Isaiah Joe had 22 points and a career-high five steals and Cason Wallace had 20 points and a career-high 10 assists to lift the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 121-113 win over the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.
Joe and Wallace were in the starting lineup with the Thunder down their two star guards in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams.
The loss snapped the Cavaliers’ seven-game winning streak. Oklahoma City has won four of its last five.
The Thunder led by 10 on Wallace’s reverse layup with 2:56 remaining, but Cleveland wasn’t going away.
The Cavaliers had a chance to cut it to a one-possession game in the final minute but Evan Mobley’s 3-pointer with 43 seconds left bounced off the side of the rim, and Isaiah Hartenstein grabbed the rebound.
Cleveland got another chance after Dennis Schroder was initially called for an away-from-the-ball foul in the final 30 seconds that would’ve given Oklahoma City a free throw and the ball.
A Cavaliers challenge overturned the call to an offensive foul on Joe, but Cleveland couldn’t take advantage and the Thunder finished off the game at the free-throw line.
James Harden, Donovan Mitchell and Sam Merrill each scored 20 for the Cavaliers.
In an early-afternoon start, the Cavaliers looked like they were sleepwalking early.
Oklahoma City scored the game’s first nine points and led by 23 just over seven minutes into the game.
Cleveland turned the ball over 10 times during that initial stretch, leading to 17 points as the Thunder built a 28-5 lead. Joe had all five of his steals over the first six minutes and scored 11 first-quarter points.
The Cavs then settled in, not committing another turnover over the final five minutes of the quarter and going 7-for-8 from the field to cut the deficit to 15 heading into the second.
Though Cleveland was just 2-of-13 from beyond the arc in the second quarter, it kept steadily cutting into the lead throughout the frame.
The Cavaliers turned up the pressure defensively and committed just one turnover in the quarter to help pull within eight late in the second.
Cleveland kept up that momentum coming out of the break, with a 14-4 run to start the third quarter to take its first lead at 69-68.
The Thunder started the second half 1-for-8 from the field.
Oklahoma City hit 21 3-pointers in the game, including 8 of 12 in the first quarter, and shot 51.2% from outside the arc.
–Field Level Media
