The Cleveland Cavaliers are mired in dysfunction right now – on and off the court. In just the latest demonstration of how bad things have gone for the defending Eastern Conference champions, the Cavs lost to the Orlando Magic Tuesday night, 116-98, in arguably the most disappointing manner this season.
The Cavs started the game like a house on fire, scoring 43 points in the first quarter. J.R. Smith kicked things off for Cleveland with four three-pointers in the opening period. The Cavs, as a team, shot 62.5 percent from the field in that quarter. But instead of that kind of shooting display dictating what to expect from Cleveland the rest of the way, it only gave the Cavaliers a higher cliff to fall from.
From the second quarter until the conclusion of the contest, the Cavs managed to pump out a paltry total of 55 points. For some reason, their offense decided to call it day in the middle of the game. Cleveland connected on just 33.9 percent of their shots from the field and 24.1 percent from deep starting the second period.
Cleveland’s offense hit rock bottom in the fourth quarter, when the Cavaliers produced just nine points. Only Channing Frye (5), Dwyane Wade (3) and LeBron James (1) scored for the Cavs in the quarter in which the team also had a pathetic 16.7 field goal shooting percentage.
Dave McMenamin of ESPN can’t even use numerical figures to tell how many points the Cavs scored in the fourth.
Just to further illustrate how deflating the loss was for the Cavaliers, note that it was only the fifth time since 2008 that a team end up losing a game despite torching the scoreboards with 43 points in the opening quarter, per Basketball Reference. In addition, the Cavs became the first team to score 43 points in the first period and fail to total 100 points in a game since the Indiana Pacers did it in 2004.
The Cavaliers will look to get it together (again) this Wednesday at home against the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves.