30 lead changes and 8 ties but only one lead change mattered. The Cavs took the lead in the fourth quarter at the 9:05 mark on a Max Strus layup and they never looked back. From that point on, the Cavs outscored the Thunder 23 to 15 to protect their lead.
This game was billed as a historic matchup, and one of the best regular season games in recent memory, and it certainly lived up to its billing. The Cavs ended the Thunder’s franchise record 15-game win streak and extended their win streak to 11 games. Oh, and these teams meet again in eight days.
It was the team first in ORTG versus the team first in DRTG – guess which team won that battle? The Thunder’s DRTG of 103.3 was leading the league by a pretty wide margin. The Cavs said “oh, alright, cool” and proceeded to post an ORTG of 130.3 with Donovan Mitchell tied for 6th in scoring on the night.
There were many things that showed this Cavs team is different. It might be the Cavs not needing Mitchell to perform against the Western Conference’s best team, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley looking synergistic as ever or Mobley being called upon to get a bucket when they needed it most. Every night it seems like they reveal something a little bit different to prove yes, they are different than year’s past.
Kenny Atkinson is a large part of that as well – call it right coach at the right time. Unlocking Mobley. Making the bigs work. Rejuvenating Garland. Engaging the bench. Creating a fast, efficient, and sustainable offense.
That offense and style of play was on display early as the Cavs first two shots were drive and kick attempts for 3s which has been so important to the Cavs offense. Getting downhill, getting open shooters and making defenses pay is how the Cavs play.
From there, the Cavs had to find their way. In his postgame comments, Ty Jerome said the Cavs were playing a bit timid. It seemed liked the Cavs were trying to find their footing and adjust to how the Thunder were set to play them.
The Thunder didn’t waste any time waiting to find out as they quickly went on a 9-2 run after the Cavs went on their 6-0 run.
One thing became very evident early: The Thunder’s pace off misses was giving the Cavs trouble. The Thunder finished the game +6 fast break points and were 82nd percentile in offense off live rebounds.
The Thunder’s pace of 108 in the first quarter was the highest it got all game and decreased each quarter. With how well they played in transition, where it caused the Cavs two bigs to get back and be ready to rotate when they did, if they would have kept the game more in transition it might have been a different outcome.
The Thunder also showed their hand early on their offensive strategy: Get switches onto Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and try to find guard switches for SGA to go one-on-one.
This is the same strategy the Celtics utilized with Jayson Tatum being using guards and wings to set an on-ball pick knowing the Cavs would switch. The Thunder would continue to hunt this strategy all night.
The Cavs offensive strategy was finding its way early. After going 3-for-5 from deep, they went 1-for-6 the rest of the way.
They were also just 5-for-11 on two-pointers. The Cavs shooting may come and go periodically but they’ve always been able to rely on easy buckets so when they were even struggling with that it’s no surprise their first quarter ORTG was only 92.6.
Something former Cavalier great and Finals champion Richard Jefferson said on the broadcast stuck out, “No too many teams have their roles as defined as the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder.”
So much of coaching is defining roles so players can focus on what is expected of them and work to meet that expectation. Without clear communication and direction on what they should do, you get a team that’s disconnected. With clear communication and direction, you get the Cleveland Cavaliers – a team that looks like they could finish each other’s sentences and enjoy doing it.
When you define roles and make the game simpler for your players, they’re able to play with a clear mind, play faster and look more natural doing it. If you put too much on your player’s plate, it looks like players are thinking instead of reacting.
The second quarter continues to belong to Mobley. After a relatively quiet first quarter, he turned up aggressiveness and had seven straight points to start the quarter.
But not to be outdone, Ty Jerome turned up his aggressiveness dial and went and got six straight points of his own.
In speaking to what he felt like timidness in the first quarter, he said he wanted to come in with an attacking mindset. He added, the way to attack a physical defense is with force.
To that point: The Cavs had just 7 shot attempts in the paint + restricted area in the first quarter. In the second they had 17 shot attempts in the paint + restricted area. Their bread was being buttered down low and they were taking advantage of it.
It not only was getting there but how they got there. The Thunder were having issues in dealing with the Cavs bigs off rolls. The Cavs guards were getting rid of the ball quickly and putting the bigs in positions to succeed either with a find off the short roll or a finish at the rim.
This also showed up in other ways as the Cavs bigs helped collect six fouls on the Thunder in just seven minutes. The Cavs 11 free throw attempts in the 2Q would be the most of any quarter.
The 22 paint points was one of the highest totals the Thunder allowed all year. When Chet Holmgren gets back this is likely to change but for tonight, the Cavs took full advantage of their size advantage.
Between Mobley and Allen, they scored or assisted on 45 of the Cavs 62 first half points.
Mitchell struggled for most of the night and didn’t score his first bucket until :13 seconds left in the half. At least it was in a pretty fun play.
But hey, despite barely scoring, and not really assisting either, the Cavs were still up three points at halftime. Last year, if Donovan didn’t score the margin for error was much smaller and it usually meant the Cavs offense in turn wasn’t working. This year, no one player drives the offense and instead they all take turns making the Cavs that much harder to defend.
So, when the Cavs put up 37 points for the quarter on their way to a 142.3 ORTG it makes it that much more fun.
Folks who follow us on X/Twitter enjoyed it when we said “KEEP MILKING THEM” in reference to Frobley on offense. But if there was an advantage that showed up all night it was the bigs.
