NBA Matchups: April 22

Orlando Magic at Cleveland Cavaliers

Team Totals: Magic 98.8, Cavs 104.3

Injury Report: Dean Wade (O, knee)

Magic projected starters: Jalen Suggs, Gary Harris, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero, Jonathan Isaac (+5.2 net rating)

Cavs projected starters: Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen (+1.4 net rating)

Offensive Ranks: Magic 22nd, Cavs 18th (post-break Magic 19th, Cavs 20th)
Defensive Ranks: Magic 2nd, Cavs 6th (Magic 1st, Cavs 23rd)

Season Series: 2-2

Noteworthy Missed Games: Jonathan Isaac (2), Gary Harris (1), Caris LeVert (3), Darius Garland (1), Evan Mobley (2), Donovan Mitchell (1)

Mosley quotes: Said the Cavs going 5-of-5 on treys early set the tone for the game, said they played some good defense and they just have to get out and run off the CLE misses, said they missed some shots early but still locked in defensively, said the Cavs did what they were supposed to do and won at home, said the Cavs showed a lot of poise, said he was happy with the looks they got on Saturday.

Bickerstaff quotes: Said when Donovan is in a good place they make defenses make tough decisions on how to guard them, said the Magic had to shift their coverages to more of a switch because of how Donovan was beating them, said Garland had some tightness in his back but he wanted to play through it, said Strus is a two-way guy and he’s going to make shots eventually.

Stats and Notes:

Rim points per game: Magic 4th, Cavs 13th

Rim points allowed per game: Magic 5th, Cavs 8th

Catch and shoot points per game: Cavs 15th, Magic 28th

Catch and shoot points allowed per game: Magic 2nd, Cavs 15th

PNR handler scoring per game: Magic 15th, Cavs 12th

PNR handler scoring allowed per game: Magic 26th, Cavs 5th

Transition scoring per game: Magic 26th, Cavs 17th

Transition scoring allowed per game: Magic 16th, Cavs 11th

*This game went as expected, right? Orlando’s halfcourt offense was a disaster at 62.7 points per 100 possessions. The Magic could not get any C&S scoring going at just 21 points because of just 0.70 PPP on those. It was really bad luck with the Magic going 6-of-24 on wide-open looks for by far the worst 35.4 eFG% on Saturday. They also had no rim presence at 33 points, which is way down from their top-five numbers on the year. I’d expect the Magic to be better, but the Cavs were fantastic on how they funneled the Magic to the worst parts of their offense. For the Cleveland offense, they looked like they are back. They had 40 rim points and 19 transition points to put them in a good spot. The Cavs left a lot of meat on the bone on shooting at 0.65 PPP on spot-up shooting. Although, a lot of their looks were not clean at just 12 wide-open FGAs. This series is just going to be a grind as easily one of the worst ones to target for DFS or overs. One positive is that this game had some pace to it with the starters in this game having the highest pace among the 11 lineups with 8+ minutes on Saturday.

*Paolo Banchero didn’t have a truly massive role, but it was solid at 5.7 minutes of touch time, 14 potential assists, and 10 drives. Paolo did really struggle with Evan Mobley’s length on him, going 0-of-4 from the field when Mobley defended him on his 25.9 partial possessions (always take matchup stats with a grain of salt). Per the matchup data, Paolo scored 12 points on Georges Niang and five on Mitchell. With his drives way down possibly because of the length on him, it’s going to be tough sledding for Paolo in this series.