How the Cleveland Cavaliers Survived the Back Half of a Back-to-Back

It was a back half of a back-to-back as the Cleveland Cavaliers visited the Orlando Magic.

Despite the late night travel following last night's win and still being shorthanded, the Cavs were able to whether the storm and come away with a 119-105 victory. Their third consecutive win improves them to 27-20 on the season.

Donovan Mitchell led the way with 36 points (27 in the second half), nine assists, and five rebounds. Jaylon Tyson followed up with 17 points, five rebounds, and four assists. While Evan Mobley finished with 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and one block.

Cleveland actually started off with a bang as they came out with an early 15-7 lead. But Orlando fought right back as they had some momentum with Jalen Suggs returning. It was a very hard fought back and forth game between both teams early on as the Magic were shooting 44% and the Cavs were shooting 42% from the field. After one, it was a small 25-23 lead for the road team.

The second quarter was much better overall as the Tyson took charge once again leading a 13-4 run for their third big run of the game. They even finished the half well as they came away with a 55-48 lead as the sophomore guard was impressive scoring 15 of his 17 points by halftime. The team picked it up offensively and got up to shooting 49% as well.

It was clear that Mitchell and Mobley were effected by carrying the load last night, so it was huge to get more help elsewhere. They were able to get it from Jarrett Allen, Dean Wade, Nae'Qwan Tomlin, and Tyrese Proctor who all chipped in with eight points or more. In fact, Proctor finished a perdect 4-for-4 going for 12 points off the bench.

Both teams came out of the half very evenly as it was still a tight game. But the Cavs caught fire once again as they opened up their largest lead up of the game at 77-65 with just 90 seconds left in the third quarter. It began to be a little bit of everyone contributing as even Thomas Bryant, Lonzo Ball and Craig Porter Jr. had their moments. The offense kept their focus to close out the third to still come away with a 12 point lead at 82-70.

Give credit to Ball who showed up big time as he just produced across the board. The guard finished with six points, eight rebounds, three steals, and two assists, doing just a little bit of everything. With Ball cooking and Mobley ending his 3PT cold spell, the offense had their foot on the gas to start the fourth quarter. Proctor also got going even more as it was very impressive to see from the supporting cast.

They were able to open it all the way up to a 97-79 lead with 8:28 left to play.

But with recent issues of blowing large leads, Orlando took advantage of the opportunity to completely get back into the game. With just 4:07 left in the fourth, it was down to a 105-96 Cleveland lead.

Mitchell once again knew what time it was though, showing it with a powerful slam on top of Paolo Banchero. The league leader in second half points finished with 17 points in the fourth quarter alone, including 27 of his 36 points in the second half.

It was quite the game for the road team who won the advantage in each quarter on the night, helping propel them to a 119-105 win. The Cavaliers next face the Orlando Magic again Monday night hopefully in Cleveland, as they look to beat the snow storm on the flight back tonight.