Cavs reminded how far they have to go in sobering loss to Thunder

This one wasn’t about excuses. It was about standards.

The Cavaliers walked into a Monday matinee against the reigning champion Thunder and got a blunt reminder of what the league’s upper tier looks like right now. Physical. Connected. Relentless.

The Cavs (24-20) didn’t match it, and the result was a 136-104 home loss that felt inevitable long before the final horn.

Yes, the Cavs were short-handed. Darius Garland, Sam Merrill, and Max Strus were all unavailable, leaving Cleveland thin on shooting and secondary creation. But the Thunder (36-8) weren’t whole either.

Oklahoma City played without Jalen Williams, an All-Star and arguably their second-most important player, plus Isaiah Hartenstein. It didn’t matter. Their identity traveled. The Cavs’ did not.

That’s the difference.

The Thunder dictated terms from the opening tip. They pressured the ball. They shrank the floor. They trusted their help and rotated on a string.

The Cavs, meanwhile, never found the balance they needed offensively and spent the afternoon reacting instead of creating.

It started with Donovan Mitchell, who once again ran into the Lu Dort wall. Dort remains one of the few perimeter defenders in the league who can meet Mitchell’s speed and strength head-on, and Oklahoma City built everything around that matchup.

Mitchell scored the Cavs’ first basket, then spent most of the game fighting crowds, late clocks and contested looks. He finished with 19 points on 5-of-18 shooting and never found air.

Without Garland to steady the offense or Strus and Merrill to stretch the floor, the Cavs’ margin was razor-thin. When the shots didn’t fall, there was no counter. They went 4-of-18 from three in the first half and allowed Oklahoma City to sit comfortably in the paint.

That formula produced a 15-point halftime deficit and very little reason to believe a flip was coming.

The Cavs showed some push in the third, briefly cutting a 20-point hole down to nine. But against this Thunder team, “briefly” is never enough.

Oklahoma City responded the way elite teams do, closing the door with a 45-25 fourth quarter that turned resistance into formality.

Four players added 16 points apiece for Cleveland — Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, De’Andre Hunter and Jaylon Tyson. No one else hit double figures.

NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 to pace OKC, with Chet Holmgren tacking on 28.