Cavs Get Hunter, Hunting A Title

We have said many times over the last couple of years that the Cleveland Cavaliers needed more size, and they addressed it on Thursday getting De’Andre Hunter from Atlanta for Caris LeVert, Georges Niang, some second-round draft picks and some pick swaps.

Hunter stands out because he’s a 6’8″ wing and most of Cleveland’s wing are in the 6’5″/6’6″ range. When you pair that with two smaller starting guards, it’s a problem against long, athletic teams.

Hunter is having his best year in a sixth man role with the Hawks, averaging 19.0 points per night on 46% shooting and is making 39.3% of his threes. That latter figure is trending up over the last two seasons, hitting 38.5% last year.

Now, Kenny Atkinson has two tall wings in Hunter and Dean Wade, when he gets back and hopefully can stay healthy.

The loss of LeVert will be underrated by some who only judge basketball on numbers, but he was one of the few Cavs who can create his own shot and gave the wine and gold some size in the backcourt. To us, he was Cleveland’s fifth best player, a spot now taken by Hunter.

However, Ty Jerome can pick up the slack in the shot creation department, he is very creative around the basket and is a very good passer as well.

And Niang was a solid three-point shooter at 40% and Atkinson was using him at power forward at time, albeit he was undersized. His locker room presence will be missed.

There was a lot of discussion about chemistry with the Cavs, but remember Hunter played with Ty Jerome at Virginia, so there is a locker room connection there, and both played for Tony Bennett at UVA, and Bennett was one of college hoops’ finest teachers. In our opinion, playing for him means you know how to play.

And that’s one of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ strengths.

We would still like to see team president Koby Altman need some more size in the buyout market. There were rumors the Cavs were interested in 6’10” Ben Simmons, but he signed with the Clippers.

But Simmons is more of a wing defender and the Cavaliers need another post presence. The thought that keeps going through our head is if Jarrett Allen and/or Evan Mobley get hurt (hopefully nothing long term), Atkinson’s only alternative is Tristan Thompson, and that’s an issue.

If Atkinson wants, he can go with Mitchell or Garland and Jerome in the backcourt (6’2″ and 6’5″) with Hunter, Mobley and Allen up front. That’s more of what most NBA teams do in terms of height.

He can also use Max Strus or Isaac Okoro (6’5″) in the backcourt as well.

Cleveland still has an open roster spot, so we would expect Altman to find another player with size who is bought out or perhaps in the G-League.

Again, this player wouldn’t be expected to be a rotation piece, more like some insurance in case of injuries or foul issues.

We wrote the other day that the Cavs did have tremendous chemistry but were also in a unique situation because of their record. Altman decided to push the chips to the middle of the table, something we wish another team in the city would do.

Cleveland should be better vs. long, athletic teams, and it is clear the goal is to now get to the NBA Finals and win it.

Just an excellent move.

Yes, Cavs Have Chemistry. They Also Have a Unique Opportunity.

There is no question the Cleveland Cavaliers have tremendous chemistry. They seem to share the ball, enjoy playing with each other and the results have shown this. They are sitting at 40-9, the best record in the NBA.

Their best player, Donovan Mitchell has accepted playing less minutes and taking less shots in order to get more people involved, allowing more players to play significant minutes.

This has allowed the wine and gold to survive when players have missed time due to injuries. Isaac Okoro has played just 28 games, Dean Wade has missed 14, Caris LeVert 13. Yet the Cavs continue to roll losing three in a row just once this season.

They are 24-3 at home, 16-6 on the road. They are 26-6 against the Eastern Conference, 14-3 vs. the West. There are probably three or four teams that can win an NBA title this season, and Cleveland is one of them.

One of the things we have praised team president Koby Altman for is he has brought in all these players, and they all have good character. There isn’t a knucklehead or a diva on the roster. And in today’s NBA, that is truly remarkable.

We have heard many pundits say because of the success Cleveland has had this season; Altman should stand pat at this week’s trading deadline. And there is certainly some merit to that. Don’t make a move just to make a move.

