Sports
Cavs blow big lead, get embarrassed by Magic, 116-98 on Tuesday
Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, Lebron James, Tyronn Lue, Jonathan Simmons, Evan Fournier, JR Smith, Isaiah Thomas,
The Cleveland Cavaliers led by as many as 21 points and by 16 points at the half, then the Orlando Magic scored 41 points in the third and the Cavs trailed 92-89 after three quarters. The Magic then held Cleveland to nine points on 3-for-18 shooting in the fourth to run away with an embarrassing blowout 116-98 loss for the Cavs.
.In the first quarter, the Cavs tied a season-high by scoring 43 points and led by as many as 15 as a result. Then went almost six-and-a-half minutes without scoring in the fourth and lost for the 14th time in 21 games.
After getting 29 points from the starters not named Lebron James in the opening 12 minutes, the Cavs received next to nothing from the rest of the starters. J.R.Smith, who scored 12 points in the first quarter, was 0-2 in quarters two through four. Isaiah Thomas had another poor performance, finishing with 11 points on 3-13 shooting, and failed to score in the second half.
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Embattled Cleveland Cavaliers’ coach Tyronn Lue, who has taken much of the blame for his team’s most recent stretch of poor play, spent much of the final three quarters of Wednesday’s game in the locker room and back by the team’s bus because he was battling an illness.
James finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, but he notched just nine points in the second half. He did not have an assist or a rebound in a foul-plagued second half.
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To make matters more embarrassing for Cleveland, Orlando came into the game second last in the Eastern Conference and the victory was the Magic’s first against the Cavs in Orlando since Nov. 23, 2012.
The Magic were led by Jonathon Simmons, who was questionable to play because of a sore ankle. He scored 22 of his career-best 34 points in the third quarter. Evan Fournier had 19 points, while Bismack Biyombo added 11 points and eight rebounds. Elfrid Payton and Mario Hezonja chipped in 10 points.
COMING UP FOR THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: The Cleveland Cavaliers (30-22) next play Wednesday at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves (34-22). Tip-off is at 8:00pm and is the Cavs' last game before the NBA's trade deadline on Thursday, 2/8 at 3:00 pm.