This Orlando team is straight ass. We needed to blow them away. We would do that if our bench didn't shoot 6 out of 26. We need better effort in the upcoming games.
I agree. Orlando might be the worst team in the NBA and they were playing a back-to-back and their third game in four nights while missing their best player and a bunch of other guys. This should have been a convincing win against a team that lost by 35 to the Bulls last night. Instead it was still competitive up until the Cavs made a mini-run with 7:30 left in the game and up by 8 points.
By quarters the Cavs were +5, 0, +4, and +4. It was like watching an arm wrestling contest where the one competitor slowly forces the other's arm down, inch by inch.
Yeah, the bench sucked, at least in terms of shooting. They did a nice job on the defensive glass with 17 rebounds. Rubio was awful defensively - his man just blew by him again and again with no resistance. In Rubio's last four games he is 14-for-53 from the field or 26.4%. He's 7-for-26 on 3's. He's in the middle of a huge shooting slump, but he did pass out 8 assists.
Garland was an offensive juggernaut with 26 points and 11 assists, but he still commits too many turnovers on very risky passes.
Welcome back, Evan Mobley. 13 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 blocks in 33 minutes. He also hit two 3's. Markkanen had 20 points on 13 shots, very efficient, and also played strong D. Jarrett Allen was awesome with 19 points, 11 boards, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and a team high +22.
The Cavs had 28 assists and blocked 9 shots, which is probably a season high.
There was a lot to like but I was expecting them to finish off the Magic before halfway through the 4th quarter.