Darius Garland decided to get in the fun in the third quarter. He racked up three assists early in the quarter and was getting downhill into the paint with floaters. The more Darius gets into the paint and gets his float game going the better for the team. We’ve said it over and over but that’s the move that is the pivot point for his offensive repertoire and opens other parts of his games – lobs, threes (when bigs drop to protect the float or lob) and mid-range shots.
Dean Wade followed up hitting a three to start the game with two more threes in the third quarter. He got the initial assignment on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and is playing like a man who doesn’t want to give up his starting spot. And we don’t think he should.
The other fun part of Wade starting is it slots Max Strus into a bench role where he has the full green light. With the starters, while potent offensively, there’s only so many shots to go around and the question has always been how much it takes away from the starters shot volume. With Strus coming off the bench, he can do what Merril did with the quick trigger and provide some quick perimeter baskets.
Kenny started to change up some of his defensive looks in the second half including blitzing some pick-and-roll plays, instead of just auto switching, and even going into zone.
After the game Kenny, who has never been afraid of playing zone defense, said he felt like the zone helped get the Thunder out of their patterns.
Even though their defensive strategy on SGA led to 31 points it also took him 27 points. It seemed like they were comfortable funneling SGA into the mid-range, living with the iso ball and limiting the perimeter kick outs and rim looks off those plays. And to their credit: That looks to be the way to play.
The Thunder are 9th in 3PA and while SGA took six 3PA he only made one of them. In the second half he only had one 3PA. If the opposing team’s best player is not going to have a high three-point volume living with the mid-range shot is something you do time and time again.
39% of the Thunder’s shots were mid-range – that was 87th percentile meaning it was extremely high volume. And if you know anything about analytics, that’s the shot that’s discouraged most.
It felt like the Cavs may have been ready to pull away in the third quarter after going up six. SGA was in foul trouble and had to go to the bench.
But then the Thunder were able to go on their 13-3 run and go up by as many as four in the third quarter.
Both teams were en fuego in the third and combined for 25 assists on 33 FGM. Each team scored 40+ points and combined for 84 total points. The Thunder give up 103 points per game. The Cavs had that at the end of the third quarter.
So, to help that, Kenny went with Isaac Okoro, who was back from injury, on SGA to start he quarter. SGA didn’t get his first basketball until the 5-minute mark in the fourth.
As the Cavs start to get healthy, this is one of the fun parts of mixing matching. Depending on who is hot, depending on who the perimeter player is, the Cavs have different players to throw at them. For SGA, it started with Wade and then shifted to Okoro. Even LeVert spent some time on SGA.
The Thunder continued to do a good job on Mitchell. Any time he got past his initial defender, they were making him see bodies and forcing him into either a tough shot or giving the ball up. To Mitchell’s credit, he consistently made the right play to kick the ball out to an open Cav.
Jerome got some fourth quarter minutes and delivered. He helped lead the Cavs on an 8-0 run with two buckets and two steals. This put the Cavs up seven in the fourth, and at arm’s length of the Thunder.
Continuing his attack of the Thunder’s defense in the paint, his floater off pick-and-roll opportunities was a consistent issue for the Thunder. With Mitchell struggling and Garland needing another playmaker, Jerome answered the call.
It’s one of the things that the Thunder could have needed, and the Cavs had. Williams and SGA continually were required to create offense for the Thunder while the Cavs could go to Jerome, Garland, Mitchell and either of their bigs to help create offense when they needed it.
Did we mention this being a Ty Jerome revenge game, too?
While the Thunder never the latter half of the fourth quarter, the game went down to the wire. Which set up well for national television to see what type of leap Mobley has taken.
Five straight points down the stretch but his last bucket was the biggest. Coming out of a coaches challenge that Kenny won, the Cavs had an out of bounds play and elected to go with an action to get Mobley the ball. Kenny revealed after the game the hope was, they would get a switch for Mobley onto SGA but instead the Hartenstein was able to get over the screen and stay with Mobley.
This left Mobley iso’ed in the middle of the floor against a pretty good defender in clutch time when the Cavs needed a basket. With a Garland and Mitchell on the floor, Kenny went with Mobley. And he delivered. In a play that Mobley might not have made last year – using his handle to create a shot, taking and initiating contact, using a euro step top finesse finish, it capped a night where the Cavs continued to prove on how this year and this team is different.
Mobley’s offense was key down the stretch, but the Cavs defense was the difference in the fourth quarter. After allowing 40+ points just a quarter before, the Cavs held the Thunder to 20 points on 41% shooting. When the Cavs need to get stops, they’ve been able to.
This might have been Max Strus’s best game since returning. With five three-pointers and five assists, his bench production helped the Cavs be a +17 versus the Thunder bench. The Thunder came in with the third best bench net rating, so this is no small feat.
Even with this being a playoff like atmosphere, and Kenny playing his starters more minutes than usual, no starter played more than 35 minutes, and he still got 10 players significant playing time.
With everyone now getting healthy, one of the things to watch will be how Kenny mix and matches around the core. Wade, LeVert and Okoro were all a plus next to the core for the evening and speaks to Kenny’s options as he’s able to ride matchups and hot hands.
LeVert has his hit a bit of a shooting slump over the last five games – 32.5% FG and 31.8% from 3P. At some point there was going to be a regression from his career highs, the hope is the regression isn’t this severe. But as the rotation gets full and healthy there is likely to be some adjustment as players adjust to shifted roles.
The Cavs maturity will be tested as they have a quick turnaround with a back-to-back against the Raptors coming off a huge win. Lucky for them they get to stay home while the Raptors have to travel from New York where they are on the second night of a back-to-back as well.
Up next: The Cavs play Toronto at home on Thursday at 7:00 PM (EST)
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