Last Sunday afternoon the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic played the deciding game 7 of their first-round playoff series in Cleveland Ohio. This was a nationally televised game and the lone NBA playoff game that day. The winner of this game will travel to Boston to play the Celtics in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. In this series the home team won each game. The question to be answered in this game is, did this trend hold true for the home team Cleveland Cavaliers?

The start of the game did not go well for Cleveland. The first quarter ended with the Magic leading by a score of 24 -18. The Magic continued to outplay the Cavs in the first half and lead at halftime by a score of 53-43. But Cleveland stormed back in the 3rd quarter outscoring the Magic 33-15. The 4th quarter started with the Cavaliers leading the Magic 76-68. In the fourth quarter the sellout crowd was loud and let their voices be heard. The Cavs extended their lead to 11 points with 5:53 left in the game. The second half defense by the Cleveland Cavaliers was excellent. And they went into the final 2 minutes of the game leading 97-87. Chants of ” We want Boston” rang through the Rocket Mortgage Field House in the closing moments of the game. The Cavs defeated the Magic and win the series with the final score of 106-94.

The Cavs won a playoff series for the first time without Lebron James since 1993.Game 1 of the second round series against the Boston Celtics is scheduled for Tuesday night May 7th at 7pm in Boston. The Cavs will not have the home court advantage in this series. To advance to the Conference Finals, the Cavs will have to do something else they haven’t done without Lebron James since 1993. Win on the road in the playoffs.