Cavs comeback falls short to hot shooting Thunder

The Cleveland Cavaliers erased an early 23-point first-quarter deficit, but they weren’t able to complete the comeback. The shorthanded Oklahoma City Thunder, fueled by incredible outside shooting, were able to hand the Cavs their first loss in February. Cleveland fell 121-113.

The Cavaliers dug themselves their early hole due to their inability to protect the ball. They turned it over 10 times in the first quarter, leading to 17 points going the other way. That helped juice an Oklahoma City offense that was forced to play without its two best scorers in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams.

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Cleveland’s cramped starting lineup led to this. Head coach Kenny Atkinson went with James Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Dean Wade, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen to open things up. I like that group in most matchups, but this wasn’t one.

The combination of Oklahoma City’s perimeter defenders and the lack of ball handlers outside of Harden and Mitchell led to these issues. There weren’t outlets for the guards, and the offense struggled. This group was outscored by 14 in the five minutes they played.

Things got worse from there as the deficit ballooned to 23 late in the first quarter before the Cavs started their comeback.

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Cleveland consistently rallied back over the next two-and-a-half quarters. They cut the deficit to a respectable 15 after one, brought it to single digits at the end of the second, and gained their first lead of the game midway through the third.

Unfortunately for the Cavs, that was the only lead they would take. The Thunder recaptured their advantage heading into the fourth quarter and were able to keep the Cavs mostly at arm’s length down the stretch.

Oklahoma City’s outside shooting was a weapon all game, and saved them in the fourth quarter. They simply couldn’t miss as they hit their third-highest percentage of threes in a game this season. Even though the Cavs got…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/cavs-comeback-falls-short-hot-204727244.html

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Publish date : 2026-02-22 20:47:00

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