Cleveland has now lost four games in a row after getting blown out by the Toronto Raptors on Saturday, and desperately need a win to get their season back on track.
Orlando seems to have turned a corner after their 0-4 start, but fell to the Miami Heat 99-92 on Saturday night.
Projected Starting Lineups
Cleveland Cavaliers (5-7)
G Kyrie Irving – 21.8 ppg, 4.8 apg
G Shawn Marion – 5.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg
F LeBron James – 24.7 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 6.8 apg
F Kevin Love – 16.5 ppg, 9.9 rpg
C Anderson Varejao – 10.7 ppg, 7.0 rpg
Orlando Magic (6-9)
G Victory Oladipo – 12.0 ppg, 4.4 rpg
G Evan Fournier – 17.1 ppg, 2.7 apg
F Tobias Harris – 18.8 ppg, 8.4 rpg
F Channing Frye -9.9 ppg, 5.6 rpg
C Nikola Vucevic - 19.4 ppg, 12.1 rpg
What to watch for:
Cleveland's bench rotation
The Cavaliers' bench has been absolutely dreadful during their past two games against the Washington Wizards and the Toronto Raptors. They were outscored 91-28 by the opposition's bench in those games combined, and was the biggest reason why the Cavs got blown out in each of those games. Head coach David Blatt will undoubtedly try to change up his rotation to fix this problem, so we'll probably see some lineups we haven't seen before.
Who wants it more?
Other than bench production, Cleveland's biggest problem all season has been playing with a lack of intensity. Because the Cavs are the Eastern Conference favorite, they get every other teams' best effort. Cleveland hasn't been able to match the intensity level of their opposition yet, and if they can't do that again tonight, they'll be in danger of losing five games in a row.
Prediction: Cavs win 97-90
This game is not going to be pretty as both teams are still trying to figure out how to play together, but Cleveland has so much more talent that they should be able to pull away from Orlando late.
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