You can’t win a trophy in January, but you can earn respect. The Cleveland Cavaliers could have done that when they defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder with an impressive 129-122 victory.
The Cavs relentlessly attacked the Thunder’s defense where they were at their weakest. Oklahoma City He gives up the most corner three-point attempts In the league. Cleveland immediately came out and hit corner threes on its first two possessions, before getting inside and pressing their advantage there.
The Thunder only have one traditional center in Isaiah Hartenstein who they felt comfortable playing with Chet Holmgren sidelined. The Cavs used that to their advantage with Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley constantly attacking the paint. They went to Hartenstein and whoever they didn’t match.
The Thunder forced the ball out of the hands of Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell as much as possible, challenging Allen and Mobley to beat them on a short roll. But unlike in the past, the seniors did a great job of making plays and keeping the offense flowing.
Mitchell struggled to achieve anything. He was forcing shots early and never found a real rhythm as he put up just 11 points on 3-16 shooting.
You don’t want to get too much out of one regular season game in January, but this showed how much the Cavaliers have grown in the past two seasons. the New York Knicks In the 2023 playoffs, they also forced the ball out of Mitchell’s hands, made the bigs beat them on a short roll, and dared them to hit corner threes. Oklahoma City did the same, but the Cavaliers answered the buzzer. They hit them because they were comfortable doing all these things.
The Cavaliers offense didn’t suffer even though Mitchell did. They have found ways to continue to supplement their offense by finding a shooter in the corner whenever the defense moves. Cleveland nailed it 8-14 (57.1%) Corner threes from the corner. This led to a 129 offensive rating (Percentage 91) for the game.
Cleveland won this game in the final few minutes when they broke OKC’s back by getting three straight offensive rebounds in frustrating fashion in a one-possession game. What could have been a two-point game with 1:30 left ended up being a five-point lead for the Cavaliers with less than a minute to play.
It was like the opposite of the Knicks series.
Garland put the final nail in the coffin in the 129-122 win with a tear in the lane to smooth it away.
Allen led the way for Cleveland with 25 points on 9-11 shooting with 6 assists and 12 boards. Mobley contributed 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists.
Cleveland also benefited from strong contributions from its players. Dean Wade (11 points), Max Strus (17 points) and Ty Jerome (15 points) all had timely baskets in the win.
This was a test of whether the Cavs’ basketball was good enough to work against the best teams in the league. Once again, I did. Cleveland is now 3-1 vs Boston CelticsNew York, and Oklahoma City. That one loss was by three points and without four rotating players.
It’s hard to ask for more from the team at this stage of the season.
The Cavaliers have consistently shown that they are not only good, but they are title contenders who are winning at a historic pace. This was proven once again when they beat the top team in the Western Conference.