CLEVELAND — It is rare to be able to make such a definitive statement based on the outcome of one regular-season game in the NBA, but then again, what is happening with the two teams who met in Cleveland on Wednesday night is not normal.
Right now, the Cleveland Cavaliers are the league’s best team. Hands down. Get in line. They’ve passed all the tests, knocking off the league’s hottest team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, 129-122, in what easily lived up to the hype as the league’s biggest game of the season to date.
Jarrett Allen shined perhaps the brightest among numerous outstanding individual performances on both sides with 25 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and three steals for Cleveland. His frontcourt mate, Evan Mobley, was nearly as good with 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, and Darius Garland finished with 18 points and seven assists.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a leading MVP candidate, led both teams with 31 points on 27 shots. Jalen Williams contributed 25 points and nine assists and Isaiah Hartenstein had 18 points, 11 boards and eight assists.
Mobley’s 10-footer with 1:07 left put the Cavs ahead by five. Gilgeous-Alexander missed a contested layup on the ensuing possession and Garland iced the game with a layup with 27 seconds left.
There were 30 lead changes and eight ties in this nip-and-tuck affair that featured a frenetic pace and physical play at both ends of the floor. Cleveland entered not only with the league’s best record but with the NBA’s best offense, top shooting percentage and shooting percentage from 3-point range. The Thunder came in not only as the league’s best defensive team but on a historic winning streak that included wins over the defending-champion Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves.
“I think it’s a huge feedback game,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said before the matchup. “That’s why I am excited about the game. It’s a big test — where are we against the elite teams? … You can build and improve off the feedback.”
Thunder coach Mark Daigneault added: “This isn’t to diminish any other game, but these elevated games are great. They’re great in terms of learning our own team — what carries over against certain opponents, what doesn’t, what we need to improve on. And the extra noise, I said this during the (NBA) Cup stuff, you know, like that stuff is stuff you have to cut through if you want to be a really good team. And so we have to cut through it and get present in the competition.”
Cleveland has not only won 11 straight for its second winning streak this season of at least that many but is now an NBA-best 32-4; the Cavs are the seventh team in league history to win at least 32 of their first 36.
What makes it easy to say Cleveland is inarguably the best in the sport right now, based on what happened on the court Wednesday evening, is the Thunder (30-6) entered on a franchise-best 15-game winning streak and with just one less win in as many games as the Cavs.
In fact, according to data distributed by the NBA, this was just the second time in history that two teams had won at least 30 of their first 35 games, and the Cavs-Thunder matchup was the first game between a team from the East and the West with winning percentages of .850 or better. This was also the first time a team riding a 10-game winning streak had ever met an opponent with a 15-game winning streak on the line.
Perhaps the best news for the casual NBA fan (and the league office) is these two teams meet again in eight days in Oklahoma City, set for broadcast nationally on TNT.
The Cavs won despite an uncharacteristic off night from their top star, Donovan Mitchell, who was scoreless until there was 1:53 left in the second quarter and finished with 11 points on 3-of-16 shooting. Cleveland received two huge performances off the bench from Max Strus and Ty Jerome, who combined for 32 points.
This story will be updated.
Required reading
(Photo: David Liam Kyle / NBAE via Getty Images)
