For 24 minutes Saturday afternoon, it looked like this could be Cleveland’s series to take. The Cavaliers had the best player in the series in Donovan Mitchell and he dropped 18 points in the first half, while Jarrett Allen continued to be the most important player for Cleveland and had 16. Cleveland was up by nine on the road at the half and looked to be in control.
Then everything flipped on its head.
A combination of elite defense from Orlando and cold shooting from Cleveland turned the game around — the Cavaliers scored 10 points in the third quarter and 29 points total in the second half. Mitchell was 0-of-4 shooting, and as a team the Cavaliers shot 36.4% and were 2-of-10 from 3 in the second half. Combine all of those missed shots with nine turnovers, and the Magic could get out in transition and pick up easy buckets.
Franz Wagner took advantage — his 10 points in the first five minutes of the third quarter matched the total number of points the Cavaliers would have in the period. Wagner finished the night with 34 points and 13 rebounds.
Franz Wagner dropped playoff career-highs to help the @OrlandoMagic tie the series 2-2!
— NBA (@NBA) April 27, 2024
🪄 34 PTS (Playoff career-high)
🪄 13 REB (Playoff career-high)
🪄 2 3PM
🪄 13-17 FGM#NBAPlayoffs presented by Google Pixel pic.twitter.com/jbF2UGwaPn
The result was a 33-5 Orlando run that led to a 112-89 Magic win to even the series at 2-2 headed back to Cleveland.
Orlando cleaned up its mistakes from the first half — turning the ball over (11 times in the first half) and protecting the paint against Cleveland — and that helped turn the tide. Orlando also got 14 points from defensive stalwart Jonathan Isaac — he hit an impressive 4-of-6 from 3 — and a dozen each from Jalen Suggs and Markelle Fultz.
Cleveland needs its stars to step up in the face of adversity. If Mitchell is going to be the best player on a team that makes a deep playoff run, he can’t go scoreless in the second half, as he did. He has to be the guy who leads his team to push back amid an opponent run. Mitchell and Garland need to be unstoppable, and the Cavaliers need more out of Evan Mobley. Garland and Mobley each scored 14 points in this game on a combined 11-of-24 shooting, with most of that damage coming in the first half.
Game 5 is in Cleveland on Tuesday.