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The 30-20 Cleveland Cavaliers went on the road to take on the 23-25 Oklahoma City Thunder. A poor shooting night let the Thunder run away in the fourth, 112-100.
Both teams were facing their fair share of injuries coming into the game. Cleveland would continue to be without All-Star starter Donovan Mitchell and the bench big man Kevin Love. They would also be without Ricky Rubio once again.
The Thunder were dealing with a lot of long term injuries like Aleksej Pokusevski and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, but also a new injury in Luguentz Dort.
The Cavs won the tipoff but struggled from the field early on. The Thunder went on an early 8-0 run to give them a 12-4 lead just four minutes into the game.
After that the Cavs started getting hot. They went on a 10-0 run over the next 2 minutes to take a 14-12 lead. The rest of the quarter was close. The Thunder were ahead at the end 27-25.
The Cavs bigs were able to keep them in this game early. Evan Mobley had 9 and Jarrett Allen had 6 as Darius Garland was able to feed them in the paint. The shortcoming for Cleveland was their ability to hit from deep. They were 0/8 from beyond the arc.
For the Thunder, they were led by the future All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He scored 16 first quarter points, 8 of which were free throws.
The second quarter was much better for the Cavs. They still weren’t shooting well but they were dominating the paint. They led 54-47 at the half.
Mobley was having a big day. He scored 9 more in the second quarter to give him 18 total points. Garland was also up to 8 points and 7 assists at the half to go along with 4 steals. Raul Neto also proved to be a spark plug off the bench, scoring 7 points.
The Thunder continued to be led by Gilgeous-Alexander. He had 21 at half, including a buzzer beater to end the half. Aaron Wiggins also had a solid half with 8 points and 5 assists.
The third quarter was all OKC. They were able to tie the game back up at 78. The Cavs continued to struggle to contain Gilgeous-Alexander. He had 31 at the end of the third. He also had a big block on Lamar Stevens to end the quarter.
For Cleveland, Stevens and Garland were the bright spots. Stevens had 8 points at the end of the third and Garland had 18 and 11 assists.
The Cavs poor shooting night hurt them in the fourth. They found themselves down 9 with under 6 minutes left and down 13 with under 5. The Cavs made an effort to rally late in fourth, but to little avail. Garland struggled to score in the paint towards the final stretch. The team as a whole finished 8/29 from deep.
The players of the game for Cleveland were Darius Garland with 31 and 13 assists and Evan Mobley with 23 and 11 rebounds.
For OKC it was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leading the way with 35 and 8 assists and Jalen Williams with 17 points.
The Cavs will look to get back in the win column Sunday against the 27-24 Los Angeles Clippers.
The Thunder will look to climb back into the play-in picture Monday against the 24-24 Golden State Warriors.