On the other hand, because character has mattered so much to the organization, shouldn’t we trust the front office to avoid bringing in someone who will upset the chemistry?

Look, the Cavaliers are having a tremendous season. No one, not even the most ardent supporter of the wine and gold would have imagined the team being 40-9 at this point of the season.

And you don’t know if the Cavs will ever be in this situation again. They could run it back next year with the same group and not have this kind of record. That’s the reality of sports.

We don’t believe the Cavaliers will make a huge splash at the deadline, and they may even wait for the buyout market or perhaps scour the G-League for what they need, but they should be pursuing another big man. And we aren’t talking about a stretch four either.

We mean a legitimate post presence. Tristan Thompson has been a great teammate, but if either Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley have to miss any time during the rest of this season, Kenny Atkinson is going to have a problem.

The issue is Thompson’s offensive game which is severely limited. He cannot do the things within the offense that Allen and Mobley can do. The Cavs need someone who has to be guarded by the opponents.

We’ve felt Cleveland needed more size on the wing as well, and they probably still do for the playoffs, but getting a playable big man should now be the higher need.

And if a trade is out there, surely the Cavs have depth. As we said, they’ve kind of played without Okoro this year, and perhaps Jaylon Tyson could take his minutes in a pinch. A season like this may not come around again.

Nothing To Worry About, Cavs Just Battling Some Depth Issues

The Cleveland Cavaliers have lost three of their last four games and some people are in panic mode. Did everyone really think this Cavs’ team was going to go 74-8 and have the greatest regular season in NBA history?

We didn’t. We would also feel differently about these past two weeks if A). the Cavs were being beaten soundly and B). they were completely healthy.

Let’s look at the second thing first. One reason for the wine and gold’s success this season is their depth, Kenny Atkinson plays 11 guys more than 10 minutes per game. When they have had individuals out for a game or two, that depth pays off because the other players fill in those minutes.

Over the past week or so, the Cavs have had three or four players out, forcing Jaylon Tyson, Craig Porter Jr., and Tristan Thompson to play significant minutes. Individually, when one of them has had to fill in, it has been done seamlessly but having to play all three of them out there, sometimes together, has taken a toll.

One of the four possible Cavaliers’ all-stars, Evan Mobley, missed four games in the last ten days, but the guy who is probably the fifth best player on the team, Caris LeVert, has also missed four contests, including the last three, all losses.

LeVert doesn’t get a lot of love from fans, who mostly look at scoring averages and three-point shooting. But he gives the Cavs some length in the backcourt and on the wing, can create his own shot, and is a solid defender. He’s a very important player, and that’s why we shake our head when we hear about possible deals for him.

Missing Dean Wade doesn’t help the cause either. He was already starting at the four for Mobley, and as soon as Mobley came back, Wade went down. We’ve talked about the lack of depth among the big men in the past and this injury highlights the problem.

Wade’s career high in games played is 63 back in 2020-21, his first full year with Cleveland, and since then, he consistently misses about a third of the regular season. His injury forces Thompson to play much more than we are sure Atkinson would prefer.

Losing the depth is a big issue. And it’s forcing the coaching staff to go deeper into the bench. That may pay dividends down the road, getting time for Tyson and Porter Jr., but in the short term, it has caused a problem.

However, it is not as though the wine and gold are getting blown out, despite the injuries. Two losses to the Rockets, who are 30-14, by one on the road and by four at home, is hardly anything to be upset about. The loss to an undermanned Sixers’ team wasn’t ideal, but that’s life in the NBA.

Look, the Cavs aren’t a perfect team and having several rotation pieces out of the lineup exposes some of their flaws. It also doesn’t mean they have hit the proverbial wall. They’ll be fine when they get these important players back.

It should also remind the front office to not stand pat at the trade deadline. Even a marginal improvement could be the difference between a conference finals appearance and an NBA Finals spot.

An Impressive Start For The Wine And Gold

We said all summer long that Cavaliers’ president of basketball operations Koby Altman’s instance on not making any roster changes, thus putting all the blame for what went wrong last season on J. B. Bickerstaff was misguided.

After the first seven games of this NBA season, we are eating a big fat excrement burger.

