Magic at Cavaliers
The Orlando Magic are beating up on some of the best the NBA has to offer while struggling with the league's lesser squads, a pattern they hope to end when they visit the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. The Magic opened a three-game road trip with a 117-112 win over Indiana on Saturday, improving to 10-3 during a stretch that has seen them also defeat Golden State, Toronto and Milwaukee while losing to Chicago and New York.
The surge has vaulted Orlando into the top eight in the Eastern Conference, just 1 1/2 games behind Detroit and Brooklyn. "Right now, our mentality is, every game counts and we need all the wins we can get," Magic guard Terrence Ross said during a television interview after the win over the Pacers. "We're playing for something. It's getting fun." The Cavaliers won four of six contests before getting trounced 129-93 by the Pistons on Saturday. Rookie guard Collin Sexton scored a team-high 16 points but was 3-for-13 from the floor as Cleveland shot 34.2 percent while falling to 9-24 at home.
TV: 6 p.m. ET, FS Florida (Orlando), FS Ohio (Cleveland)
ABOUT THE MAGIC (30-34): Orlando finished strong at Indiana with a 34-point fourth quarter despite playing without D.J. Augustin, who left the game early due to a sprained ankle. Ross scored 16 of his 23 points in the final period and is averaging 22 over the team's last four victories. "He doesn't need much room," coach Steve Clifford told reporters of Ross. "He mixed it up well. They were very much locked into him. I thought he did a good job moving without the ball."
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (15-48): Power forward Kevin Love, who has averaged 23 points over his last four games, sat out Saturday's loss to rest, but his absence probably didn't make much of a difference for a team that fell behind by 33 at the break. "They came out and punched us in the mouth early," forward Larry Nance Jr., the only Cleveland player to shoot better than 50 percent in the game, told reporters. Tristan Thompson (foot) missed his 18th straight game while fellow center Ante Zizic (concussion) also sat.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Sexton has made 71 3-pointers, two shy of matching Kyrie Irving's team record for a rookie.
2. Orlando C Nikola Vucevic scored 27 points in 32 minutes on Saturday.
3. Magic SG Evan Fournier hit a buzzer-beater to lift the team to a 102-100 win over Cleveland in the first meeting this season.