Thunder strike back | Cavs on the trade market?
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What happened in the Thunder vs. Cavs game?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for January 17th, 2025. Coming up, we got Thunder Cavs 2. Not as good as the first one. Not at all. Oh, man. We got the unrivaled league for women's basketball and Zena is going to tell us all about that. And we have Joe Varden to tell us about the Cavs side of their embarrassing loss to the Thunder. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Zena. Man, I really I hate to be so disappointed about a sequel, but Cavs Thunder 2 just did not live up to the billing. The first first game was game of the year. Second one was the worst game of the Cavs season by a long shot. So we're going to get to the Cavs side of that after our little break with Joe Varden, because he's in the arena and, you know, he's the voice of the Cavs for us.
So, Zena, I got to talk about the Thunder. They are something else. They just tied the Cleveland Cavaliers by winning the game last night. In convincing fashion. They tied them for the best record in the league. They're now 34-6. Shea Gildas Alexander puts up 40 in 30 minutes. They're the best team in basketball.
Who stood out in the Thunder's victory?
Yeah, and OKC deserves all of the esteem. Their play tonight was not only... dominant, it was good. It's the type of game tape that you show young kids on how you should play defense, how you should play in transition, how you should play as a team. And they officially put the Cavs in a position to prove that their win over OKC just a week ago was not a fluke. They have depth. I mean, you saw Brandon Carlson, some undrafted rookie out of Utah, come in in the Give some buckets. You saw OKC have legendary buy-in into their defense, into playing fast and responsible. They made the Cavs have to force threes up. This is the Cavs that have played an inside-out game all year long, and they made them look like they couldn't... Couldn't win shell defense drills in practice.
Like, it was tough for the Cavs to be able to find buckets inside. And OKC, good on them for showing up in this game and getting that revenge win.
Yeah, OKC created 21 turnovers. And we keep saying, I stole this from Andrew Schleck, that this is the most disruptive defense in NBA history. And, I mean, they did that to the Cavs, who are pretty good at protecting the basketball. Shea Gildas Alexander, in my opinion, All he has to do is maintain pace here. I think he wrapped up the MVP with this performance. Again, it's on national TV. This stuff matters quite a bit. And to put up 40 and three quarters, that's a dominance that we think about when Steph Curry was doing this in his unanimous season where he was unanimous MVP. This is the stuff that stands out when you're going to vote come May.
Absolutely. There's a really cool account on X, OKC Thunder stats, and they do these like random assessments of stats that OKC, current OKC Thunder have in comparison to former players. As of last night's game against the Cavs, Shea Gildas Alexander now has more 30 point performances in his career. than Paul George. And we just took time a few weeks ago to talk to Marcus Thompson about games we like to watch, right? Games that mesmerize you. And when you have a Shea Goldis Alexander performing in this way amidst the team performance that is OKC, and he still stands out, that shows you just how much of an impact that he makes offensively and how much his game... is different than anything else we're seeing in the league yes i think he absolutely is mvp and if anything he is now sitting in a seat where someone has to come and take it from him as opposed to him having to fight for it from someone else yeah and the thunder have such a big lead in the west that at this point it looks like they're going to be the one seed by the way i didn't even mention
They didn't have Hartenstein for this game, right? So no Isaiah Hartenstein. This is a team that has not been healthy all year. They were down. They're starting big man. Of course, Chet Holmgren not out there. And they're playing a team that has two high-quality bigs in Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. And it didn't really matter for them.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What happened in the Thunder vs. Cavs game?
0:26–1:46
2
Who stood out in the Thunder's victory?
1:46–13:00
3
What are the implications of the new Unrivaled league?
13:00–19:30
4
How does the Cavs' performance impact their trade targets?
19:30
5
What makes Shea Gildas Alexander an MVP candidate?
3:33–10:57
6
How does Jalen Williams contribute to the Thunder?
10:57–22:39
7
What are the differences between the WNBA and NBA's offseason leagues?
22:39
8
Will the Unrivaled league affect the WNBA?
20:40–27:44