New coach Kenny Atkinson’s edition of the wine and gold is off to a tremendous start, winning every single one of the seven games they have played.

The Cavs opened with three non-contenders in Toronto, Detroit, and Washington, but then went to Madison Square Garden to beat the Knicks and then handled the Lakers and short-handed Orlando Magic easily, before heading back on the road to beat Milwaukee.

Last season, Cleveland scored 112.6 points per game, ranking 20th in the league in scoring. So far, although it is early, the Cavaliers are second behind Boston, scoring 122.4 points.

What’s even more impressive is they haven’t sacrificed defense in doing that. They were 7th in points allowed and 6th in defensive efficiency in 2023-24. This year, they are 5th in points allowed and 4th in defensive efficiency.

They are knocking down 40.6% of their three-point shots, up from 36% a year ago, and they are taking about the same number of shots from distance. And the only players shooting a seemingly ridiculous percentage was Caris LeVert (11 of 21) and Ty Jerome (6 of 12).

Atkinson has gotten more players involved, playing at least 10 players in each game, with no one averaging 30 minutes per game. Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell lead the team at 29.6 per night.

The most surprising contributor early on has been Jerome, who played just two games last season due to an ankle injury. We liked the signing a year ago because Jerome has point guard skills and has size at 6’5″.

He is averaging 9.9 points and 3.1 assists per contest but has a calm presence about him and doesn’t try to be spectacular, he just makes the right play more often than not.

The great start is excellent, but unfortunately for this group, the real test for these Cavs will not come until April and May, meaning the playoffs.

Barring injuries, we know this is a playoff squad, so can this style win in the post-season. The questions will be there until proven otherwise: Can the Donovan Mitchell/Darius Garland backcourt win in the playoffs and can Jarrett Allen and Mobley be on the floor together and provide an effective offensive system.

On the other hand, we love the more diversified offense, not as reliant on the pick-and-roll, while not losing the defensive focus. We also always thought Allen and Mobley can both be active on the offensive end and Atkinson has given them the ball at the free throw line and let either find open shooters.

Again, we will stress it is very early in the season. And that the Cavs brought back the same team is huge early in the season, while other squads are working in new players, Cleveland has an advantage in that they’ve all played together.

The Cavs’ best start in their history? They went 8-0 to start the 1976-77 campaign, the year after the “Miracle of Richfield”, when the NBA/ABA merger took place, and many teams had major roster shifts.

The wine and gold did not and won 16 of their first 20. Spoiler alert…they finished 43-39. Just so no one gets too carried away.

Altman All In On Blaming The Coaching

Cleveland Cavaliers’ president of basketball operations Koby Altman is apparently using the ultimate “cover you a**” move this off-season.

He is putting all of the blame for a second round exit in the playoffs on J.B. Bickerstaff. While he hasn’t said this publicly, that he has made no moves so far this summer reflects this.

Apparently, he believes Kenny Atkinson will fix the problems the wine and gold had last season.

We guess this means Atkinson has the ability to make players grow, because that’s one of the problems the current roster has. The simply aren’t big enough. They still have two guards who are under 6’3″ and a caste of small forwards who are 6’6″ and shorter.

At the risk of being called negative (we prefer realistic in this case), the Cavs were fortunate to get past Orlando in the first round. Despite virtually no playoff experience, Cleveland had its hands full with the bigger Magic squad.

It took a yeoman effort from Donovan Mitchell to win. Mitchell averaged 28.7 points, 5 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game in the series, and outside of Jarrett Allen, who only played the first four games, 17.0 PPG, no one else on the Cavs scored even 15 points per contest in the series.

In the deciding seventh game, Mitchell scored 39 points with 9 boards and 5 dimes. The next best scorer? Caris LeVert with 15 points.

It seems Altman has done what many first-time executives have done, and that is fall in love with the players he has drafted. He looks at all the things that those players could do to cause them to draft them and doesn’t look at how they fit together or how those talents translate to the NBA game.

To be fair, we have been around coaches who are just the opposite, they love players from afar only to grow to dislike them as players when they actually have to coach them. It does work both ways.

