East-Leading Cavaliers Bury Magic Behind 19 Triples

The Cleveland Cavaliers made 19 three-pointers Tuesday night en route to a 40-point wipeout of the Orlando Magic.

Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero (5) tries to get off a shot against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the first half at Kia Center. | Russell Lansford-Imagn Images

ORLANDO, Fla. — When the Orlando Magic lost to the Celtics by 27 points in January, Paolo Banchero said that overcoming Boston's 17-5 advantage on made three-pointers was "almost impossible."

How about when Cleveland nailed 19 triples to Orlando's five Tuesday in a 122-82 beatdown?

"More impossible," Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said. "It's more impossible."

The Eastern Conference-leading Cavs notched their 48th win in 58 games with a wire-to-wire win on TNT. The seventh-place Magic are 29-31, 0-6 in national TV games, and haven't won a regular-season game on national television since 2019.

"There is no rhyme or reason, we got our butts kicked," Mosley said. "You give Cleveland a ton of credit for how they're playing and what they're doing. We didn't play our style of basketball. We'll look at it, we'll practice hard tomorrow, and get back to work. That's what we know and that's what's going to help us figure out some of these lulls and some of these situations, and we'll go from there."

"It's an embarrassing game," Paolo Banchero said. "I mean, we got ran off the floor. Simple as that."

Orlando got 45 points from Banchero and Franz Wagner, but no other Orlando player scored in double figures.

While six-time All-Star Donovan Mitchell finished with 11 points — 13 below his season average — four other Cavs finished with at least 17. Four Cavaliers hit multiple threes — Max Strus with five, De'Andre Hunter and Ty Jerome with four each, and Isaac Okoro with two.

Cleveland and Orlando are the NBA's best and worst three-point shooting teams, respectively. They played to form Tuesday, with the Cavs outscoring the Magic 57-15 on threes. The 19 triples are the most allowed this season by the Magic's second-ranked defense.

"You know coming in that they're a high-powered offense," Banchero said. "They shoot a lot of threes. They have a lot of shooters, and so it's not like we didn't know who is out there on the floor. They just outplayed us."

But the Magic star said the three-point disparity wasn't the only reason for the lopsided loss. It was "everything. We went down 20-plus points in the first quarter," Banchero said. "They jumped on us. We weren't organized. We were taking too long to set our offense. We weren't communicating. We just weren't sharp at all.

"Guys have to be pissed off by this," he added. "Everyone needs to be pissed off by this, and it's got to change. We can't just keep saying it. Something has to change."

Overall, the Magic shot 36.7 percent from the field while the Cavs finished at 56.3 percent.

Each team was down a starting guard. Jalen Suggs missed his 13th straight game for the Magic. Darius Garland missed his second straight game for the Cavs.

Cole Anthony, who has been starting in Suggs' absence, left the game in the third quarter after hyperextending his left knee. Mosley said the Magic will re-evaluate him on Wednesday.

Up Next

The Magic's seven-game homestand continues at 7 p.m. Thursday against the Golden State Warriors.

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