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CLEVELAND — Head coach Kenny Atkinson went to his postgame press conference to deliver one message after the Cleveland Cavaliers barely scraped by the Orlando Magic 136-131.
“I just told the team in the locker room, if we’re going to play defense like this, we’re going to have a short playoff stint,” Atkinson said. “We have a mentality that we’re just going to outscore people, and we all know, playoff time, it’s not going to be that easy offensively. … If we’re giving up 134 points, 120, we’re not going anywhere.”
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That message was heard by his team, to the point that Donovan Mitchell mixed up whether or not they actually won the game.
“That’s why this loss, or this win, excuse me, feels different.”
Mitchell’s Freudian slip was understandable. You shouldn’t be able to give up 131 points to the Magic — the 18th ranked ofense — and come away with a victory.
The defense was awful. Let’s quickly run through some numbers that show this.
That offensive rating was the third-highest for Orlando this season.
This led to the Magic scoring 23 second-chance points.
The Magic’s free-throw rate was in the 98th percentile as they went 35-38 (92.1%) at the line.
Six Magic players finished with double-digit scoring, including Paolo Banchero, who put up 36 points on 10-19 shooting.
“It starts on the ball,” Max Strus said. “It starts with our pressure. It starts with our communication, physicality. We just let them be the aggressors tonight.”
The point of attack defense just wasn’t there. The Magic were able to get penetration into the paint on seemingly every drive, which broke Cleveland’s entire defense. This allowed for easy looks at the basket, open drive-and-kick threes, and trips to the free-throw line with the defense being out of position.
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It was bad.
“Our leaders got to take ownership…ownership of defending better,” Atkinson said. “It really starts there.”
The Cavs believe that they can fix this issue, while acknowledging that these changes need to happen before the playoffs.
“A lot of it has to do with the mentality and want to,” Strus said….
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/11-takeaways-cavs-136-131-100000372.html
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Publish date : 2026-03-25 10:00:00
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