Orlando Magic hand Cavaliers worst playoff loss in franchise history

ORLANDO, Fla. – After by no means even having a lead in Cleveland, the Orlando Magic got here again with the largest postseason victory ever over the Cavaliers.

Paolo Banchero had 31 factors and 14 rebounds, Jalen Suggs added 24 factors and the Magic rolled to a 121-83 rout on Thursday night time, slicing the Cavaliers’ result in 2-1 of their Japanese Convention first-round sequence.

Franz Wagner completed with 16 factors and eight assists for the Magic, who led by 43 factors on the best way to the third-largest margin of victory in a playoff sport. They earned their first playoff victory since 2020 and the primary on their residence flooring since April 26, 2011.

They’ll even the sequence with a victory at residence Saturday afternoon.

“No person’s partying,” mentioned Banchero, who had no turnovers in 29 minutes after committing 15 within the first two video games. “We all know we’ve to do the identical factor on Saturday. Clearly we’re pleased with the win tonight. It’s massive for this group to get your first playoff win however we would like the entire sequence.”

Jarrett Allen had 15 factors and eight rebounds for the Cavaliers, who shot 39% from the sector and 23.5% from 3-point vary. Caris LeVert added 15 factors and Donovan Mitchell had 13 factors and 7 assists.

The Cavs’ earlier worst playoff loss was a 36-point defeat towards Washington on April 24, 2008.

“We knew they have been going to come back out with a punch however we’ve bought to discover a solution to rating and it begins with me,” mentioned Mitchell, who had his left knee packed in ice after falling into Banchero early within the sport. “You don’t get two wins for successful by greater than 20, so that you’ve bought to maintain it in that perspective.

“On the finish of he day we might have misplaced by 20 or 40, it doesn’t matter. It’s one win.”

Orlando lastly took its first lead of the sequence within the first quarter and blew the sport open within the third. Mitchell, Allen, and Cleveland starters Evan Mobley and Max Strus have been taken out of the sport with 3:16 left within the interval and the Cavaliers down 92-58.

“I really feel prefer it was reverse roles,” Allen mentioned. “After we have been at residence we got here out with loads of power, loads of physicality, and so they did the identical factor to us and we simply didn’t reply instantly.”

After lacking 10 of their first 11 pictures and falling behind by seven, the Magic made 34 of their subsequent 52 field-goal makes an attempt and completed the sport at 51.1% (47 for 92).

A 3-pointer by Banchero with 5:27 left within the first quarter gave them their first lead of the sequence and so they closed the interval on a 13-0 run. Cole Anthony’s 3-pointer on the first-quarter buzzer, his first basket of the sequence, made it 31-21.

Banchero scored twice and Suggs and Jonathan Isaac hit 3-pointers in a 10-0 run late within the first half that left Orlando with a 55-34 lead.

Banchero and Suggs took over the third quarter, combining for 21 of Orlando’s first 27 factors.

Their solely playoff victories bigger than this one have been by 47 over Boston in 1995, and by 43 towards Atlanta in 2010.

The Magic made one lineup change after dropping the primary two video games by 14 and 10 factors and capturing simply 34.3%. Wendell Carter Jr. returned to the beginning lineup at middle after being changed by Isaac in Video games 1 and a pair of and the regular-season finale.

“A whole lot of his stuff doesn’t present up within the stat sheet however I believed he did a fantastic job of conserving Jarrett off the glass just a little bit,” Magic coach Jamahl Mosley mentioned of Carter, who had two factors and 5 rebounds.

Contemplating the outcomes of all thee video games, Carter is prone to begin once more in Sport 4.

“It’s a lesson discovered concerning the significance of the beginning of the sport, and setting the tone,” mentioned Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “They got here out and set the tone, we tried to reply and we struggled in doing so.”

Ashley Moyer-Gleich was a part of the officiating crew for the sport, her first NBA playoff task. Moyer-Gleich turned the second girl to be a part of a referee crew within the playoffs, becoming a member of Violet Palmer, who final labored a playoff sport in 2012.

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This story has been corrected to indicate that Orlando’s earlier playoff victory was in 2020. A earlier model mentioned that it was in 2019.