Stiles Points: What Will Linger From OKC Thunder Loss to Cavs?

The Oklahoma City Thunder dropped its sixth game of the season on Wednesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. What trends from this game could stick to Oklahoma City?

Jan 8, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland (10) drives to the basket against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) during the second half at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The natural reaction after any loss is to panic. Especially in a football state, where a single loss flips seasons upside down, gets coaches fired and ruins the mood of an entire community.

That isn't life in the NBA. The season is too long, context is too important, you would wear yourself out faster than a lacy chasing a tennis ball for 45 minutes on the farm.

As the Oklahoma City Thunder drop its sixth game of the season, just relax, chicken little. The sky is not falling. In fact, it is the opposite.

After playing three straight games against bonafide title threats, the OKC Thunder come out the other side 3-1. This mark, while missing Chet Holmgren, Alex Caruso and Ajay Mitchell for nine quarters.

In this loss to Cleveland, Oklahoma City was fighting an uphill battle. While the contest lived up to the hype and hoopla the league threw at it, the Thunder were two-and-a-half-point underdogs against the Cavs.

Cleveland has only dropped one home game and with its dominating duo down low, this was a near-impossible feat for Isaiah Hartenstein, Jaylin Williams and Kenrich Williams to pull off - on the defensive end, that is.

The results of this game do not tip the scales of contention on one side or the other - both remain in the top tier of the league and could meet again in the NBA Finals. Though, this game wasn't an accurate representation of this matchup.

That goes for each side - Donovan Mitchell will never play this bad again and Oklahoma City's depleted roster really shakes up the scheme the Thunder would ideally deploy against Cleveland.

How Chet Holmgren, Ajay Mitchell and Alex Caruso would change the game

Yes, Cleveland deserves credit for this game. Absolutely, the Thunder will not use injuries as an excuse. After all, the "next man up," mantra has been around since James Naismith was taking balls out of a peach basket, However, it is clear that the injury report played a part in this loss for Oklahoma City.

Chet Holmgren is the very best big to take away the Cavs' pick-and-roll offense. As Allen and Mobley draw the big out to the 3-point line, only Holmgren is talented enough to recover to the rim as the Cavs bigs roll. There is a reason the Gonzaga product had seven swats in his last matchup with Cleveland.

Before even factoring in the 3-point shooting, the cutting and driving ability, or the gravity Holmgren has to help the Thunder's offense, he totally changes the game defensively.

On a similar note, as Hartenstein, Jaylin Williams and Kenrich Williams were pulled out of possessions on the pick-and-roll, with Alex Caruso's ability to scale up defensively, he would've been the best back-end rotation threat to execute the scramble drill for OKC in this game.

With Ajay Mitchell, perhaps you thumb your nose at a second-round rookie, but his driving ability along with his chances to create an advantage for others, he could've stopped the bleeding on offensive dry spills.

What flaws from the Cleveland loss must be addressed by OKC Thunder?

While there is no shame in this loss, there are also no true moral victories. It was not all sunshine and rainbows for Oklahoma City.

The biggest thing the Thunder must clean up is the foul trouble for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Isaiah Hartenstein. Each of them just handed over lazy fouls with unneeded swipes at the ball and a head-scratching charge attempt which piled on the citations. When playing with foul trouble, it vastly limits the ability to play physically down the stretch of games which gives matchups big advantages - particularly as drivers and on the glass.

Another issue was the turnovers. The Thunder had done a borderline historic job of protecting the ball for most of this season, but in the last two games, Oklahoma City has had some inexcusable giveaways.

One way to fix this is for superstar Gilgeous-Alexander to stay grounded longer in plays. The last two tilts, he has left his feet without an exact plan, making the wrong read and being forced into uncharacteristic turnovers.

This flaw is by far the outlier, and it wouldn't be shocking to see it corrected immediately, but it must end before it becomes a true trend.

Oklahoma City only shot 36 percent from the 3-point line, this has been a concerning trend all season long. With capable shooters, the belief is eventually the tide will turn in this statistic, but the Thunder are still waiting.

Cleveland also junked up the game with a crisp zone defense in the final frame, while this is more so a feather in the hat of the Cavs vs. a concern for the Thunder - monitor this move by NBA teams. A year ago, Oklahoma City was perfectly average, ranking in the 50th percentile in the NBA against a zone defense.

What do things stand?

Oklahoma City just lost its first game since Dec. 1. By every stat, eye test and comparison they are contenders. They are still on pace to win a historic number of games for this franchise and for all the rich history in OKC, a 15-game winning streak was its longest stretch without a loss. At the end of the day, you have to lose games in the NBA. It is part of life. This was an explainable one to drop.

With how much the NBA propped up this tilt, it was good to see the game live up to expectations - neither side ever grew a double-digit lead, the advantage changed heads 30 times and the scoreboard read tied eight games.

Stiles Points

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said after the game he "Can't see a world where I'm not in OKC," following the Thunder's loss to the Cavs.
• Chet Holmgren made progress in his return to play protocol it appears based on the latest report from the road trip.
• Nick Crain explores how a historic team showed up in Bricktown in this week's Thunder on SI mailbag.
• Thunder on SI appeared on the Local Radio in Oklahoma City to dish on the NBA Trade Deadline, the potential of this Thunder team and more. Listen Here.
• Up next, the Oklahoma City Thunder head to the Garden to take on the New York Knicks. The Thunder have only lost back-to-back games once this season.

Song of the Day: Don't dream it's over by Crowded House.

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