Game 1 between the Magic and Cavaliers had an edge to it and it could get even more chippier as the series goes along, The Athletic’s Josh Robbins opines. Orlando’s Markelle Fultz was assessed a Flagrant-1 foul and the Cavs’ Georges Niang received a technical foul for an altercation during the series opener.
“Either he was going to hit me first or I was going to hit him,” Fultz said. “So, I just took the initiative to body up, not trying to hurt nobody or anything like that but just deliver a hit, make it be known that we’re not soft.”
Cleveland’s Isaac Okoro received a technical foul for shoving Moritz Wagner during another incident.
“We love that stuff,” Magic guard Cole Anthony said. “Especially for us, we’re a hard-nosed team. We want the game to be physical. So, I think that for us that works in our favor.”
We have more on the Magic:
- The Magic tried to quickly move on from their 97-83 loss in Game 1, in which they shot a woeful 32.6% from the field. “It’s the first game,” center Wendell Carter said. “We don’t want to overreact to anything. The first game on the road, we got to see what kind of game they want to play. I think we’re good. I thought we did really good defensively. I think offensively we struggled. Holding a team under 100 is always a good defensive outing.”
- There will be no changes to the starting lineup for Game 2 tonight, Robbins tweets. Jalen Suggs, Gary Harris, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero and Jonathan Isaac will take the court for the opening tip.
- In a subscriber-only piece, Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel details how Jamahl Mosley‘s methods propelled his team to the postseason, comparing and contrasting him to other recent first time head coaches who flopped on rebuilding teams.
The Magic don’t have the interior defense to hang with the Cavs. They’ve gotten destroyed on the glass through the first seven quarters of this series. It’s about to be eight.
Mobley and Allen definitely managed the boards, and scored plenty in the paint, be it on one on one (Mobley mismatches with guards), finishing (both) and off offensive boards.
I Saw Game one and Franz Wagner didn’t appear as needed. They might try a Paolo-Isaac-WCJ frontcourt, to matchup at least a little better with their bigs. Isaac has perennial 1st team All – Defense potential, he’s that good of a defender, but he needs more help down low and a bruiser to help him battle. Carter is more of an Enforcer than Paolo and Franz, but also has length and athleticism (there is that theory in the internet that puts him as one of the best Jokic defenders).