- Cleveland Cavaliers (3-4) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (4-3)
- When: Wednesday, 08 November 2023 at 7:00pm CST
- Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
- Offensive Rating – CLE: 107.0 (27th) / OKC: 114.0 (11th)
- Defensive Rating – CLE: 109.9 (11th) / OKC: 113.6 (20th)
- Net Rating – CLE: -2.9 (18th) / OKC: 0.4 (15th)
The Set-Up
The NBA is crazy sometimes. You could play a team twice in a span of two weeks and see a completely different team on the floor each time you play them. On October 27th, the Thunder played a Cavs team in Cleveland that was missing both Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen. Oklahoma City had to launch an amazing comeback in the last 2 minutes of that game to overcome a 10-point deficit in what was probably their most exciting game of the year.
Conventional wisdom would tell you the Cavs probably stand a better chance today because of the addition of the two starters that were injured in the previous game. But, Cleveland has weirdly not played well this season on the offensive end. They are 27th in offensive rating and have a negative net rating. The twin tower experiment seems to be languishing a bit and spacing for the guard duo of Donovan Mitchell and Garland is severely lacking. That could be something or it could be nothing. Seven games is an extremely small sample size and the Cavs rode this same line-up last season to a 51-31 record. OKC is also getting over an injury bug and may be a little different than the team Cleveland faced with the addition of Jaylin Williams to the rotation.
Injury Report
OKC
- Ousmane Dieng (wrist) – Questionable
- Luguentz Dort (hip) – Questionable
- Kenrich Williams (back) – Out
CLE
- Ty Jerome (ankle) – Out
- Sam Merrill (illness) – Out
- Isaac Okoro (knee) – Out
- Ricky Rubio (personal) – Out
Three Big Things
- Rebounding and the size problem – In the previous game against Cleveland, Evan Mobley and Chet Holmgren essentially negated each other because of their similar size and positionality. But with the addition of Jarrett Allen to the line-up, the Thunder may find themselves staring up at another behemoth in the paint. I love Jalen Williams at the 4, but these are the nights where the height disparity could rear it’s ugly head on the boards. It’ll be interesting to see if coach Daigneault plays bigger line-ups involving Holmgren and Jaylin (J-Will) Williams.
- Giddey redemption game – With Isaac Okoro likely being out with a knee injury, there may be a mismatch on the floor for Josh Giddey to take advantage of. He struggled in the previous game against the Hawks, as he never found his rhythm and missed a lot of shots that he normally makes. He was visibly frustrated throughout the night, especially with how great he performed in the 4th quarter of the Warriors game. I could see him taking either of Cleveland’s smaller guards into the post or driving by someone like Max Strus.
- The immovable object vs. the unstoppable force – Cleveland’s defense has been great this season. They are 11th in defensive rating and first in scoring. The Thunder have been pretty good on offense this season. They are 11th in offensive rating, first in free throw percentage, 6th in 3pt percentage, and 5th in FG percentage. Cleveland is 20th in pace, while the Thunder are 5th. Whoever exerts their will on their end of the floor will likely win this game.
On Episode 32 of the NTTB podcast, we discuss the following topics:
