{"id":616541,"date":"2026-02-21T22:21:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/616541\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T22:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T22:21:36","slug":"cavs-will-face-shorthanded-thunder-on-sunday-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/616541\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs will face shorthanded Thunder on Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers have found themselves staring down a long list of injuries throughout the season. On Sunday, they\u2019ll be on the right side of one of these matchups for once. The Oklahoma City Thunder are unfortunately dealing with a wave of key injuries as the Cavaliers are in town.<\/p>\n

The full injury report isn\u2019t out yet. But we know that reigning MVP and Finals MVP Shai-Gilgeous Alexander will be out with an abdominal strain and won\u2019t be re-evaluated until next week. One of SGA\u2019s costars, Jalen Williams, will also miss this game with a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

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SGA is averaging 31.8 points per game this season, while Williams is contributing 17.5 points per game.<\/p>\n

Support us and Let \u2018Em Know with Homage!<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Anything bought from the links helps support Fear the Sword. You can also shop all of Homage\u2019s Cavs gear HERE<\/a>. The link to the new City Edition shirt can be found HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Cavs are looking at a relatively clean slate unless something unexpected pops up in the next 18 hours. Max Strus will be out with a foot injury. Other than that, the Cavs strategically rested Evan Mobley on the second night of their back-to-back, presumably with the intention of having him play in Sunday\u2019s matchup.<\/p>\n

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Injuries favor Cleveland for this one. But that doesn\u2019t mean this game will be easy. The Thunder are still a powerhouse even without two of their biggest stars. Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein can anchor an elite defense with players like Cason Wallace, Lu Dort, and Alex Caruso flanking them.<\/p>\n

Dort, in particular, has had plenty of success defending Cleveland\u2019s Donovan Mitchell. Mitchell is shooting 11-49 in his last three games against the Thunder. Dort is built to withstand Mitchell\u2019s unique combination of speed and strength. Perhaps James Harden\u2019s presence will alleviate some of the pressure this matchup places on Mitchell.<\/p>\n

The Thunder don\u2019t have an elite scoring punch with both SGA and J-Dub on the sidelines. But keep an eye out for Jared McCain, whom OKC acquired at the deadline. McCain scored a season-high 21 points off the bench in the Thunder\u2019s recent win against the Brooklyn Nets and is the type of speedy guard that could give the Cavs trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers have found themselves staring down a long list of injuries throughout the season. On Sunday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[328,7,247,205,366,305,193,864,576,949,364,517,1255,872,6,16,310,475,179,3966,3965,209,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-616541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-alex-caruso","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-cason-wallace","12":"tag-chet-holmgren","13":"tag-cleveland","14":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","15":"tag-donovan-mitchell","16":"tag-evan-mobley","17":"tag-isaiah-hartenstein","18":"tag-jalen-williams","19":"tag-james","20":"tag-jared-mccain","21":"tag-max-strus","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-ohio","24":"tag-oklahoma","25":"tag-oklahoma-city","26":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","27":"tag-oklahomacity","28":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","29":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","30":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116110963858601651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}