Let us say here that we love the hire of Atkinson. He was our first choice because of what he accomplished with the Nets. But this isn’t the college game. Coaching doesn’t make that much of a difference in the NBA in terms of scheming.

How many great NBA coaches are there? Yes, there’s Erik Spoelstra and Gregg Popovich, but how many others?

The best executives can look at the talent assembled and realize what and who fits and who doesn’t. He can see a problem like a lack of size and fix that problem. That’s what Altman needs to do.

This isn’t to say Altman can’t do a good job, but he does have to be open to seeing the warts. Mitchell and Darius Garland aren’t bad players, but they don’t seem to bring out the best in each other.

And that’s alright. But now is the time to fix it.

Look, Altman sped up the progression of this roster when he traded for Mitchell, a perennial all-star. You don’t do that and then wait for an incremental improvement.

However, since he traded for Mitchell, his only additions to the roster were free agents Max Strus and Georges Niang, three-point shooters. We felt Strus was not as good of a shooter (he isn’t) as Altman thought, and Niang is pretty much a one-dimensional player, although we do think he is better than what he showed in the playoffs.

There is still plenty of time for Altman to upgrade this roster. But he can’t keep looking at the players he selected and think coaching did them in.

Nothing Against Tyson, Cavs Still Need Size

The Cleveland Cavaliers had their first attempt to add some size in the NBA Draft Wednesday night, but chose not to do it, drafting G Jaylon Tyson from California with the 20th overall pick.

We say guard because Tyson is 6’5-1/2″ and we are sorry, but in today’s NBA, that’s a guard. We know Cleveland last season played Max Strus (6’5″) at small forward, but we reiterate, that’s the height of a guard.

This isn’t to denigrate Tyson. We also wanted the Cavaliers to draft more well-rounded players as they have a lot of one-dimensional guys, and Tyson appears to be that. He’s a good shooter, moves well without the ball and is a willing passer, all good traits on the offensive end of the floor.

His scouting report says he’s not fast, nor a leaper, but other players have been able to make themselves decent defensively with less physical attributes.

Cleveland could’ve drafted KyShawn George (6’8″), DaRon Holmes (6’10”), Baylor Scheierman (6’7″), or even Kyle Filipowski (7′) and added needed height.

Instead, Tyson joins the 6’5″/6’6″ collection on the roster, joining Strus, Isaac Okoro, Caris LeVert, Sam Merrill, and the forgotten Ty Jerome.

We understand the off-season has just begun, so there is plenty of time to restructure the roster and clear a few of the players we just mentioned, but again, the first thought we had when the pick was announced was another 6’5″ player.

Starting later today, the free agency period starts in the NBA and so there will be a lot of player movement over the next week. Cavs’ president of basketball operations Koby Altman has said that he would like to keep the “core 4” together and this has been repeated through reports since the season ended.

We will soon find out if this is “GM speak” or not.

We are sure new coach Kenny Atkinson has discussed the roster with his new boss. Does he concur with Altman, that is the big question.

In our humble opinion, and we are not alone, the backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland doesn’t work if Cleveland wants to take another step forward and get to the conference finals next season.

It doesn’t mean they are both talented, it just means they don’t play off of each other. This is hardly news in the NBA. We frequently cite the late 60’s Lakers who had Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, and Elgin Baylor. When Baylor was injured, the team took off.

A more recent team would be Milwaukee, where it looks like at least in the first year, that the Bucks were better with Jrue Holiday than with Damian Lillard.

Running it back with the Core 4 (by the way, we hate calling them that) just delays progress another season. Right now, in the East, there is Boston, and then no clear-cut secondary contender.

With the correct moves, Cleveland could become the challenger to the world champion Celtics. We don’t think this can be done without a significant roster change.

We guess what we are really saying is the Cavs need Evan Mobley to take a big jump, and we doubt that can happen with two ball dominant small guards playing 35 minutes per night.

We should find out soon what Altman thinks. And of course, there is still the need for more size.

Let the off-season begin!

