Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder Behind the Box Score

Cleveland Cavaliers (13-8) 94

Oklahoma City Thunder (9-13) 103

Box Score

Well, I’m an emotional wreck. The Cleveland Cavaliers’ narrow defeat at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder was undoubtedly the most gut-wrenching emotional roller coaster of a Cavs game since at least 2010. As soon I post this, I’m going to go back to polishing off a pint of cookie dough ice cream while my mascara runs like I just finished watching Kramer vs. Kramer as I sob in sadness and relief.

The reason to be slightly crestfallen was that the Cavs’ eight game win streak came to a disappointing end. Cavs fans like myself were really enjoying the streak. The Cavs hadn’t enjoyed such a winning streak in ages, and it contained flashes of the juggernaut that fans hoped would develop after the acquisitions of LeBron James and Kevin Love. When a team is on a great streak, there’s always a superstitious and usually unwarranted fear that the team’s growth will be retarded once the streak ends, and they will relapse into losing habits. Given the way the game unfolded, I highly doubt that will be the case. But it still stung more than anticipated, as the streak I was thoroughly enjoying came to a tough close.

The reason to shed tears of relief is that Kyrie Irving, after collapsing to the floor with knee pain in the second quarter, appears to be completely healthy. There was already enough anxiety to deal with for Cavs fans upon learning that LeBron James would sit out Thursday night’s game with knee soreness. Then, after contesting a Russell Westbrook jumper, Kyrie lay in a heap on the hardwood in obvious pain. I immediately went into a catatonic state, cursed fate, and experienced an emotional meltdown as people on Twitter unaccredited in the medical community speculated that Kyrie had done everything from tear his ACL to suffer a brain aneurysm. Kyrie, the Cavs All-Star point guard, emerged from the locker room after halftime and appeared to be at full strength, defying the curses forever afflicting Cleveland sports. So, thank whatever deity you talk to for sparing Kyrie Irving for the time being, as a season-ending injury would be fatal to the Cavs’ title chances.

In the meantime, there was still a game to play. The Cavs had an eight point lead after the first quarter before having an abysmal second and third quarter stretch. With hope seemingly lost, they somehow clawed back within four points with minutes left, only to come up short. Here were the numbers.

12 of 43 – After jumping out to an eight point lead in the first quarter, the Cavs stagnated badly in the second and third quarters, shooting 12 of 43 from the field over that span, good for a cringe-worthy 27.9 percent. The Cavs only scored 40 points over the middle half of the game, netting -20 points. Although they made a run at the Thunder, bringing it within four late, a 20 point deficit on the road is tough to overcome.

4 of 6 – While the Cavs shot 36.5 percent from the field as a team, Matthew Dellavedova hit four of his six three-point attempts, and 5-of-8 field goal attempts overall. Each three Dellavedova hit seemed huge, and the two threes he made in the fourth quarter felt like they prevented the game from slipping into a runaway. Thursday was Dellavedova’s first start of the season,¹ and if he doesn’t remain in the starting lineup he’s going to continue to play over 30 minutes per game. His defensive effort the last two games has been superb, sparking the entire team as he even did an admirable job defending reigning MVP Kevin Durant, to whom he concedes at least a five inch disadvantage. Long live the Saucy Aussie!²

36.5 percent – Not to harp on the shooting numbers, but a team simply cannot win on the road shooting 35.5 percent from the field without its best player. Other than Dellavedova, Cavs players shot 5-of-13, 4-of-11, 1-of-6, 7-of-21, 5-of-13, 4-of-8, 0-of-4, and 0-of-1. Octuple yikes.

11 – The Thunder blocked a staggering 11 of the Cavaliers’ field goal attempts. The Cavs only had four blocks of their own. When the shots on the perimeter weren’t falling, the Cavs desperately needed to convert shots in the paint without having them swatted with impunity. Credit the Thunder defense for most of them, and Serge Ibaka is one of the best defenders in the league, but at a certain point someone needs to spice things up with a pump fake, or force the issue to draw contact. 11 blocks is inexcusable, and it certainly felt like Anderson Varejao suffered 15 rejections on his own. Dunk it, whydontya?

0 – Shawn Marion had zero playing time in the fourth quarter, as one of the Cavs starters. After playing 30 minutes against Toronto last Friday, Marion has played 13, 16, and 21 minutes. If Dellavedova is going to play excellent defense, even against bigger players, and hit three-pointers, it’s hard to see how Marion will keep playing in the fourth quarter. Granted, Joe Harris played in the fourth quarter because the Cavs were desperate for threes, but Marion needs to be more effective at both ends and have an effective field goal percentage greater than 47.2 to justify crunch-time minutes.

4 of 8 – Russell Westbrook is virtually impossible to defend when he’s hitting half of his midrange jumpers. He’s a force of nature that defenders must give room, otherwise he would blow by them. But that allows him to shoot open jumpers, which ordinarily opponents are happy to let him take. Thursday night, Westbrook hit four of his eight two point jump shots out of the paint. He’s basically unstoppable if that’s the case, and his 14 foot jumper with three minutes left, followed by a Durant flurry, officially KO’ed the surging Cavs.

1 – Although Kyrie Irving did not have his best shooting performance tonight, he had only one turnover compared to six assists. Nearly all of his missed shots seemed to rim out, and his shot selection was mostly disciplined. Irving is continually improving at playing within the flow of the game and knowing when to distribute and when to assert himself. If he maintains an assist-to-turnover ratio of three, the Cavs will be difficult to beat absent a lot of self-inflicted wounds.

1,458,956 – The number of times I will audibly give thanks to no one in particular for sparing Kyrie of a season-ending knee injury. Hopefully there are no other scares in the future.

With the 8-13 Thunder attempting to re-insert themselves into the playoff hunt in the hyper-competitive West, Thursday night’s game was one the Cavs had no business winning on the road without LeBron James. Yet the Cavs continued to fight. It was an exhausting and as emotionally draining as a December NBA game can be, for the reasons discussed above. Even though they eventually lost, the Cavs never once appeared to be on the verge of quitting. Like the Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas,³ the Cavs continue to keep finding fortitude they didn’t even know they had.

Just when things were slipping away, in Cleveland they’ll say, the Cavs’ small hearts grew three sizes Thursday. And then, the true meaning of being a contender came through, and the Cavs found the strength of ten Eastern Conference teams, plus two!

Hopefully the Cavs will reap the rewards of Thursday night’s effort in May and June. But for now, they need to maintain the effort level, get healthy, and play hard on the second half of a difficult back-to-back Friday night in New Orleans against the Pelicans.

1. It was also only the fifth start of his career. [↩]
2. I’m pretty sure this nickname won’t catch on. [↩]
3. One of the best Christmas movies without question. The live action version is an abomination, in my humble opinion. [↩]