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By John Denton
Dec. 11, 2015
ORLANDO – As if re-acclimating themselves to home following a five-game, 10-day road trip with a showdown against LeBron James and Kevin Love weren’t enough already, the Orlando Magic might have another challenge thrown into the mix tonight when they host the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Champions of the East last season and leaders of the conference again at 14-7, Cleveland is poised to potentially get defensive ace Iman Shumpert (fractured wrist) back tonight against the Magic (12-10) at the Amway Center. The Cavs thought they might also have all-star point guard Kyrie Irving (fractured patella) and J.R. Smith (illness), but both have now been ruled out for tonight.
“We’ve got to be on our A-game today and play a great brand of basketball,” Magic forward Tobias Harris said. “We’ve all got to be pulling together defensively because they have a lot of shooters and scorers. So we’ve got to be really solid tonight.”
That could pose even more problems for a Magic team still trying to figure out how to stop a loaded Cavs team that whipped them 117-103 on Nov. 23 in Cleveland. In that game, Love scored 34 points, but it was the all-around brilliance of James who posed the most problems. He scored just 15 points, but it was his 13 assists that befuddled the Magic all night. Those passes led to eight 3-pointers and 34 points and the Cavs were a plus-29 in James’ 35 minutes on the floor.
Much of the Magic’s defensive success is built off of helping on dribble penetration and trapping players with the ball. However, that’s especially difficult to do against a player like James, who is big enough to see over defenders and he can carve defenses up with his passing skills. In the November meeting, the Magic got off to a slow start, surged ahead by 10 points and fell apart in the second half when James picked them apart.
“We’re not going to do anything tonight that he hasn’t seen hundreds of times, but what you have to try to do is mix it up on him the best that you can,” Magic coach Scott Skiles said of James, “You can’t just single cover him the whole game because he can torture you. If you run from the same guy and double he figures that out right away. But you still have to play inside-out even though they have 3-point shooters because they find guys ducking in to the rim, too. So you’ve got to do it all.”
The Magic are coming off a successful 3-2 winning road trip, but they were upset that they didn’t do even better after narrow losses against the Clippers and Suns. The Magic held a 10-point lead against L.A. with 5 minutes left and lost, and couldn’t get over the hump in Phoenix on Wednesday despite having the game tied three times in the fourth quarter.
Orlando’s last meeting with Cleveland sparked a change that could have very well turned around its season. After the lopsided loss in Cleveland, Magic coach Scott Skiles made the daring change to move standout shooting guard Victor Oladipo to a reserve role and start power forward Channing Frye for spacing and 3-point shooting purposes.
Immediately following the lineup change, Orlando ripped off five straight victories – the longest winning streak since the 2011-12 season. The Magic are 5-2 since making the change and they are playing significantly better offensively and defensively because of the newfound balance on their first and second-string units.
“It’s been good for a couple of reasons – to balance out our two teams and to allow Victor to score a little more, which he has done,” Skiles said. “We’ve still got to find some balance there with having him score but also make good decisions with the ball and spread it around and he’s done that. If he’s not our most dynamic, athletic-type player he’s one of them and he’s done a really good job in that (reserve) role.”
Orlando has lost 11 in a row to the Cavs, including four in a row since James returned to Cleveland in the summer of 2014. It’s actually been 3 1/2 years since the Magic have beaten a team led by James, dating back to a 104-98 overtime defeat of his Miami Heat on March 13, 2012.
Because Cleveland has yet to have Irving or Shumpert this season, James has had to shoulder more of the load. The four-time all-star has averaged 26.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 1.3 steals while playing 37.1 minutes per game. James rested during last Saturday’s loss to Miami, but he’s stuffed the stat sheet in the last two games that he has appeared in: In Tuesday’s defeat of Portland, he scored 33 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out three assists; and in last Friday’s 114-108 overtime loss in New Orleans he had 37 points, seven rebounds and eight assists.
Love was the recipient of many of James’ passes last month. James’ passing set him up for 34 points and six 3-pointers against an Orlando defense designed to slow down the superstar small forward.
“They’ve got a bunch of good players on their team and they play extremely smart, they’re a veteran team and for us we really have to defend,” said Frye, who made three 3-pointers off the bench in the first meeting with Cleveland. “On this past road trip we got away from what we do (defensively) and had some lapses and not understanding what’s going to help us win. We’ve just got to come out and play and be aggressive. (James) is a tough cover, but at the same time I think we’re a tough cover as a team.”
