Magic 132, Cavaliers 116: Orlando leads wire-to-wire as Banchero and Wagner star
Paolo Banchero scored 24 on 10-of-13 shooting and Franz Wagner added 20 and eight assists in a preseason win at Kia Center.
The Orlando Magic beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 132-116 at Kia Center on Tuesday night, leading from start to finish in a preseason game. Both teams' regular rotations were involved, but the result flowed one way.
Orlando's starters set the tone
Paolo Banchero led the Magic with 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting and eight rebounds, according to SB Nation's Cavaliers coverage on Yahoo Sports. Franz Wagner scored 20 on 7-of-10 shooting and handed out eight assists. The same report said all of Orlando's starters had strong outings.
Jalen Suggs made his preseason debut in the game, and Sports Illustrated's Magic site notes that the regulars played through the first three quarters. Orlando finished with 34 assists, and had 27 assists to nine turnovers through three quarters, per the same report. Tristan da Silva made four of 11 three-point attempts, and Noah Penda had five points, four rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal in 14 minutes. As SI put it, "Preseason results don't matter, but the Magic did lead wire-to-wire."
Cleveland's night
Cleveland's headline performance came late. Meleek Thomas led the Cavaliers with 16 points, including 14 on 6-of-8 shooting in the fourth quarter alone, per SB Nation. He played just five minutes with the regulars in the first three quarters.
Donovan Mitchell scored 14 on 7-of-15 shooting with eight assists. Evan Mobley had 14 points and five rebounds, and James Harden scored 13 on 3-of-12 shooting. The SB Nation writer judged: "Aside from Mitchell, few of the rotation players could establish much of an offensive flow," and called it "a poor showing from the Cavs, but not one that likely means much in the grand scheme of things."
What it means
For Orlando this was the third of four preseason games, per SI, so one tune-up remains. Cleveland's result left its preseason record at 1-2 in the SB Nation tally, and the Cavaliers open the regular season Thursday, October 22, on the road against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Neither source describes a single turning point, which is consistent with a game that never turned: Orlando led throughout. With preseason minutes distributed unevenly and rotations in flux, the useful takeaways are narrow ones, such as Banchero's efficiency and Wagner's playmaking for Orlando, and Thomas's fourth-quarter scoring for a Cleveland team that otherwise struggled for rhythm.