Cavs Hire Kenny Atkinson. Our Thoughts

The Cleveland Cavaliers have a new head coach, hiring Golden State assistant Kenny Atkinson to replace J.B. Bickerstaff. We also say we cannot judge a coaching hire until the person actually coaches games, but we like the hire.

Atkinson first got our attention when the Cavs acquired the Nets’ first round pick in the Kyrie Irving deal. The Nets were coming off a 20-62 season under Atkinson in 2016-17, so the Nets’ pick looked to have potential to have a very good chance to finish high in the lottery.

This was a Nets’ team led by DeMarre Carroll, Allen Crabbe, Spencer Dinwiddie. And yes, Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen were on that squad as well. Brooklyn finished 12th in the Eastern Conference at 28-54 and as we all know by now, Cleveland got the 8th pick in the draft, not the top five selection that was hoped for.

The following season, he guided the Nets to the playoffs with a 42-40 record, losing in a five-game series to Philadelphia, who were led by Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler, and Ben Simmons (ironically, new Laker coach J.J. Redick was also on the Sixers’ roster).

Brooklyn stole game one on the road behind D’Angelo Russell’s 26 points and LeVert chipped in with 23.

The following season, the Nets and Atkinson parted ways during the truncated pandemic season after he guided Brooklyn to a 28-34 record. Jacque Vaughn finished the year 7-3 and was swept in the first round of the playoffs by Toronto.

We went through this history because from afar Atkinson always seemed to get the most out of his roster, a good trait for any coach.

Atkinson was offered the Charlotte head coaching position following the 2022 season, and he took it, but then had second thoughts and settled for an assistants’ job with Golden State. Based on the mess the Hornets’ organization is, we thought he took the Warriors’ job as the heir apparent to Steve Kerr. Obviously, Kerr is still there.

There have been attempts on other sites to quantify Atkinson’s coaching style and philosophy, but we will not attempt that. The essence of coaching is looking at the talent at hand and getting the most out of the players. So, we will trust that his coaching philosophy with the Cavs will be based on having players do what they do best.

We also like that Atkinson has been a head coach before and then went and worked with another organization, especially a successful one like Golden State (like it or not, they are successful). Good coaches also learn and absorb things by working with players and also observation.

Many successful people learn from doing a job and as they do it more, they get better at doing it.

The new coach likes ball movement on offense, and we would hope he isn’t as dependent on the pick and roll as Bickerstaff was. As far as anything else goes, we will wait until we see the results.

And hopefully, the front office has discussions with Atkinson and what kind of team he wants, and is not saying here’s the roster, win with it. As we have been saying, the Cavs’ problem wasn’t just the coach. The make-up of the roster isn’t that of other contending teams.

We guess we will know more about the next edition of the Cavs in a few weeks.

Cavs’ Season Ends, Let The Speculation Begin

What seemed inevitable after Donovan Mitchell injured his calf during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal became a reality last night, as the Celtics wrapped up the series in five games with a 113-98 win.

Jarrett Allen didn’t play at all in the series because of a rib injury, and down two starters, they simply didn’t have enough scoring or depth to be able to compete with the team who had the best regular season in the NBA.

Outside of the Game 2 eruption of 118 points, the most points the Cavs scored in the series was 102 in the Game 4 defeat. And when your opponent regularly hits triple digits, it makes it very difficult to win.

Credit J.B. Bickerstaff for having his depleted crew, and they didn’t have Caris LeVert yesterday, play very hard and made both games without Mitchell competitive. The wine and gold didn’t roll over, they made Boston work to win the series.

Tremendous efforts by Evan Mobley and veteran Marcus Morris, particularly in the second half, kept the series winning contest close. Mobley scored 33 points, 25 of them after halftime, while Morris, picked up after being bought out, scored 25 points in total, making five of six three-point shots. That pair scored 36 of the team’s 46 tallies after the half.

The use of Morris in the playoffs was very puzzling because when he was used, he usually did very well. Yet, he received a DNP-CD in Game 4, a crucial game especially because it was home.

Now the speculation on the future of the franchise will begin. Will Bickerstaff return? We have been critical of the coach the past two seasons, but to be honest, we can’t lay this series loss just on him.

Will Koby Altman stay on as Vice President of Basketball Operations? Let’s face it, this roster was poorly constructed to win in the playoffs, they simply aren’t big enough. They start two short guards, two big men, and don’t have an upper echelon player in the 6’7″ to 6’9″ range.

At the very least, the Cavs need to bring in someone from outside to evaluate the current roster. Altman seems to overlook the weaknesses of players he brought in.

None of the basketball people we know understand the love affair with Dean Wade. He’s a pretty good defender, but crazy inconsistent. He simply doesn’t play well in enough games to justify the faith in him.

The Cavaliers don’t have enough “guys who can play”, meaning players who have a diverse skill set. They have way too many one-dimensional talents.

Isaac Okoro is a defender, but other teams don’t feel the need to guard him. Sam Merrill is a shooter. Tristan Thompson can rebound, but you don’t want the ball in his hands offensively. Georges Niang is a three-point specialist.

And beyond Mobley and Allen, there really is no size on the roster. The Cavs signed Damian Jones in the off-season, but he rarely saw action.

More versatility is needed going forward. Max Strus isn’t the three-point shooter the Cavs thought they were getting (they could have looked at his stats), but he’s a decent passer and rebounder for his size. But his size says he should be playing guard.

The biggest question though is Mitchell. Will he sign an extension or not? If he does, the logical move would be to trade Darius Garland, as it is pretty obvious the two do not mesh well.

We’ve heard folks say Garland still has a good reputation in the league, so he could be the bait to bring in more size.

As for the debate as to whether or not Mobley and Allen can play together? We would like to see a different perspective from another coach before determining it can’t work.

The Cavs did indeed make progress from a year ago, winning a post-season series, but the organization seems to put limits on itself. They were one of the final eight teams playing this season. To virtually stand pat again would be a waste of this opportunity.

They did that last year. They can’t afford to do it again.

On To Round Two And Boston For Cavs

Well, they did it. The Cleveland Cavaliers advanced to the second round of the NBA playoffs with a 106-94 win over the Orlando Magic. And they overcame an 18-point first half deficit to do it.

Early on, the Cavs couldn’t make a shot on offense and defensively couldn’t stop Paolo Banchero, who had 24 points in the first half.

The game may have turned oddly enough when Max Strus and Darius Garland, who were a combined 1 for 8 from the floor, missing all five of their three-point shots, both had to leave the game in foul trouble.

J.B. Bickerstaff went to Caris LeVert, who he benched in the second half of Game 6, and Sam Merrill, who hadn’t been playing much at all, probably because it was all he had.

LeVert hit 4 of 6 shots and Merrill hit two threes and two free throws the remainder of the half and Cleveland trimmed the lead to a more manageable 10 points at the half.

In the second half, Donovan Mitchell took over, scoring 24 points on 8 of 14 shooting, Strus got it going, knocking down 3 out of 4 from long range, and Evan Mobley and Isaac Okoro played tremendous defense.

Mobley was a force inside, grabbing 16 rebounds and blocking five shots in addition to 11 points. Okoro forced Banchero into a 4 for 15 half from the field, putting the young Magic all-star into check.

In the end though, it was Mitchell. He scored 39 points in all and attacked from the opening tip off, getting to the line 17 times, making 15. He kind of willed the Cavs to victory.

So now it is the #1 seed in the East, the Boston Celtics, who had the NBA’s best record in the regular season going 64-18. They ranked first in the league in offensive rating and third in defensive rating.

And they have stars on top of stars: Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Jrue Holiday, and one of the league’s unsung very good players in Derrick White.

However, Porzingis is currently on the shelf with a calf injury, so actually from a size standpoint, the Celts are a much better matchup for Cleveland. Beyond him, the Celtics have only one player who gets more than 20 minutes per night and is 6’9″ or more in Al Horford.

Boston loves the three-point shot, leading the league in attempts and makes, and second in percentage. Their flaw has been when they aren’t going in, they just keep taking them.

The biggest thing though for the Cavs is they have to get offensive production out of someone besides Mitchell and Jarrett Allen, if he can get healthy.

