The Cleveland Cavaliers fell to the Orlando Magic 128-122 in what could be a playoff preview.

James Harden described his time in Cleveland as a whirlwind when asked about it after the game.

“I’m still not settled. I’m still in a hotel. Just trying to hopefully get adapted.”

In many ways, the Cavs as a team find themselves in a similar situation.

“Nights like this are very tough,” Harden said. “It’s a game we should’ve won.”

Harden is right. The Cavs did enough offensively to do so, but at the same time, the attention to detail wasn’t there. That’s going to cost when going up against a Magic team that is playing its best basketball of the season.

This would be a chippy first-round series if this game was any indication of things. Orlando is a physical team, and one that isn’t afraid to stir the pot when needed. Mo Wagner and Desmond Bane were the primary instigators on Wednesday.

The Cavaliers responded well to the challenge. They were physical on the glass and never seemed intimidated. That wasn’t why they lost the game. Their poor defense is to blame for that.

The Cavs miss Jarrett Allen defensively.

Orlando doesn’t have a good or imaginative offense. They do, however, have big, physical players at basically every position that were able to take advantage of Cleveland’s lack of size.

The Cavs don’t have good starting guard defenders, but a frontcourt of Dean Wade, Evan Mobley, and Allen can alleviate some of those issues. When all three are in there — particularly the two centers — the Cavs can just funnel players to their bigs in the paint and recover out to shooters on the perimeter. That formula falls apart if Allen isn’t in there.

The Magic, led by Bane and Paolo Banchero, were able to attack Cleveland’s smaller defenders inside. Mobley tried to provide help defense, but because there were so many open lanes inside, he was often getting there too late, resulting in shooting fouls.

“This team did a really good job…of forcing the ball in the paint, and we just didn’t have any resistance,” Harden said. “They shot an unbelievable percentage by the basket and got to the line too many times.”

That they did.

The Magic finished in the 92nd percentile for both finishing at the rim (84%) and free-throw rate (32.9). It’s difficult to win games when you’re being beaten this decisively defensively.

While the Cavs’ lack of size hurt them on defense, it helped their offense.

Orlando has been playing great defense since the beginning of February. They’ve posted the fourth-best defensive rating during that stretch (109). This performance won’t help those numbers.

Cleveland did a great job of spreading the floor and attacking in space. This led to them converting 20-24 (83.3%, 91st percentile) of their shots at the rim and posting a 128.4 offensive rating (86th percentile).

There are things to nitpick with the offense, but that wasn’t close to why they lost. This is an elite attack, and they proved that again against a formidable defensive opponent.

Keon Ellis continues to show he deserves playoff minutes. He poured in 20 points on 5-8 shooting and had his second consecutive strong shooting game.

Ellis can change a game with his disruptive defense. He once again had a block and a steal while being Cleveland’s best defender for long stretches. However, those skills can only come through if he’s also a positive contributor offensively, like he has been the last two games.

Dennis Schroder is going through a rough patch. He provided no points while going 0-5 from the field and committing four fouls in less than 18 minutes. This is also the third game in a row he’s struggled to have a positive impact.

Head coach Kenny Atkinson has talked about the role players needing to step up to secure playoff minutes. Schroder is no different.

He will likely get some playing time in the postseason unless things really nosedive from here. They need a point guard they can pair with Donovan Mitchell when Harden sits. That said, there’s no guarantee he gets minutes other than when Harden is on the bench if he’s playing like this in the playoffs.

The Cavs can find creative ways to use Mobley as a roller. We know that Mobley isn’t the best pick-and-roll big because he’s not a physical screener. There are some band-aid solutions around that issue. This play is a good example of one.

Here, the Cavs run a Spain pick-and-roll with Dean Wade screening for Mobley’s defender. Wade’s pick creates, which allows Mobley to roll hard to the rim.

This isn’t a set you can spam like you can a regular pick-and-roll, but it is proof that there are some ways around Mobley’s screening if you’re creative.

Harden played his best offensive game as a Cavalier. This was the first time he’s reached 30 points in a Cavalier uniform. He was able to do so by continually getting by his defender and attacking inside. And doing that opened up room for his patented step-back three, which he was able to get to seemingly at will.

Harden had his most success targeting Orlando’s weakest defender, Paolo Banchero. He worked to create this mismatch and attacked every time he got it.

Harden is a great advantage manipulator. This is seen most in how he can operate in the pick-and-roll with a physical screener, but he’s also one of the best in league history at exploiting a mismatch when he finds one, as he did here.

For as good a scorer Harden was, he wasn’t the one taking shots down the stretch. Mitchell went 2-8 from the field in the fourth quarter on a night he struggled to find his rhythm. Meanwhile, Harden had only two attempts in the final frame.

The offense wasn’t why the Cavs lost the game. And it’s worth pointing out that they scored 32 points in the fourth quarter and continually created clean looks in the closing minutes. Still, you would’ve ideally liked to see a better balance in a game like this. This was the first time it felt like the shot distribution was off with the backcourt.

Nights like this are a reminder that the Cavs are a work-in-progress. Atkinson is trying to figure out the rotation with three new pieces, an injury to the starting center, and will need to find a way to fit Max Strus back into the rotation. That’s a difficult task, and there’s only a month until the playoffs.

The Cavs have a higher ceiling now than they did before the deadline. But there’s no guarantee they can consistently come close to reaching it in the biggest games. Especially when they’re going against teams who’ve had their core in place for multiple seasons, and aren’t just trying to put it together in the final two months of the season.

Harden said that he was still living in a hotel. In many ways, it feels like this team still is as well. They’re also trying to unpack their bags and figure out who and what they actually have in the suitcase. And they’re running out of time to do so.