LOS ANGELES – The National Basketball Association (NBA) first-round series may have been a close shave for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but they are in the play-offs only to win it.
The Cavs silenced the young guns of Orlando, coming from behind to beat the Magic 106-94 in Game 7 on May 5 to book a meeting with Eastern Conference top seeds the Boston Celtics.
“I don’t mean this disrespectful, but it doesn’t really mean much. We didn’t come in just to win the first round. We accomplished one goal, now we have to do it again. That’s the mindset,” said Donovan Mitchell, who delivered a masterful performance at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse with 39 points.
He had plenty of scoring support from teammates as the Cavs erased an 18-point second-quarter deficit to clinch a series in which the home team won every game.
Caris LeVert scored 15 points off the bench and Max Strus scored 11 of his 13 points in the third quarter, when the Cavs outscored the Magic 33-15 to take charge.
Evan Mobley scored 11 points with 16 rebounds and five blocked shots, and Darius Garland chipped in 12 points to help Cleveland withstand a 38-point performance from Paolo Banchero, the top pick in the 2022 NBA draft.
The Cavs, with starting center Jarrett Allen sidelined a third straight game with bruised ribs, moved on to the second round a year after a stinging first-round loss to the New York Knicks.
“I didn’t want to go home,” Mitchell said of the mindset that saw him score 17 points in the third quarter as he virtually willed Cleveland to the lead.
The Magic delivered a strong first punch, Banchero scoring 10 points in the first period as Orlando grabbed to 24-18.
In the face of Orlando’s suffocating defense, the Cavs connected on just six of 22 shots in the first quarter and didn’t make a three-pointer until Sam Merrill drilled one midway through the second quarter. The Magic pushed their lead to as many as 18 points in the second quarter before the Cavs clawed back to cut the lead to single digits.
Banchero’s lay-up in the closing seconds of the first half saw Orlando take a 10-point lead into the break, but momentum was on Cleveland’s side and they overwhelmed the Magic in the third.
“I didn’t feel our confidence waver much, even when we had 18 points in the first quarter,” Mitchell said.
“They came out and jumped on us,” he added, saying the key was for the Cavs “to respond the way we did, keep plugging, just keep chipping away.”
“That’s what special players do when it matters most,” Cleveland coach JB Bickerstaff said of Mitchell.
“(We) just continued to watch the lead chip away. “We’ll go back and think about it more a little later, but he was special when he needed to be.”
Mitchell, again relentless in the paint, tied it at 64-64 with a floater and LeVert drained a pair of free throws to give the Cavs their first lead since the first quarter. Strus hit back-to-back three-pointers as Cleveland built a 76-68 lead going into the final period. The Cavs pushed their advantage to 14 points in the final frame, fans chanting “We want Boston” as the final minutes ticked off.
The Celtics will host Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semi-final series on May 7, and Mitchell vowed the Cavaliers will be ready for the team that posted the best record in the regular season.
“We can be better. I hate to be that guy. This was a great win, great series, great test for us mentally and physically. But we can – and will have to be – better to beat Boston,” Mitchell said.
“No disrespect to Orlando because they are a phenomenal team with a lot of great guys. I feel that this is big for us as a group, but we really don’t have time to celebrate.
“I’m pretty sure everybody thinks they’re going to come in and kick our ass. So for us to continue to stay level-headed throughout, and just be who we are, that’s the biggest thing.”
