The hottest team in the NBA meets the top team in the Western Conference when the Cleveland Cavaliers visit the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.
The Cavaliers have won seven consecutive games and 12 of their last 13.
Cleveland has yet to lose since acquiring James Harden from the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 4.
The Cavaliers are coming off a 118-113 win in Charlotte on Friday.
While Harden certainly has been a significant piece for Cleveland, the Cavs’ recent success goes well beyond him.
The second unit of Dennis Schroder, Jaylon Tyson, Keon Ellis, Thomas Bryant and Nae’Qwan Tomlin all were on the positive side in plus-minus in the win over the Hornets. Among the starters, only Harden was a plus.
“The second unit is our energy unit,” Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said. “All the sudden it just changes the whole speed of the game. We speed the other team up, and it’s nice to have that change of pace. I know that’s hard to play against.”
Generally, the Thunder have been able to wear teams down with their depth in recent seasons. But with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (abdominal strain) and Jalen Williams (hamstring strain) remaining out, plus sixth man Ajay Mitchell (abdominal strain/ankle sprain), Oklahoma City’s depth has taken a significant hit.
The Thunder have had to find different ways to succeed while winning three of their last four.
Oklahoma City’s recent roster changes weren’t as dramatic as Cleveland’s trading for Harden, but they’ve been plenty impactful — especially without Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams available recently.
“We’re obviously missing some on-ball creators so the way we’re trying to create advantages is different right now,” Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault said. “But once we create the advantage and once we get the ball ahead, those plays aren’t any different.”
The Thunder acquired Jared McCain in a trade with Philadelphia.
McCain scored a season-high 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting in Friday’s 105-86 win over Brooklyn.
Oklahoma City also added point guard Nikola Topic to the active roster after missing all of last season recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament and the first 55 games of this season after being diagnosed with testicular cancer just before the start of the season.
Topic played a big role in the Thunder’s early fourth-quarter run against the Nets that helped them put the game away for good.
“He’s got really good sense for the game,” Daigneault said. “He goes in there and acts like he belongs. He shoots the threes. He’s not afraid to drive. … It’s pretty impressive for a guy that’s two games into his career to have the confidence to do that.
“He’s obviously got a long way to go even just from a conditioning standpoint but we’re really excited about him.”
For the Thunder, the game starts a stretch where they’ll play 10 of 12 games against teams who enter Sunday in the top eight in their conference’s standings.
Oklahoma City beat Cleveland by 32 points on Jan. 19 in Cleveland.
Two days later, the Cavs beat the Hornets to begin their current hot stretch.
–Field Level Media
