SUMMARY
- The Cleveland Cavaliers have defeated the Orlando Magic in Game 1.
- Donovan Mitchell lead the way for his team with a 30 point performance.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic faced off to start the 2023-2024 NBA playoffs. As some fans may have been aware, the Cavs and Magic finished the NBA season as the 4th and 5th seed respectively. That earned them a spot in the playoffs and a first-round matchup against each other.
As both teams faced off, with the Cavs having a home-court advantage for the first 2 games of the series, Cleveland managed to hold off the Magic and take Game 1 with a final score of 97-83. The series will soon move on to Game 2 where the Cavs will look to take a 2-0 lead over the Magic.
Donovan Mitchell led the Cavs to victory with 30 points, 3 assists, and 2 rebounds
One may have assumed that the Cavaliers would become irrelevant after LeBron James left the team and joined the Lakers. However, the acquisition of Donovan Mitchell has proven to be a good one for the Cavaliers. Spida scored 30 points, 3 assists, and 2 rebounds to lead his team to victory against the Magic in Game 1.
The Cavs managed to flex their experience and talent over the Magic in this pivotal Game 1 and ended up defeating Orlando with a double-digit gap. Considering that Cleveland made just 8 of 30 three-point attempts and was cold from the three-point line, this was a very impressive overall performance for the team.
Can the Magic steal Game 2 from the Cavs?
With the exception of NBA veteran Joe Ingles, the Orlando Magic have no real postseason experience and are a relatively young team when compared to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Paolo Banchero was the leading scorer for his team in this game and finished the night with 24 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists.