It took until just before the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Saturday night game in Cleveland for someone to note to George that the man nearly unanimously referred to as the NBA’s best active player was only 25 points away from 30,000 for his career. But I’ll also guess that there’s an 8 out of 10 chance that Cleveland does make a trade, and a 7 out of 10 chance they trade the Brooklyn pick. But if Los Angeles maintains their current trajectory, do they hold onto veterans like Williams and Jordan to see what happens?
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James, who averages 27 for the season, didn’t get there, however.
Oklahoma City center Steven Adams scored 25 on 12 of 13 shooting and the Thunder’s starters combined for 121 points. The Cavaliers had a solid offensive rebounding percentage of 29.8 (above their season average of 20.3) and had a better free throw rate (0.212 vs. 0.182).
“You don’t win championships … losing a game is not encouraging at all”, he said.
With injuries to Thomas, Iman Shumpert, Tristan Thompson, and Derrick Rose the Cavaliers bench was so short they were finally able to get some consistent lineups. The Thunder won the most recent contest 118-109. Cleveland has paid out in nine out of their last 11 home games against Oklahoma City. They scored 76 – the most given up in any half by the Cavs this season – and took the air out of the Quicken Loans Arena crowd.
Cleveland ultimately fell behind by a point when Shelvin Mack canned a short jumper, and it appeared as though a fifth straight loss was in order. As a team, the Thunder shot 48 percent from the field and 12 of 35 from the three-point line as they led by six points at halftime before putting the game out of reach with a 33-18 third quarter. They’ve given up over 110 points in eight of those 14 games.
Oklahoma City ranks ninth in blocks per game (5.1) while Cleveland ranks 26th (3.8).
Bulls 113, Hawks 97: Robin Lopez scored 20 points, Lauri Markkanen added 19 and Chicago easily beat Atlanta. The loss was their fifth in the last six games, with the only win in that span being a one-point victory over the Orlando Magic, which very almost was a loss.
In their last five games, Oklahoma City is 2-3 ATS with 4 unders and 1 over. The Timberwolves, Raptors and now Thunder can all vouch for that.
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Add it all up and Saturday’s result happens, with the Cavs allowing 148 points, matching the most in franchise history, tying the terrible mark set in 1972 when the Cavs were an expansion team.