This means Darius Garland simply must play better. Garland hit a three in the fourth quarter and the whole team seemed to celebrate because he’s struggled that much.

Actually, he did shoot well in the series, it was everything else that was awful. He seemed to be very shaky with the ball in his hands and defensively is a problem as well. If he can move the ball (meaning he stops dribbling the air out of the ball) and hit shots, he can be a big asset.

We would also like Bickerstaff to reset. Go back to playing Georges Niang at least to start the series, and we would still go 10 deep, giving time for Sam Merrill, Marcus Morris, and Tristan Thompson.

It’s a new series. We don’t think the Cavs can win; it will be more about how competitive they can play in the series to determine how the team should be reshaped this summer.

Game 7 Today. Which Cavs Will Show Up?

After the Cavaliers won the first two games of their first round series against Orlando, some fans and media members alike got overly excited and were thinking about a series sweep.

We thought that was incredibly misguided and obviously they didn’t spend too much time watching the Orlando Magic. Today, the series will be decided with a Game 7 matchup.

After a closely contested first half which saw the Cavs trailing by four, the wine and gold came out with a 13-0 run to take a nine point lead and it looked good for Cleveland to advance. They led by five after three quarters.

But the Magic outscored the Cavs 30-18 in the fourth and both teams are heading back to Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

Donovan Mitchell had a tremendous game, scoring 50 points on 22 of 36 shooting. The shot total might seem high if you didn’t watch the game, but frankly no one else could put the ball in the basket. Literally.

As we said, Cleveland had 18 points in the final quarter. Mitchell scored every single one of them. No one else seemed to want to shoot. The all-star took 13 of the 19 shots. Evan Mobley missed three shots, Darius Garland one, Marcus Morris one, and Georges Niang one.

Late in the fourth quarter, a graphic showed Mitchell had 47 points and we were surprised. We didn’t think he had than many. We knew he was scoring at will in the paint, but we didn’t think he was “hogging” the basketball.

It was a strange game right from the start. J.B. Bickerstaff started Morris, who didn’t play outside of garbage time in any of the first four contests. Yes, Morris deserved playing time after his performance in game five, but start?

Why move away from what worked in the game five win.

Then Caris LeVert, who played almost 29 minutes per night in the regular season, and has been the first man off the bench in the series, played seven minutes in the first half, missed one shot, scored one point, had two steals and two turnovers, and was a -1, didn’t get in the game in the second half.

Don’t understand running away from one of your primary players in a close game.

Niang, who didn’t play in Game 5 (we didn’t understand that either), reappeared in Game 6, and did hit a three, his only field goal make, but didn’t get a rebound.

Cleveland was dominated on the boards again, 48-38, familiar because that’s what happened a year ago.

Of course, the Cavaliers’ best player in the series, Jarrett Allen, missed his second game with a rib injury. Since he’s averaged almost 14 boards per game in the series, he would’ve made a difference.

Will he be back for Game 7? Your guess is as good as ours.

Garland seemed to overly defer to Mitchell in the fourth, taking just one shot. He’s clearly been the best long range shooter for the Cavs in the series, yet took just four threes, making one.

With Allen out, Cleveland desperately needed another scorer and Garland had 21 for the game, but of course, none in the last quarter. And there was no third scorer as the next best point total was Max Strus with 10.

Orlando had three, with as usual, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner leading the way with 27 and 26 respectively, but Jalen Suggs contributed 22 points.

What will happen today? Are the Cavs mentally tough enough to handle a winner take all contest? Will Allen play? Can someone step up and provide offense besides Mitchell and Garland?

Remember, under Bickerstaff, the Cavs have had two such games. In Game 5 last year vs. New York, at home, the wine and gold trailed by 10 at the half and lost by 11.

The previous season in the “play in tournament”, also at home, the Cavaliers led by 10 at the half, but were blitzed in the second half by Atlanta, getting outscored 56-40 with Trae Young lighting the Cavs up for 32 second half points.

History doesn’t paint a kind picture. But there is a reason they still play the game.