The two best teams in the NBA, It faces the Oklahoma City Thunder, the leader in the West, and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the leader in the East For the first of two meetings this month on Wednesday, January 8 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.
The match is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on beIN Sports ESPN and ESPN Deportes. Fans looking to watch this NBA game can do so for free with live stream tv, Which offers a free trial. They can also watch with FuboTVwhich also offers a free trial with a $30 discount on the first month, or SlingTV, which does not offer a free trial but does have promotions available.
The Thunder tied 30-5 with the Cavaliers for the best road record in basketball at 13-3. The 31-4 Cavaliers have the best home record in the league at 18-1. OKC is riding a 15-game winning streak into the matchup that includes wins over the second and third best teams in the East, the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks. Cleveland achieved ten consecutive victories, including victories over the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks.
- Watch the game for free here
from: Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Cleveland Cavaliers
when: Wednesday, January 8 at 7pm EST
where: Field Mortgage Rocket
flow: FuboTV (free trial); sling; Stream DirecTV (free trial)
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The Thunder-Cavaliers matchup on Wednesday night is a historic clash between teams on the winning streak
By Tim Reynolds AP Basketball Writer
Best in the Eastern Conference. Best in the Western Conference. Best shooting team in the NBA vs. best defensive team in the NBA. A match like only two matches in the history of the league.
Clear the calendar for Wednesday night, when Oklahoma City goes to Cleveland.
Technically, any matchup between an Eastern team and a Western team is a potential preview of the NBA Finals — but this matchup certainly deserves that billing. The Thunder are on a 15-game winning streak, taking on a Cavaliers team that is on a 10-game winning streak (after having a 15-game winning streak earlier this season).
“Every game is a challenge, and every game is an opportunity to get better,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “There’s a different challenge every night in the NBA season. Every game tests you in different ways.”
He’s not wrong. But his team is 30-5. Cleveland is an NBA-best 31-4. Combined, that’s 61-9. Sure, every game can be a test for these teams, but the Thunder and Cavs are passing them all with flying colors.
“We expect to win every game,” Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell said.
He laughed when he said that. The problem is that he probably wasn’t kidding. And the Thunder, less than three years after going 24-58, should probably expect to win every time they take the floor, too.
“It’s awesome,” Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I try not to think about where we’ve been or where we’re going and just stay in the moment.”
These teams — the first game on ESPN on Wednesday, a matchup between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Milwaukee and Victor Wimpanyama and San Antonio in the Night Cup — are truly a clash of styles.
They are the best at almost everything.
Cleveland leads the NBA in field goal percentage (.504). Oklahoma City leads the NBA in field goal percentage defense (.426). Cleveland ranks second in the league in points per game (122.5). Oklahoma City leads the league in points allowed per game (103.0). Cleveland leads the league in 3-point percentage (.404). Oklahoma City – you guessed it – leads the league in 3-point percentage defense (.327).
There is still a long way to go this season. It’s not even half finished. But the Cavaliers are well ahead of Boston in the East and the Thunder are running away with the West. Barring all-out meltdowns over the next month, Daigneault, Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson and their staff will head to San Francisco to train for the All-Star Game. At this rate, it won’t be long before phrases like “home-court advantage” and “no” come up. “One Seed” is traded in Cleveland and OKC.
“It’s very difficult to win in this league. You know, there’s a lot of parity,” Atkinson said. “I think you catch a wave, kind of a wave of confidence, and then it all flows. Looks like this is what we signed up for. It is a collective trust. Sometimes it’s two or three men. We have 12 or 13 players playing with great confidence on both sides.”
There’s a lot of that going around the league right now.
There have been 16 teams this season – more than half the league – who have already had at least one winning streak of five or more games. New York just had a nine-game winning streak broken by the Thunder last Friday. Boston, Dallas, Milwaukee, Phoenix and the Thunder (excluding their current 15-game streak) have gone on a seven-game winning streak so far this season.
But what the Cavs and Thunder are doing is historic on multiple levels. They are the first team to achieve a winning streak of 15 or more games in the same NBA season since Toronto and Milwaukee did it in 2019-20.
Wednesday will mark only the third game in NBA history when two teams are on a winning streak of at least 10 games. The other two: February 29, 2000, when the Los Angeles Lakers played Portland (both on an 11-game winning streak) and January 26, 1995, when Utah played Seattle (both on a 10-game winning streak).
Additionally, this is the second time two NBA teams have gotten to a 30-5 start, or better, in the same season. The other was in the 1971-72 season, when the Lakers started 32-3 and the Milwaukee Bucks started 30-5.
They ended up meeting in the playoffs that season. The Lakers beat the Bucks in the Western Conference Finals on their way to the NBA title.
If the Cavaliers and Thunder meet in the playoffs this season, it will be with the Larry O’Brien Trophy on the line in the NBA Finals. And with the way these clubs are playing, there’s no reason to say this isn’t a real possibility.
The Associated Press contributed to this article