By james art 
The Orlando Magic were dealt a major blow Thursday night with the news that Paolo Banchero will be out for the next few weeks. The Cleveland Cavaliers were rolling. Instead of taking their foot off the gas playing against an injured opponent, they decided to kick it while lying down, resulting in a 120-109 victory. They remain undefeated and have won five of their six games by 10 or more points.
Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley got things going in the right direction. They scored Cleveland’s first 17 points before being shut out midway through the frame.
Their teammates continued for them. Caris LeVert contributed eight points in the opening frame. That included a nice backdoor and find by Darius Garland that inspired Kenny Atkinson to take a few steps up the court to high-five Garland before running back to the defensive end.
That sums up where things stand with the Cavs right now. Atkinson mentioned that they are still a work in progress and that they are very early in the process. But the running game doesn’t usually throw teams off the court as easily and consistently as it did with the Cavs.
The Cavaliers closed the first with an 18-point lead. Orlando cut the deficit to 11 and looked like they would get back into the game just before halftime. Instead, the Cavs made three straight steals and baskets after that. Two of those hits came from Ty Jerome. Cleveland closed the half on an 8-0 run to extend the lead back to 19.
Orlando fought back in the third quarter, but again couldn’t cut it to single digits. The Cavs finished the third on a 15-6 run to keep the Magic at arm’s length. Cleveland held them there in the fourth, leading to another stress-free victory.
Garland kept reminding us how special he can be as he led the team in scoring with 25 points. He looks completely different from the player who seemed to lack confidence during last year’s first-round series against Orlando.
Garland played with a level of aggression tonight that allowed him to attack the basket and create great looks for himself and others. Moving off the ball and staying in his lanes in offensive transition allowed him to get more out of his offensive skill set than we’ve seen in years past. It’s a far cry from the player we saw at the end of last season.
Mitchell had another strong performance, contributing a point per minute (22) on 9-15 shooting. Against this team last year, I felt like he was the only source of offense. While the numbers were once again impressive, Mitchell’s isolation output comes within the offense, and it’s also not the only way the team generates good looks.
Mobley continues to use the start of this season to test his mettle. He opened the game by confidentially taking it from the price to the coast and finishing in the lane through Franz Wagner. Orlando started to help out of the turns as he tried to drive straight across the lane, which resulted in several flips. But he continued to attack, which is what you want to see at this point in the season. Especially when he had guards coming at him.
Overall, it was a solid performance from Mobley, even if the stat sheet wasn’t impressive. He continues to attack in the ways you want him to while being a great defender. Mobley finished with 14 points on 6-11 shooting with 12 rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal.
The process will always be more important than the results at the start of the season. They are trying to integrate a very different offensive system under a new head coach. There had to be growing pains. Instead, the Cavs looked and played like the best version of that concern we’ve seen. We don’t know what this team might look like when they fully understand how Atkinson wants them to play.