Cleveland Cavaliers vs Orlando Magic: Preview, TV Schedule & Where to Watch
The Cleveland Cavaliers are looking to continue their strong start to the season despite a number of injuries when they hosted the Orlando Magic at Quicken Loans Arena on Monday night. It will be the first of four meetings between the two teams this season.
Cleveland has only two healthy starters, LeBron James and Kevin Love, because Kyrie Irving is still out recovering from a fractured kneecap that he suffered in last year's finals. Iman Shumpert underwent wrist surgery at the start of the season while Timofey Mozgov is expected to miss two weeks due to a right shoulder strain.
Even backup Mo Williams, who has been filling in for Irving, is nursing a sore right ankle and is expected to miss the game against Orlando. "We're missing a lot of guys right now, a lot of very, very significant players but the other guys are stepping up and doing the job," Cavs coach David Blatt said, per NBA.com.
"Next man up. No matter who's in the lineup, we need to play Cavs basketball the right way. We need to share the ball, we need to move it, play together and be aggressive defensively," James added. Love scored a season-high 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to help beat the Atlanta Hawks 109-97 on Saturday night in a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference Finals.
Orlando is looking to avoid back to back losses for the second time this season. The Magic shot a woeful 29 percent from threes and had only eight free-throw attempts, a season-low in Saturday's 97-91 loss to the Sacramento Kings at the Amway Center.
"We came apart when the ball was thrown up tonight. We just couldn't find a way to stabilize ourselves," Magic coach Scott Skiles said after the game. They got outscored by the Kings 22-2 in the final five minutes of the third quarter before falling short in their comeback attempt in the fourth.
Tobias Harris led Orlando with 24 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals while shooting 62.5 percent from the field. Evan Fournier continued his breakout season by scoring 17 points, grabbing four rebounds and dishing out three assists with three steals.
The Magic are currently below .500 in the standings with a 6-7 record while the Cavaliers are atop the Eastern Conference with 10 wins in 13 games this season. Tip-off starts at 7:00 p.m. ET and is available on NBA League Pass and Sportsnet One in Canada. It is also televised locally on FS Ohio and FS Florida.
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