12 takeaways from Cavaliers-Magic Game 4

This series is tied 2-2, and there's a lot happening under the hood

—Mo Wagner, when asked postgame about how the Magic have succeeded against Cleveland’s Twin Towers: “When in doubt, go through ‘em.”

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Wow. A fun, relatively evenly-matched first half turned into a Magic show as Orlando ended the third quarter on a preposterous 31-5 run before winning in a blowout.

Despite the score, I thought there was a lot to learn from this game. Here are a dozen takeaways packaged neatly for your snacking pleasure.

(My (free!) Celtics-Heat article from a few days ago breaking down Miami’s surprising Game 2 victory received lots of positive feedback from readers, so I might try to sprinkle in more efforts like this even though they aren’t my usual style. Let me know if you want me to make this a regular feature!)

1) This was a tale of two halves. The Cavs took a nine-point lead into halftime. Weirdly, they weren’t hitting threes — in fact, they weren’t even taking any! After two periods, the Cavs were just 2-for-7 from deep (barely behind the Magic’s 3-for-9).

The Magic defense seemed determined to suffocate the Cavs’ shooters. Cleveland retooled their role players in the offseason to provide more spacing next to their two big men, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, but you couldn’t tell yesterday. Max Strus played 30 minutes and Georges Niang played 17, and they combined to go 1-for-4 from deep (although Strus did have one make taken away by a Donovan Mitchell offensive foul). Isaac Okoro, who had a solid shooting season on low volume of his own, didn’t get up a shot of any sort in 21 minutes.

Misfires from Cleveland’s supposed marksmen have been one of the series' major storylines, but I’m not worried about the accuracy at this point; Cleveland has to have the shot attempts to function.

Magicians flew around the perimeter, slingshotting after the ball like they were leashed to it. Orlando players were happy to help off of shaky shooters like Caris LeVert and Mobley if it meant they could shade heavier on Strus, Niang, and Mitchell.

Cleveland’s offense simply must generate more movement. Too often in the second half, a single action kept the ball on one side of the floor, and the Magic are too good defensively for that to work. To break the best defenses, the rock has to ping-pong around. Secondary actions and backup plans need to be implemented.

2) One answer to the team’s offensive woes, at least early on, was Jarrett Allen. It felt like everything good for Cleveland’s halfcourt offense in the first half (there was nothing good in the second) came from an Allen pick-and-roll or dribble hand-off. He set mean screens, rolled nimbly, and finished softly or thunderously as the move required. Allen is an underrated dunker, and his slams just look cool:

The other solution was to run like hell-bats were chasing them. Per Synergy, Cleveland had seven transition opportunities in the first quarter compared to just five in the next three. With Orlando giving away eight first-quarter turnovers, the Cavs (notably Mitchell) were able to roar out on power plays.

Some of the turnovers were ghastly. This hideous Suggs pass didn’t result in a fast break, but it’s emblematic of Orlando’s carelessness with the ball:

Cleveland went into halftime with a nine-point lead, but I thought both sides were playing well. If the Magic could stop handing out points on a fancy silver platter loaded with too much cutlery, they’d be right back in the game.

3) Part of the Magic’s third-quarter comeback falls on Cleveland’s Mobley. He went 5-for-6 in the first half and 1-for-7 in the second half. The Cavs had solid ball movement to start the game, and Darius Garland found Mobley on a couple of sexy lobs.

In the second half, though, the offense stagnated. It felt like there was a lot of Mobley attacking one-on-one, and he was stonewalled repeatedly by pretty much every big on the roster. Evan Mobley post-ups aren’t an answer against a defense as stout as Orlando’s:

On the plus side, Mobley shut down Magic star Paolo Banchero a game after he dropped 31 points, 14 rebounds, and, most importantly, zero turnovers. Mobley and Banchero guarded each other for much of the night and generally bottled the other up. Given their team’s respective surrounding cast, Mobley playing Banchero to a draw will usually result in a Cavaliers win.

Unfortunately for Cleveland, Orlando’s other talented young wing was the best player in the game.

4) Franz Wagner has had a largely disappointing season for me, but that’s a product of my perhaps unreasonably high expectations. Yesterday, he looked every bit like the star I thought he’d be, as he dropped 34 points, 13 rebounds, and zero turnovers of his own.

My favorite part about Wagner has always been his fire. He’s overshadowed in that department by his older brother, Mo Wagner, who tends to get caught up in some antics or other nearly every game. But Franz has a nasty streak, and he talks far more trash than you’d think. He got a technical foul for dropping Georges Niang like a bad habit and then pointing hilariously:

Worth it.

Wagner snaked into the paint repeatedly in the pick-and-roll and hit a bevy of difficult short floaters and long lefty layups. He spent much of the game guarded by Max Strus and Caris LeVert. Strus isn’t a bad on-ball defender (off-ball is another story) and is used to guarding up a position or two, but Wagner has five inches and at least 15 pounds on him. LeVert is a bit taller but not as muscular, and the story’s the same.

Neither were doing themselves any favors by getting nailed on every screen. Why were they going over the pick against Wagner, a reluctant and poor three-point shooter? When given a runway, Wagner bulldozed even Evan Mobley:

5) The playoffs are when we see a coach’s true colors. Magic honcho Jamahl Mosley hasn’t been perfect, but I like what he’s done with Jonathan Isaac in this series.

First, he inserted Isaac (my Sixth Man of the Year) into the starting lineup for the last couple of games of the regular season and the first two games of this series. Isaac isn’t as well-rounded a player as once and future starter Wendell Carter, but he is one of the most destructive defenders in the game, and he can at least hit an occasional corner three.

I thought the Isaac insertion, which lasted for two playoff games, was a worthwhile adjustment to try. Unfortunately, it weakened the Magic starters too much on the glass (Cleveland pounded them on the boards in Games 1 and 2) and ruined the Magic’s bench chemistry.

Isaac is at his best as a roaming free safety. As a reserve, he could maximize his defensive impact next to Mo Wagner, who guards traditional centers. As a starter at the five-spot, though, Isaac had to body up Jarrett Allen…and it went poorly. Combine that with Isaac’s limited offensive skill set, which handicapped an already impotent Magic starting group, and it didn’t work on either side.

Mosley wisely adjusted, reverting to Carter as a starter, and the Magic responded with an absolute de-atomization of the Cavaliers in Game 3. Lots of things went into that win beyond that simple switch, including putting Jalen Suggs on Donovan Mitchell and showing the Cavs’ star two bodies on every pick-and-roll. But it seemingly fixed several of the Magic’s problems from the first two games.

That switch continued to pay dividends in Game 4. Carter nailed two above-the-break threes during the Magic’s game-breaking run in the third quarter, a shot he fires more frequently and far more accurately than Isaac. Meanwhile, Isaac and the bench absolutely dominated the Cavs’ second unit once again, outscoring them 43-15 in Game 4.

I liked the thought process behind Mosley’s initial change, even though it didn’t work. I really liked that he recognized his mistake and fixed it.

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