The Cavaliers arrived in Oklahoma City on Thursday boasting the best record in the NBA, but by the time the final buzzer sounded, they looked nothing like the juggernaut that had captured the league’s attention.
The Thunder thoroughly dominated the Cavs, trouncing them 134-114 in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score suggested.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was at the forefront of Oklahoma City’s destruction, putting together a near-flawless performance with 40 points and eight assists in just 29 minutes.
His MVP-level play was complemented by Luguentz Dort, who poured in a season-high 22 points, including six three-pointers, and played ferocious defense on Donovan Mitchell.
The Thunder led by as many as 42 points in the third quarter, leaving Cleveland searching for answers.
The two teams now share identical 34-6 records, but Thursday’s game made one thing clear: Oklahoma City made a statement that they are a force to be reckoned with; the Cavs still believe they are, but now they may have to prove it all over again.
“We didn’t respond to the avalanche,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson told reporters. “Just total domination.”
The Cavs found themselves in an early hole, trailing by 26 points in the second quarter — their largest deficit of the season. From there, things only got worse.
Darius Garland led Cleveland with 20 points, but it was a night to forget for Mitchell, who struggled to find any rhythm against Dort’s suffocating defense. Mitchell finished with just eight points on 3-of-15 shooting and is now just 6-of-31 in two games against Oklahoma City this season.
“I put this one on me,” Mitchell said after the game. “As a leader, I gotta set the tone.”
The Cavaliers were coming off a narrow win against Toronto and had suffered a blowout loss to the Pacers just a few days prior, but this game was a wakeup call of a different magnitude.
Cleveland had been firing on all cylinders — especially offensively — but looked completely out of sync. They were held to 46 percent shooting through three quarters, and their usual offensive firepower, particularly from three-point range, was stifled. Cleveland went 7-of-26 from deep, and their season-high 21 turnovers led to 30 points for the Thunder.
For Oklahoma City, this was yet another blowout victory in a growing streak of dominant performances. Despite missing bruising center Isaiah Hartenstein (calf strain), the Thunder’s perimeter defense was smothering.
Dort, Alex Caruso (who missed the previous meeting), and rookie Jalen Williams gave the Cavs fits all night, forcing turnovers and suffocating their offensive flow.
“We just have to double down on that package,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “We carried over some really good things from Cleveland.”
One of those good things was a blueprint for beating the Cavaliers, which involves pressuring their perimeter players, particularly Mitchell, and making them uncomfortable.
Cleveland’s struggles against bigger, stronger guards and wings were once again on full display. The Cavs’ big men, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, were largely neutralized by the Thunder’s defense, with Mobley finishing with just five points in 18 minutes.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s 17-of-26 shooting performance underscored just how dominant he was, and by the third quarter, he was smiling and laughing during the game’s more absurd moments.
His play, combined with Dort’s relentless defense and the deep contributions from Williams and Caruso, made it clear that Oklahoma City was in control from start to finish.
The loss snapped Cleveland’s six-game road winning streak, a stretch in which they had beaten teams by at least 10 points every time. And while they’ve certainly been impressive this season, this performance exposed a few cracks in their armor.
As Garland put it, “This was a real wakeup call. This was an old-fashioned (butt) whoopin’.”
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