This one stings. 10 missed free throws and 18 turnovers. A lot of points left on the floor.
Their star outperformed our star. SGA was 15-for-22; Mitchell was 8-for-23, including 1-for-9 on 3's. The Cavs were 9-for-29 while the Thunder were 12-for-28 - a 9-point advantage in an 8-point win. As usual, we still can't shoot 3's.
Garland was responsible for 8 of the Cavs' 18 turnovers. That's awful for a guy who is supposed to excel at ball-handling and passing. I know he missed some time and just got back, but he's also 2-for-15 on 3's. If he were playing his normal game we'd have won this one, but he's not there yet.
The Thunder came in dead last in offensive rebound percentage but down the stretch they had two huge putbacks, one by Dort at 1:47 left and another by Holmgren at 1:07. If the Cavs had rebounded those misses they would have been down by 2 points with 56 seconds left.
I expected the Cavs to dominate the glass against the league's worst rebounding team, but it ended up 41-41.
The Cavs' weakness at 3-point shooting and on the offensive glass continues to screw them. OKC came in averaging just 6.9 offensive boards per game - they had 12 tonight. Those seven extra rebounds were probably good for more than the 8-point margin of victory.
The end of the fourth quarter was like deja vu from the first game, where OKC hit four straight 3's while the Cavs were missing 2's and turning it over. The Cavs had pulled to within four points with 4:30 to go when the Thunder hit back-to-back 3's around a LeVert foul, a LeVert turnover, and another missed 3 by Mitchell. In 1:01 the lead went from 4 to 12 points. It took the Cavs over 5 minutes to cut the lead from 12 to 4 and in about three possessions it was right back to 12 again. Frustrating.
SGA came in shooting 26% on 3's and was 0-for-1 when he nailed a step-back 3 with 4:00 to go and the Thunder up by 6. That's was superstars do. He also hit one in Cleveland down the stretch.
