The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Nos. 3 and 2 teams in the Eastern Conference en route to extending their overall winning streak to a franchise-best 15 games.
Next up for the Thunder? Well, it’s the team with the best record in the East — and the NBA, for that matter — as they visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
Oklahoma City boasts an 11-0 record versus Eastern Conference foes while Cleveland sports a 10-0 mark against Western Conference representatives.
The Cavaliers also are riding high on a 10-game winning streak — all by double digits, mind you — and are a scintillating 18-1 at home this season.
“It’s going to be hard on the road to get off to the slow starts that we’ve been getting off to lately. So we have to kind of fix that,” Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We got to throw the first punch, especially on the road against good teams with their environment, their crowd behind them.”
Oklahoma City head coach Mark Daigneault has faith in his team after ending the New York Knicks’ nine-game winning streak on Friday and defeating the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics two nights later.
“More pressure, more grit, more intensity,” Daigneault said. “We’ve got a level we can play at that can really be good (on defense).”
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 33 points in each of the last two games and has served as the team’s leading scorer in each of the last eight. The two-time All-Star owns team-best averages in points (31.3), assists (6.1), steals (2.0) and blocks (1.1).
Oklahoma City’s current winning streak matches the longest of the season by an NBA team. Cleveland began the campaign with 15 straight victories.
The Cavaliers made some noise after their last game, as Darius Garland expressed a bit of frustration as to why his team isn’t getting the recognition he feels it deserves.
“I wish I had an answer to that because I think that we deserve to have recognition for being the best team in the league,” Garland said, per Cleveland.com. “Especially with the group that we have, the brand of basketball that we play. I think it’s really exciting. I think it’s fun.
“I think it’s actual great basketball, and it should be shown a lot more. It should be just really out there, in my opinion. But I guess (we’re) a small market. That’s the only thing I can really think of, to be honest with you.”
Garland made a statement on the court as well, scoring 25 points in the Cavaliers’ 115-105 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday. He is averaging 20.5 points to trail only Donovan Mitchell (23.3) for the team lead.
Garland also expressed his intentions for the immediate future.
“I want to be an All-Star,” said Garland, whose lone All-Star selection to date came in the 2021-22 season. “I want to get back to that level of play that I’ve been at and I’m healthy this season. I plan on being in San Francisco.”
