Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson has made an immediate impact in his first season with the Cavaliers, who are off to the franchise’s best start since 2016-17.
After opening the season with five straight wins, the Cavaliers strive to remain unbeaten when they face the visiting Orlando Magic on Friday.
Orlando began its five-game road trip with a 102-99 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday after being held to 12 points in the fourth quarter.
The Magic will need a more consistent effort to keep pace with Cleveland, which has scored at least 110 points in all five games. The Cavaliers are thriving under Atkinson, who has made fourth-year forward Evan Mobley a centerpiece of the team’s offense.
“Sharing the ball and having Evan up at the top, being the distributor, he’s been doing an excellent job running our offense, basically,” Cleveland center Jarrett Allen said. “We put a lot through him. It just gets everybody open.”
Mobley scored 25 points in 19 minutes in a 134-110 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. Donovan Mitchell added 24 points and Allen recorded his third double-double of the season with 20 points and 17 rebounds.
Cleveland also received a spark off the bench from Caris LeVert, who scored 16 points in 22 minutes. The 30-year-old guard is shooting 68.8 percent from the field and 64.3 percent from 3-point range.
The Cavaliers began Thursday with the NBA’s top offensive rating at 123.4, just ahead of the Boston Celtics.
“We’ve got a ways to go,” Atkinson said. “We’re developing, we’re still learning each other. Still a work in progress. But feels like we’re headed in the right direction.”
Friday’s game features a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference first-round playoff series, which Cleveland won in seven games.
Orlando forward Paolo Banchero is off to an impressive start after scoring 30-plus points in three of his first five games, including 50 on Monday against Indiana. However, Banchero was listed as questionable to face Cleveland due to a right abdominal strain.
Banchero had 31 points in Wednesdays’ loss to Chicago, while Jalen Suggs had 17 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals. The Magic led by as many as 20 points in the first half before Chicago rallied in the third quarter and emerged with the victory.
“I think we settled too much, myself included, in that second half. Settling on too many jumpers as a team, not attacking the paint,” Banchero said. “But to their credit, they did a good job walling off and plugging the gaps in the second half.”
Orlando is shooting 34.6 percent from 3-point range and will need to improve on that mark against Cleveland, which leads the league at 41.1 percent.
Guard Gary Harris said the Magic have made 3-point shooting a point of emphasis this season. Orlando is one of 10 teams averaging at least 40 3-point attempts, and Harris said the goal is to maintain that pace.
“We definitely have to get up more threes,” Harris said. “You see how the league is trending, getting up shots. We definitely harped on the spacing all summer, especially in training camp. Just trying to keep the spacing, so if we have open shots, open looks, we take them. Then if we don’t, we give space for our guys to work.”
Orlando is monitoring the status of forward Franz Wagner, who has been limited in the past two games due to illness. He had seven points, three rebounds and four assists in 23 minutes against Chicago before exiting early in the fourth quarter. He is officially questionable for Friday.
–Field Level Media