Last Saturday afternoon at the Rocket Mortgage Field House in Downtown Cleveland Ohio, the Cleveland Cavaliers outplayed the Orlando Magic to win game one of their best of seven first round playoff series 97-83. The Cavaliers led the entire game and at no point lost control of the game. The Cavalier’s defense was impressive and so was the play of Donovan Mitchell.

Going into this playoff series, Cavaliers top scorer PG Donovan Mitchell was a question mark. He has been nursing injuries for much of the 2023-2024 season playing in only 55 games. Mitchell didn’t play most of March and the Cavaliers felt that getting him healthy for the playoffs was best for him and the team. For the first game of this series that strategy paid dividends. Donovan Mitchell led the Cavaliers with 30 points in 36 minutes of play. Mitchell looked healthy and ready to play. And so did the Cavaliers defense.

The Orlando Magic was held to 83 points. Their overall field goal percentage was just 32.6%.  And their free throw percentage was an atrocious 63.3%. Standing out defensively was both F Even Mobley and C Jarrett Allen. They combined for 29 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.  The whole game the Orlando Magic couldn’t get any momentum on offense. The tone for this playoff series has been set by the more experienced Cavaliers team.

In 2023 the Cleveland Cavaliers lost their first-round playoff series to the New York Knicks in 5 games.  The Knicks physically outplayed the Cavaliers last year and the Orlando Magic knew that. The Magic tried to execute the same game plan the Knicks used last year. For this game it didn’t work. The Cavaliers were better prepared from last years’ experience.

Game 2 of this series is scheduled for Monday April 22nd at 7 PM in Cleveland. Will the momentum for the Cavaliers carry over into this game? With a healthy Donovan Mitchell and dominating defense, it certainly looks that way.