record in late December but utterly collapsed in January and finished 35-47. Last season, Vogel’s first with the team, they improved to 15-18 in late December but faltered badly the rest of the way, ending 29-53.

But players on the current roster insist they sense an improved spirit this time. On Friday, for instance, they lost a game they should’ve won against the Brooklyn Nets in Brooklyn. Then, less than 24 hours later, they clobbered the Cavaliers even without injured starters Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon. If that isn’t a positive response to adversity, then what is?

“I definitely feel that our chemistry is different this year,” said D.J. Augustin, who replaced Payton at point guard. “We have a lot of goals in mind, but we’re staying humble and just working hard every day, taking it game by game, one day at a time. We put yesterday behind us. We came in tonight and got a good win.”

The phrases “game by game” and “one day at a time” are two of sports’ biggest clichés.

They mean nothing . . . unless players and coaches actually adhere to the words.

For one night at least, the Magic responded to a heartbreaking loss in Brooklyn with perhaps their best about-face in years. They shared the ball. They closed out emphatically on 3-point shooters. They recovered from an opponent’s run.

And they also beat James, a player who held an 18-game individual winning streak over them that dated back to March 18, 2012, when he played for the Miami Heat.

Nikola Vucevic, who scored 23 points Saturday, had never beaten one of James’ teams before.

“Honestly, I couldn’t relax until [Cavs coach Tyronn Lue] put their third unit in,” Vucevic said.

“They have LeBron on that team, and when you have a player like that going against you, you can never relax. It’s never over. And as a matter of fact, I think it’s the first time I ever beat him since I’ve been in the NBA. I’m not sure. But it’s a win that means a lot to me. He’s a player I respect and admire a lot, so it’s great. It’s just one game. But it’s something that we hopefully build on.” That’s the task now. Building on it.