Orlando Magic handle business in season opener; 3 takeaways
By Luke Duffy
The Orlando Magic began their 2019-20 season with a home win against the Cleveland Cavaliers, giving us plenty to talk about already.
With the excitement of the NBA’s Opening Night done and dusted, it was the turn of the Orlando Magic, and a whole host of other teams, to get their campaigns started on night No. 2 across the league. They handled their business too, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 94-85 at home.
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The buzz coming into this game around the Magic hasn’t been this loud since they were certified playoff locks at the start of this decade and although they didn’t exactly burst out of the gates in this one, there was still plenty to like from what we saw from the players on the floor.
There was news before the game as well, with head coach Steve Clifford announcing that he would be going with a 10-man rotation for this particular game, because he didn’t feel like the top guys were ready for their expected minutes load at this point. Given his insistence that it would be a nine-man group during preseason, this was a talking point before opening tip.
It also opened the door for Wesley Iwundu, who looked to be getting squeezed out of the supposed rotation as a result of Michael Carter-Williams, to try and show that he is deserving of more run and that coach Clifford should think about expanding to a 10 man group going forward.
As it turned out he couldn’t even make it into the extended rotation, and looking at how last night went it is unclear if he will be able to. Especially if Khem Birch also didn’t see any time on the court either.