By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
After nearly 40 days of raking dubs, the Oklahoma City Thunder tasted their first defeat at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers, 129-122, during their inter-conference clash in the NBA regular season on January 9, 2024.
It was a tail of two streaks. Oklahoma seeking to extend their wins to 16 straight while the powerhouse Eastern Conference squad aiming to end their reign and continue their winning ways to 11 consecutive games.
Well, the coin flipped in favor of the Cavaliers as they became the first team in the NBA to take down Oklahoma in nearly two months, maintaining their rank as the no. 1 team in the East with an impressive record of 32 wins and four losses.
The highly-anticipated matchup became the most viewed slate in the NBA’s January 9 schedule, and both franchises delivered, giving all of the league’s fans the action and high-quality game they deserved.
30 lead changes, counter-offensive runs, and a tight chess match between two talented head coaches. That what summed up the heavyweight clash.
Oklahoma looked like they were having their way against the Cavaliers after immediately building a nine-point lead in the opening frame. Their strategy was simple, and that was to contain Donovan Mitchell’s scoring, Cleveland’s tested and proven franchise player.
Little did the Thunder know that their main goal was a blessing in disguise for the Cavaliers as it paved the way for the other guys to step up in the bright lights, specifically the frontcourt duo of Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.
With Mitchell’s dismal shooting from the field, Cleveland’s head coach Kenny Atkinson devised a way to make him effective, making him act as a decoy and a playmaker for the rest of his teammates.
The other key players didn’t let their coaching staff down as all of the other starters reached double figures in scoring, led by Allen who finished the night with a dominant double-double outing of 25 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, three steals, and a block.
His other half, Mobley, also stuffed the stat sheets and tallied a near triple-double stat-line of 21 markers, 10 boards, seven dimes, a steal, and a block.
The 1-2 punch started to get hot at the end of the first frame when Mitchell fed them at the paint, exposing Oklahoma’s lack of size with only Isaiah Hartenstein playing as a legitimate big man in the interior.
With Chet Holmgren still out for the Thunder, the Cavaliers’ point of attack until the final buzzer sounded was to pummel their way in the shaded lane and that paid off dividends.
In the fourth and final quarter, Oklahoma tried their all to keep themselves within striking distance but Mobley drained the first dagger of the game with an isolation deuce against the out-stretched defense of Hartenstein to extend their cushion to five points, 127-122, with only a minute remaining in the nip-and-tuck affair.
The Cavaliers then capitalized on Oklahoma’s failed offensive attempt and officially sent the Thunder home off a Darius Garland drive that put them ahead by seven points, 129-122.
Garland backstopped Allen and Mobley with 18 points and seven assists while Max Struss added 17 markers built from an efficient 5/6 shooting from the three-point territory.
Mitchell only capped off the win with 11 points, his lowest-scoring output in the season so far since finishing with 10 on November 21, 2024, against the New Orleans Pelicans.
On the other hand, Oklahoma received another 30-point outing from leading MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who chipped in 31 points, five rebounds, four assists, and three steals, but his do-it-all effort wasn’t enough against the well-oiled and healthy Cleveland mob.
