How Cavs' historic offense cracked Thunder's historic defense
It's not like we needed further proof the ascendent Cleveland Cavaliers are a force to be reckoned with. They proved as much over the first 35 games of the season, going 31-4 with a plus-11.5 net rating and establishing themselves as one of the best offensive teams in NBA history.
But Wednesday night's showdown against the equally impressive Oklahoma City Thunder - who were riding a 15-game win streak (in non-NBA Cup games) and coming off back-to-back victories over the two other Eastern Conference contenders in the Knicks and Celtics - was a measuring-stick game all the same. And the Cavs used that opportunity to demonstrate how much they've grown.
Putting up a 127.7 offensive rating in a game in 2025 typically isn't news, but there's nothing typical about doing it against OKC. The Thunder came into the game allowing only 102.7 points per 100 possessions. Despite being without their best defender in Chet Holmgren since game 10, they own the best defensive rating relative to league average since the 1963-64 Celtics, per Basketball Reference.
The Cavs, for their part, own the second-best era-adjusted offense of all time, behind only the 2003-04 Mavericks. But that alone guaranteed nothing against the Thunder. To wit, the Celtics and Knicks came into their own clashes with OKC this week as the fourth- and fifth-best relative offenses in history, and after those two games, the Thunder's defensive rating improved. Without Holmgren or Alex Caruso, they held New York's offense 13.1 points per 100 possessions below its season average, then lopped 25.6 points per 100 off Boston's average.
No such luck against the rip-roaring Cavs, who produced the second-highest offensive rating against OKC this season and by far the highest in any game where the Thunder had one of their centers available. And that was despite Cleveland's best offensive player, Donovan Mitchell, scoring only 11 points on 3-for-16 shooting.
The Cavs' leading scorers were Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, the two non-shooting bigs who so many people said couldn't function side-by-side in today's NBA, let alone dominate a historically elite defense. They combined for 46 points on 17-for-24 shooting, and Cleveland had a 134.1 offensive rating in their shared minutes. They combined for 21 rebounds, including nine on the offensive glass. Perhaps most importantly, they combined for 13 assists, with four being high-lows delivered to one another. Their short-roll playmaking was essential to countering OKC's aggressive pick-and-roll coverages, which frequently put two on the ball and pre-rotated low tags behind the play.
Those coverages were a big part of the reason Mitchell and Darius Garland had underwhelming scoring nights, but it didn't matter because Allen and Mobley tore them apart on the back side. (As an aside: this was a game when you could really feel how much the Thunder missed Holmgren, and it would've been an ideal matchup for them to give their own two-big look a lot of run.) On top of making quick decisions and slick on-the-move passes in 4-on-3 scenarios, both bigs demonstrated their vastly improved ability to forcefully finish those plays over and around and through tagging defenders.
On the rare occasions the Thunder relented and allowed Isaiah Hartenstein to switch onto the ball, they struggled to keep Mobley and especially Allen off the offensive glass. The two of them helped generate a five-shot possession in crunch time that ultimately proved to be the backbreaker for OKC. The possession started at the 2:03 mark of the fourth quarter, with the Cavs up two. It ended at the 1:07 mark with the Cavs up five, after Mobley drove right at Hartenstein's chest and finished a wrong-foot floater over him.
It's hard not to compare how Allen and Mobley look now to how they looked back in their first-round series against the Knicks in 2023, the lowest moment for this iteration of the Cavs. New York defended Cleveland's pick-and-rolls very similarly to how OKC did, and the Cavs averaged 0.49 points on possessions finished by roll men in the series, with Mobley shooting 0-for-10 with two turnovers on that play type. He and Allen threw wayward lobs, flung up awkward hooks and floaters, or record-scratched and let advantages disappear. Less than two years later, they combined to shoot 15-for-17 inside the restricted area and dish seven short-roll assists in a high-profile game against the league's second-best rim defense (after their own).
Of course, Mitchell and Garland deserve immense credit for creating a lot of those opportunities. While Mobley did a lot of his own creation (like the aforementioned iso bucket on Hartenstein, and a wicked bully drive on Jalen Williams a few minutes earlier that drew help and opened up a skip pass for a Dean Wade three), it was largely Cleveland's guards bending the Thunder defense out of shape. They did that with the latent threat of their pull-up threes, but also with their relentless dribble penetration, their sharp and proactive passing, and the incredible pace with which they ran the offense, both in transition and in the half court. Against a ball-pressuring defense designed to generate takeaways, they combined for three turnovers.
Plaudits are also owed to Kenny Atkinson and his staff, who had their team extremely well prepared for what awaited them. They drew up brilliant play designs, layering their actions with scripted screens and cuts to turn OKC's help principles against them in a way no team's been able to do this season.
The very first play of the game provided a glimpse of what was to come. The Cavs started out with a Garland-Wade pick-and-roll to get Cason Wallace switched off Garland, then immediately flowed into a Garland-Allen pick-and-roll while Wade cut through to the weak-side corner and Mobley lifted from corner to slot. Garland pocket pass, Allen kickout, Wade three.
Things carried on in similar fashion, with multiple ball screens initiating Cavs possessions and baseline cuts often ending them. They frequently ran a high-horns action with ball screens on either side for Garland and Mitchell, confusing OKC's low help responsibilities. They found success starting Mobley in the weak-side corner and then having him cut behind the tag when Garland and Allen ran side pick-and-rolls. They used flare screens, hammer screens, and stampede cuts that made it almost impossible for the Thunder to help and recover. They created 33 rim shots and 14 corner threes, both numbers representing 100th-percentile volume.
It was just one game, much is still to be determined, and no meaningful hardware is won in the winter (with apologies to the Bucks). But this contest was still illustrative of an important reality, especially on the heels of a game in which the Thunder suffocated the Celtics' offense with its five-out spacing and big-wing initiation: Despite the rush to mint that Boston blueprint as the ideal way to build a modern winner, and despite all the doubts about how successful a team led by two small guards and two non-spacing bigs can be, these Cavs keep showing that their own team build can stand up to any challenge.
If nothing else, they should be convincing people to keep more of an open mind about the different paths to championship contention.