By FRED GOODALL ORLANDO, Fla. — Paolo Banchero and the rapidly maturing Orlando Magic are growing up fast in the NBA playoffs. The 21-year-old All-Star forward scored 10 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter Friday night, helping one of the NBA’s youngest teams overcome Donovan Mitchell’s 50 points and hold off the Cleveland Cavaliers 103-96 to force a decisive Game 7 in their first-round playoff series. Three nights after scoring a career postseason-best 39 on 14-of-24 shooting in a one-point road loss that left the Magic on the brink of elimination, Banchero put his team on his back and car ..read more

By JIMMY GOLEN BOSTON — The Boston Celtics ran away from the rest of the NBA in the regular season. So far, the playoffs have been more of the same. The team that won 64 games to claim the league’s overall top seed dumped the Miami Heat in five games, winning, 118-84, on May 1 to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals. In their four wins, the Celtics’ biggest leads were 34, 29, 28 and 37. “We got past the first step,” said Celtics guard Derrick White, who scored 25 points. “We don’t start the next series up 1-0 because of what we did here today.” Boston is the first team in the East to a ..read more

There was not a lot of finesse in the five games the Cavaliers and Magic have played in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series, so why expect anything different now? The Cavaliers grabbed a 3-2 lead in the series on April 30 when they edged the Magic, 104-103, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse without starting center Jarrett Allen, who was a pregame scratch because of bruised ribs. Allen was injured in Game 4 when an Orlando player smacked him in the side with an elbow. Allen did not practice May 2. He will try to play in Game 6 when the Cavs and Magic meet for a 7 p.m. tipoff ..read more

Raise your hand if you had to check the name on the back of the Cavaliers’ black jersey on April 30 when you noticed “24” was in the game. The Cavaliers signed Marcus Morris to a 10-day contract on March 18 and then signed him to a contract for the remainder of the season on March 29. Morris has been around a long, long time. He was selected by the Houston Rockets with the 14th overall pick of the 2011 draft. His journeys have taken him from the Rockets to the Suns, Pistons, Celtics, Knicks, Clippers and 76ers before the 6-foot-8, 34-year-old forward signed with the Cavaliers. The only player ..read more

The Cavaliers knew they had to play as a team in Game 5 after abandoning their “All for one and one for all” style of basketball while losing twice in Orlando. Talk about following the script. There were heroes galore to help the Cavs beat the Magic, 104-103, on April 30 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to take a 3-2 lead in the series and guarantee playoff basketball will continue in their home arena this spring. If the Cavaliers beat the Magic on May 3 in Orlando, the next game at the FieldHouse will be against the winner of the Celtics-Heat series in an Eastern Conference semifinal contest. If ..read more

By Tom Withers The Associated Press Donovan Mitchell scored 28 points, Evan Mobley blocked Franz Wagner’s layup in the final seconds and the Cavaliers survived a scare from Orlando, holding off Paolo Banchero and the Magic, 104-103, in Game 5 on Tuesday night to take a 3-2 lead in their Eastern Conference series. The Cavs, who were embarrassed by the Magic while dropping two games in Orlando last week, regrouped inside roaring Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. It took everything they had. After Mitchell missed a jumper with 15.7 seconds left, Wagner drove the left side for a potential game-tying lay ..read more

Tim Phillis’ photos from Cavaliers-Magic Game 5 on April 30, 2024. Tim Phillis' photos from Cavaliers-Magic Game 5 on April 30, 2024. Tim Phillis' photos from Cavaliers-Magic Game 5 on April 30, 2024. Tim Phillis' photos from Cavaliers-Magic Game 5 on April 30, 2024. Tim Phillis' photos from Cavaliers-Magic Game 5 on April 30, 2024. Tim Phillis' photos from Cavaliers-Magic Game 5 on April 30, 2024. Tim Phillis' photos from Cavaliers-Magic Game 5 on April 30, 2024. Tim Phillis' photos from Cavaliers-Magic Game 5 on April 30, 2024. Tim Phillis' photos from Cavalie ..read more

The importance of the next six days regarding the future of the Cavaliers cannot be exaggerated. The only one in the organization who is safe no matter what happens is Dan Gilbert, and that’s because he owns the team. The duel between the Cavaliers and Orlando Magic has been reduced to a best-of-three series. Fortunately for the Cavaliers, by virtue of finishing one game ahead of the Magic during the 82-game regular season, the next game is April 30 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, where the Cavaliers won the first two games before getting blown out twice in Orlando. No matter what happens in Ga ..read more

There’s not much to satisfy a fan base after it has watched two successive train wrecks. That might be a bit harsh, but ask the Cavaliers fans in your life to best describe what happened in Games 3 and 4 in Orlando. Their answers might be: Game 3 … a train wreck from the start. Game 4 … a promising start that ended in a train wreck. Back-to-back train wreck losses are difficult to process for anyone. Just don’t forget what happened in Games 1 and 2. The Cavaliers dominated the Magic in both contests to stake a 2-0 series lead. Now the stage is set for what is now essentially a best-of-three se ..read more

Welp, at least the Cavaliers still have home-court advantage in their best-of-seven series with the Orlando Magic. But who among us feels completely comfortable about that? If your hand is in the air, put it down, because you’re lying. Thanks to another third-quarter abomination, the Cavaliers head back from Orlando tied at two games apiece in their Eastern Conference playoff series on April 27 after a 112-89 thrashing. Cleveland was outscored by Orlando, 35-16, in the third quarter en route to a 121-83 whipping at the hands of the Magic in Game 3. The Cavaliers followed that by being outscore ..read more