Cavaliers 111, Magic 76: Cleveland crushes Orlando at Amway

Looking to build off a West coast road trip that saw the team go 3-2, the Orlando Magic returned home for a pit stop at the Amway Center against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Magic got pushed around like a Developmental League team all night, getting dominated by the clearly better Cavaliers, 111-76.

The Magic came out lifeless, struggling to get anything going on either end of the court. The Cavaliers, who had been off since Tuesday, picked apart the Magic early, knocking down seven of their first eight shots to take control of the game. The Magic rebounded, however, holding the Cavaliers to just 2-of-11 shooting for the remainder of the quarter, allowing them to claw their way back to a two point deficit after 12 minutes.

Things didn't get any better for the Magic in the second, as their offense struggled with poor spacing, as well as continuous poor shot attempts and turnovers. Cleveland made the Magic pay for their increasing mistakes, scoring 13 points off of six Magic turnovers. The Cavaliers also continued to pick apart the Magic's swiss cheese like defense, shooting a blistering 13-of-20 from the field, including 10-of-12 in the painted area. A buzzer beating three from Nikola Vucevic put the Magic down by 16 at the half, and kept the team one point off from their lowest total for a half of the season.

Out of halftime, the Magic were yet again searching for any energy on both ends. Cleveland, who had taken control in the second, pushed the lead out to as many as 34, thanks to continued sloppy offense from the Magic, along with extremely poor defensive play. Due to his teams lack of energy, Skiles turned to his bench early in the quarter, but was not rewarded, with the unit he put out there continuing to struggle mightily. After three, Cleveland held a commanding 31 point lead, all but ending any chance the Magic had at returning to their winning ways.

With the game all but over, the fourth quarter was a chance for each team to empty their bench and give some of their end of rotation guys a chance to get some run. For the Magic, it gave rookie Mario Hezonja, who has played sparingly since the team's lineup change nine games ago, a chance to get some run, despite the game being out of hand.

LeBron picked apart the Magic all night, finishing with 25 points, eight assists and four steals. Timofey Mozgov finished the night with 17. Iman Shumpert, in his first game of the season, scored 14, while Matthew Dellavedova finished with 12. James Jones rounded out Cavs in double figures, finishing with 15.

Nikola Vucevic finished with 14 on the night. Hezonja finished the night with a career high 12.