• Oklahoma City Thunder (1-0) @ Cleveland Cavaliers (1-0)
• When: Friday, 27 October 2023 @ 6:30pm CST
• Where: Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, OH

The Set-Up

When you are a rebuilding team, you tend to latch yourself onto a couple teams in order to track your progress. When this rebuild first started, we usually kept track of teams like the Houston Rockets, Orlando Magic, and Detroit Pistons. Those were the teams that were on par with us in terms of where they were in their rebuild. But we also kept track of teams that were seemingly just getting out of their rebuild and looked to them as a sort of the mechanical rabbit in a greyhound race. Those teams, for the Thunder, were the Memphis Grizzlies and Cleveland Cavaliers.

The game tonight against the Cavaliers can feel like a bit of a measuring stick for this young Thunder squad looking to learn how to win consistently. The Cavs win totals over the past 5 seasons look very familiar for Thunder fans (19, 19, 22, 44, 51). It truly feels like the Thunder are a year behind the Cavs, in terms of development, and are looking to achieve a similar amount of success this season as the Cavs did last season.

Injury Report

OKC

Cleveland

• Jarrett Allen (ankle)
• Ricky Rubio (not with team)

Three Big Things

1. Fun match-ups – Both these teams are chock full of great young talent. Names that will likely be featured on All-NBA teams, All-Star teams, and All-Defense teams for the next decade. With Jarrett Allen being out, the Evan Mobley vs. Chet Holmgren match-up likely becomes a reality. And the SGA, Giddey, and Jalen Williams vs. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell match-up is always an extremely fun one.
2. Perimeter Defense – A lot like the Thunder has done over the past few seasons with the additions of Isaiah Joe, Davis Bertans, Lindy Waters III, etc, the Cavaliers have added a plethora of shooting to their team in the form of Max Strus, Georges Niang, and, former Thunder legend, Ty Jerome. Their offense is a lot of drive and kick, so the Thunder have to aware of how far they dip into the middle to help defend. The Cavaliers attempted 43 three-pointers in their last game and that trend likely won’t change.
3. Giddey – Josh Giddey should be in line for a good game. He has shown a knack for taking advantage of smaller guards in the post and Cleveland boasts two of the them who aren’t very good defensively. Look for the Thunder for hunt for these match-ups throughout the game.