The game of the year in the NBA may have taken place in Cleveland on Wednesday night.
A battle between the 31-4 Cleveland Cavaliers and the 30-5 Oklahoma City Thunder lived up to expectations, as the two titans of the NBA to this point in the season played a game that came down to the final minute. In the end, Cleveland came out with a 129-122 win after key plays from Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley down the stretch sealed the deal for the NBA-leading Cavaliers.
Cleveland’s victory ends OKC’s 15-game winning streak, but most would say the Thunder has nothing to hang its head about. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 and dished out four assists and Jalen Williams scored 25 in one of his best games of the last few weeks. Isaiah Hartenstein stood out in the box score with 18-11-8 and had terrific moments, but too often he was on the receiving end of a physical play from Allen that he couldn’t deal with.
With roughly a minute to go, Allen’s rebounding ability played a huge part in getting Cleveland three extra possessions while leading 125-122. After coming up with multiple stops, OKC’s defense finally allowed a running layup by Mobley to give Cleveland a two-possession lead, effectively ending the game.
Allen’s late-game heroics on the glass looked eerily similar to many of OKC’s close losses last season before it added Hartenstein. It felt like no matter how good of defense it played, the Thunder couldn’t bring down a rebound in the clutch when it needed one extra possession to make a run at the game.
In the end, OKC only lost the rebounding battle by three, but it was those three rebounds that swung the game in the direction of the Cavaliers.
When the sting of losing a franchise record 15-game winning streak wears off, most OKC fans will come to the same conclusion — Chet Holmgren dramatically changes the outcome of Wednesday’s game.
That may very well be true. After all, when OKC is healthy and can put a lineup of Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Lu Dort, Holmgren and Hartenstein on the floor, it mirrors Cleveland in a way that few other teams can. However, one of OKC’s biggest issues against Cleveland was defending the three-point line, an asset the Cavaliers use better than any other team in the NBA.
Cleveland shot 41% from deep and missed a few open looks to boot. If this game ends up as an NBA finals preview, OKC’s biggest adjustment will have to be defending the barrage of outside shots from the Cavaliers.
Months down the road, this game, like most NBA regular season matchups, will be forgotten. But, in the moment it lived up the the sky-high expectations that both fanbases had and looked like what a game between two one-seeds should.
The stakes were high, the basketball was elite and the Cavaliers were the better team on Wednesday night. That being said, for everyone’s sake, let’s all hope these teams play more than just twice this season and let’s all hope both teams can meet again as healthy as possible.
