The Oklahoma City Thunder have been the hottest team in the NBA over the past month or so; they strung together a 15-game winning streak that included huge wins over the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics — flexing their historically-great defense in the process. But the Thunder ran into a fellow buzzsaw in the Cleveland Cavaliers, which then halted their winning streak on Wednesday night after suffering a 129-122 defeat on the road despite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 31 points.
This was always going to be the biggest test of the Thunder’s season thus far, and though they did manage a good account of themselves despite missing two crucial pieces in Chet Holmgren and Alex Caruso, it became evident that there are still some kinks for OKC to iron out moving forward. Head coach Mark Daigneault, in particular, credited Cavs center Jarrett Allen for his relentlessness on the glass, which put so much pressure on them especially late in the game.
“He was a force on the glass. A lot of our foul trouble came on the glass with him, and that set us back at different parts of the game. He had a great, great night,” Daigneault said following the Thunder’s loss, via Joel Lorenzi of Oklahoman Sports.
The Cavs made a concerted effort to put Allen in plenty of situations to wreak havoc on the glass. With the Thunder switching everything in crunch time, Isaiah Hartenstein was almost always guarding someone out on the perimeter. This left Allen with a much-smaller man on him, giving him all the advantages in the world on the offensive boards. He certainly made them pay, as he grabbed eight offensive rebounds and allowed the Cavs to win the possession battle.
Regardless, this is a learning moment for the Thunder, and they are only going to become a much-better team from here on out once Chet Holmgren returns.
Cavs out-execute Thunder late in the close contest
With the margins being razor-thin between the Cavs and the Thunder, it was always going to boil down to the team that makes the most correct plays. That team, on Thursday night, ended up being the Cavs. Nonetheless, Mark Daigneault gave Cleveland all the credit in the world for outlasting them in a clash between two giants of the association.
“A lot of it was just the stops. … we got really loose down the stretch of the third. We were kind of trading baskets at that point in the game, which obviously isn’t our identity. And they really executed down the stretch,” Daigneault added.
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