On Thursday January 16th at 7:30 pm eastern time, the 34-5 Cleveland Cavaliers traveled to Oklahoma City Oklahoma to play the 33-6 Oklahoma City Thunder.at the Paycom Center This is a rematch from the 129-122 Cavaliers win in Cleveland on January 8th,2025. The Cavaliers last game was a 127-117 win over the Indiana Pacers last Tuesday in Indianapolis Indiana. The Thunder’s last game was a 118-102 win over the Philadelphia 76ers in Philadelphia last Tuesday night. Out for the Cavaliers was Emoni Bates, Ty Jerome was listed as questionable due to an illness. He did play that night, The Thunder was without Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren, Ajay Mitchell, and Nikola Topic for the game. This was nationally televised matchup as a potential preview of the 2025 NBA Finals.

In the first quarter the Cavaliers played sluggish on both sides of the court, they trailed the Thunder after one quarter of play, 32-14. In the second quarter the Cavaliers effort continued to be underwhelming while the Thunder kept running. At halftime the Thunder led the Cavaliers by a score of 75-49.  In the third quarter Oklahoma City kept up the pace and continued to add to their lead. Going into to the fourth quarter the Thunder led the Cavaliers 119-81. In the fourth quarter the Cavaliers tried to show some life, they outscored the Thunder 33-15. Despite that the Cavaliers suffered their 6th loss of the season to the Oklahoma City Thunder 134-114.

The Cavaliers’ leading scorer was Darius Garland with 20 points in 24 minutes of play. This was the worst loss for the Cavaliers this season. Up next for this team is trip to Minneapolis Minnesota to play the 22-19 Minnesota Timberwolves Saturday January 18th at 9pm eastern time, at the Target Center. The 34-6 Cleveland Cavaliers will be looking to bounce back after this loss. And I will expect them to do just that.