Livescore
Oklahoma City came into Wednesday night with not just the best defense in the NBA this season, but it was on pace to be a historically great defense.
Cleveland put up 129 points on it.
As he has been all season, Evan Mobley’s offensive step forward as a shot creator was the difference — that and Jarrett Allen scoring 25 points on 9-of-11 shooting — as Cleveland won the much-anticipated showdown between the top teams in the Eastern and Western conferences, 129-122.
If this was an NBA Finals preview we are in for a treat come June — it was the kind of intense, highly entertaining game played at a high level we rarely see in January. This is exactly the kind of basketball and stars who can sell the league as the older generation of stars fade — it doesn’t have to be big markets.
“When you see that kind of basketball out there I think any fan [would enjoy it],” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said, via Evan Dammarell of Down Euclid. “I trust it. I trust the product. I trust the quality. Eventually, that’ll win out.”
If you enjoyed this, these teams play again on Jan. 16, this time in OKC.
The Thunder’s defensive pressure and physicality have worn down other East contenders in the past week — Boston and New York — but Cleveland’s offense remained crisp all night. It wasn’t just great individual shot-making (although there was that), both teams generated great looks with crisp passing and player movement. For the Cavaliers, this ball movement is what coach Kenny Atkinson brought with him from his time as Steve Kerr’s top assistant at Golden State. That and Atkinson empowering Mobley and Darius Garland — 18 points, seven assists — transformed this team.
The game started to swing in the third quarter when Cleveland kept penetrating the Oklahoma City defense and getting good shots — the Cavs scored 25 points in the first six minutes of the quarter — while Oklahoma City became flustered for a stretch by the Cavaliers’ zone defense. Then Atkinson put 6’11” Defensive Player of the Year candidate Mobley on Shai Gilgous-Alexander, which proved brilliant. Meanwhile, the Cavs kept hitting big shots.
“A lot of it was just the stops…” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said, via Joel Lorenzi of The Oklahoman. “We got really loose down the stretch of the third. We were kind of trading baskets at that point in the game, which obviously isn’t our identity. And they really executed down the stretch.”
Gilgeous-Alexander still finished the night with 31 points but on 13-of-27 shooting. Jalen Williams added 25, and Isaiah Hartenstein played fantastically but battled foul trouble for much of the second half. He still finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
Cleveland had a more balanced attack with seven players in double-digits. Allen had 25, Mobley 21, and Garland finished with 18, then off the bench Max Strus had 17 and Ty Jerome took over for a second-half stretch and finished with 15. Donovan Mitchell had a rough night with 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting, but hit a key corner 3.
It was a team win for Cleveland that extended its winning streak to 11 while ending Oklahoma City’s at 15.
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