{"id":558781,"date":"2026-01-24T23:55:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T23:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/558781\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T23:55:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T23:55:21","slug":"the-cavaliers-are-playing-their-best-basketball-of-the-season-before-magic-matchup-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/558781\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cavaliers Are Playing Their Best Basketball of the Season Before Magic Matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers will face the Orlando Magic tonight (Saturday) and is playing its best basketball of the season.<\/p>\n

The Cavs have won nine of their last 13 games, climbing from eighth to fifth in the Eastern Conference standings and sitting just one game out of third place.<\/p>\n

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Coming off a 123-118 win over Sacramento on Friday<\/a>, Cleveland was led by Donovan Mitchell’s 33 points, while Evan Mobley recorded 29 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists. Mobley’s points tally matched his season high.<\/a><\/p>\n

Since a lopsided loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Cavs have responded with consecutive wins. The emergence of second-year wing Jaylon Tyson has provided a spark, as he is averaging 19.6 points over his last five games.<\/p>\n

Mobley also has shown renewed aggressiveness following a recent challenge from coach Kenny Atkinson.<\/p>\n

“With Darius Garland out, we’ve needed Evan to step up,” Atkinson said. “He’s done a great job being assertive and making the right plays.”<\/p>\n

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Mobley is stepping up, as is Mitchell, who is consistently producing. He is sixth in scoring in the NBA, averaging 29 points per game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Banchero: “Something has to change – and it hasn’t.”<\/p>\n

Paulo Banchero’s frustration boiled over after the Orlando Magic suffered their second decisive home loss to the Charlotte Hornets in less than a month.<\/p>\n

Banchero posted team highs of 23 points, seven rebounds and five assists in Thursday’s 124-97 loss, but the Magic were never competitive. Charlotte built a lead of 33 points and coasted to the victory.<\/p>\n

“They came out aggressive, and we didn’t match it,” Banchero said. “When things keep trending the same way, something has to change – and it hasn’t.”<\/p>\n

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Desmond Bane scored 21 points, but Orlando received little help from the rest of its starting lineup. The other three starters combined for 11 points while shooting 4-for-22 in 67 minutes.<\/p>\n

Despite holding a play-in tournament spot, the Magic have now been swept at home by Charlotte, which owns the fourth-worst record in the Eastern Conference. The Hornets also won 120-105 in Orlando on Dec. 26.<\/p>\n

“It can’t keep happening,” Banchero said. “We fall behind early and let teams run away with it.”<\/p>\n

The Magic’s struggles have persisted since returning from an international trip earlier this month. Orlando split two games against Memphis, rallying from a 20-point deficit to win in Berlin before losing in London.<\/p>\n

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Franz Wagner returned from a six-week absence in the first game but will miss Saturday’s contest.<\/p>\n

Banchero, averaging 21.0 points and 8.7 rebounds, had expected a step forward this season following first-round playoff exits in 2024 and 2025. Defensive issues have only added to Orlando’s recent slide.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on www.si.com\/nba\/cavaliers\/onsi as The Cavaliers Are Playing Their Best Basketball of the Season Before Magic Matchup<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers will face the Orlando Magic tonight (Saturday) and is playing its best basketball of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[1509,7,306,473,305,193,3846,791,497,864,1409,576,420,403,2286,2821,3627,6,179,47,76,73323,76246,401,3209],"class_list":["post-558781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-banchero","tag-basketball","tag-cavaliers","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-clevelandcavaliers","tag-darius-garland","tag-desmond-bane","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-eastern-conference","tag-evan-mobley","tag-florida","tag-franz-wagner","tag-jaylon-tyson","tag-jonathan-isaac","tag-kenny-atkinson","tag-nba","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-magic","tag-paulo-banchero","tag-russell-lansford-imagn","tag-the-magic","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115952781021073191","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}