CLEVELAND — It’s been wrong to use injuries as an excuse for many of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ losses this season. They’ve had enough talent in many of those defeats to prevail still. Monday afternoon was
different. They didn’t have the right combination of skill players to compete with the Oklahoma City Thunder and were thoroughly outclassed as a result, leading to a 32-point loss.
The Cavs were without Darius Garland (toe), Sam Merrill (hand), and Max Strus (foot). That’s the wrong combination of guys to be missing against a physical, Oklahoma City defense that can wreak havoc on teams that don’t have numerous on-ball creators.
Donovan Mitchell has traditionally struggled in the matchup against the Thunder. Lu Dort was seemingly built in a lab to make life difficult for Mitchell. He’s one of the few guard defenders who can match Mitchell’s combination of speed and athleticism. In two games last season, Mitchell combined to score just 19 points on 6-31 shooting.
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That trend continued. Mitchell scored the opening basket of the game, but then went cold. He wasn’t able to get past Dort and couldn’t shoot well enough behind the arc to make up for it. Mitchell ended the night with 19 points on 5-18 shooting to go along with three assists.
The Cavs’ offense struggled as a result. They went 4-18 (22.2%) from beyond the arc in the first half. That isn’t going to do it against a Thunder team that does such a good job at protecting the paint. This led to a 15-point deficit for Cleveland at the break.
The Cavs showed some fight in the third quarter. The Thunder pushed the lead to 20 early in the frame, but the Cavs were able to make it nominally competitive by cutting the deficit to nine late in the quarter. But that was as close as they would get in the second half.
Any comeback was reliant on the three-ball falling. That never happened as the Cavs ended the game shooting 8-25 (22.9%) from three.
The Thunder made this a one-sided affair in the fourth quarter. They won that quarter 45-25 to make this game much more lopsided than it felt for the first three quarters.
Oklahoma City’s defense made Cleveland’s bigs beat them with how they were able to defend Mitchell. The Cavs’ bigs weren’t able to consistently do so. Mobley’s boxscore looks fine. He finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, and five assists, but he didn’t have the superstar impact the Cavs needed him to have if they were going to win this one.
Jarrett Allen added 16 points and nine rebounds.
The Thunder were led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren. SGA had a game-high 30 points on 12-20 shooting to go along with three assists. Holmgren supplied 28 points and eight rebounds.
Even though the Thunder were missing two starters in Jalen Williams (hamstring) and Isaiah Hartenstein (right soleus), they were able to maintain their identity. Cleveland wasn’t. The Cavs didn’t have the shooting or playmaking to play how they wanted to. And right now, that’s what separates Cleveland from the truly elite teams.
The Cavaliers will be back in action on Wednesday as they hit the road to take on a Charlotte Hornets team that is playing better than expected over their last few games. Tip-off is at 7 PM.
