The Cleveland Cavaliers entered Thursday averaging the fewest points in the NBA with 103.1 per game. Their offensive rating was second-to-last. But against the Oklahoma City Thunder, they practically looked like a juggernaut in a 129-102 Thunder loss.
Three Cavaliers players scored more than 20 points, and three others reached double-digits as the team shot 51.1% from the field and made 13 3s.
The OKC defense, which had been solid for the majority of the season, has slipped over the last seven games.
Going back to March 29, the first game after Lu Dort suffered a concussion, the Thunder have given up 125.3 points per game while allowing opponents to shoot 49.7% from the field and 39.7% from 3.
Against teams like the Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns and Portland Trail Blazers, that can be understandable. But the Detroit Pistons put up 132. The Charlotte Hornets tallied 113 without their best two players. The Cavs just put up 129, the most they’ve scored in a non-double-overtime game this season.
“A lot of our breakdowns were execution breakdowns, whereas in this stretch of games we’ve also had some moments where our competitive level wasn’t high enough. I didn’t think that was necessarily the case tonight,” said head coach Mark Daigneault.
He added: “We’re in a pretty tough stretch both from an injury standpoint and from a scheduling standpoint. I thought we endured it with our head held high. Obviously tonight was a little ugly and hopefully we have some reinforcements coming here with some more guys coming off of injuries pretty soon.”
How much of it can be attributed to lack of familiarity with teammates? Of the nine Thunder players who appeared on Thursday, four did not play for OKC in the first half of the season, and two others played less than 10 games.
How much is the lack of NBA experience in general? Two of the players are rookies and four are second-year players, and three of those second-year players appeared in 13 games or fewer in their rookie season.
“When we’re cycling in new players … The first and foremost thing that we’re trying to evaluate is just competitiveness, and are they plugged into the team,” Daigneault said. “That’s foundational identity type stuff …. and that’s gone in and out at times.”
It’s not all because of the youth or inexperience. Some poor tendencies are catching up to the Thunder.
“I think it starts in transition. We gotta do a better job taking care of the ball,” said guard Ty Jerome, who scored a team-high 23 points. “They get out and get easy ones.”
That has been an ongoing issue for the Thunder, long enough that it was something that even center Al Horford addressed when he was still getting playing time.
Over the course of the season, Oklahoma City has allowed 19.3 points per game off turnovers, the worst in the league. The Thunder had 18 turnovers against the Cavaliers, resulting in 24 points.
Four of those turnovers came during the 15-0 Cleveland run that started near the end of the second quarter and went into the third. What had been a tie escalated to a 76-61 lead for the Cavaliers.
This was a similar story to Wednesday. The Thunder kept that game against the Hornets close until the end of the third quarter, when Charlotte embarked on a 12-0 run in a four-minute stretch on the heels of OKC turnovers. Cleveland’s run took a little less than five minutes.
Up until that stretch by the Cavs, the Thunder played well. They put up 61 points in the first half. But the offense absolutely collapsed in the third quarter, as the team scored just 14 points, while the Cavaliers put together a 38-point first quarter and a 36-point fourth quarter.
So this isn’t just a question of defense. It’s not just about if the inexperience of the players on that end of the court is limiting their production. It’s also about offense.
Without the usual playmakers on the court, the Thunder are struggling to score, turning over the ball and allowing easy points in transition.
They have hit their first five-game losing streak of the season.
“I thought they just kind of wore us down tonight,” Daigneault said. “And credit them. Like I said, I thought they played a really good game. They ran through the finish line, through 48 minutes tonight. We didn’t. they deserved to win.”
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