{"id":618604,"date":"2026-02-22T22:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T22:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/618604\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T22:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T22:10:13","slug":"13-stats-to-explain-the-cavs-121-113-loss-to-the-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/618604\/","title":{"rendered":"13 Stats to explain the Cavs 121-113 loss to the Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turnovers, an early deficit, and hot outside shooting from the Oklahoma City Thunder did the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> in on Sunday afternoon. They lost their first game in February 121-113<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The stats in the table below are taken from Cleaning the Glass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Effective Field Goal Percentage<\/p>\n

Offensive Rebounding Percentage<\/p>\n

Offensive Turnover Percentage<\/p>\n

Free Throw Rate<\/p>\n

Cavs<\/p>\n

55.1%, 55th percentile<\/p>\n

31.9%, 66th percentile<\/p>\n

17.2%, 26th percentile<\/p>\n

15.9, 26th percentile<\/p>\n

Thunder<\/p>\n

61%, 84th percentile<\/p>\n

30%, 56th percentile<\/p>\n

16.3%, 33rd percentile<\/p>\n

17.4, 34th percentile<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s dive into the numbers.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The Cavs coughed it up on 37%<\/a> of their possessions in the first quarter (0th percentile<\/a>), leading to 17 points off turnovers. This resulted in Cleveland being down by 23 midway through the first quarter and 15 at the end of one. You can\u2019t come out of the gates that poorly against the defending champions and expect to win on the road, regardless of who\u2019s in the lineup.<\/p>\n

Cleveland turned it over just seven more times in the last three quarters, but still gave up 31 points off turnovers overall. The Cavs\u2019 giveaways were costly. This is a Thunder team that has struggled to score in the half-court without their two best offensive players. That isn\u2019t much of an issue if you\u2019re able to generate that many points off turnovers.<\/p>\n

Donovan Mitchell and James Harden combined for eight turnovers. There\u2019s context behind why they turned it over this much \u2014 mainly the minutes with the starting lineup were bad \u2014 but they simply needed to be better. It\u2019s difficult to win games if your two best offensive players aren\u2019t protecting the ball like they need to.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City outscored Cleveland by 24 points from beyond the arc. The Thunder went a scorching 21-41 (51.2%, 96th percentile<\/a>) from three. Meanwhile, the Cavs couldn\u2019t get their outside shots to fall as they went 13-39 (33.3%, 35th percentile<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Thunder hit as many two-point shots as they did from three, 21, and did so on a worse percentage, 46.7%.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City tied its third-best three-point percentage in a game and tied their fourth-most threes in a game this season. This was an exceptionally good shooting day from a team that has struggled from beyond the arc when they\u2019re without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jaylin Williams, and Alex Caruso. On the season, OKC had shot just 34%<\/a> (19th percentile<\/a>) without all three on the court before Sunday.<\/p>\n

Sam Merrill was the exception to the Cavs\u2019 poor shooting, going 6-10 from three. He carried Cleveland\u2019s lifeless offense for stretches. The Cavs played their best basketball of the day when he was on the court, as he led the team in plus\/minus, being a +6.<\/p>\n

Cavaliers outside of Merrill went just 7-29 from three (24.1%). It\u2019s a make-or-miss league. The Cavs weren\u2019t making their shots, this included Mitchell, who went 0-6 from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

The Cavs outscored the Thunder 56-40 in the paint. Cleveland finished 72.2%<\/a> of their looks at the rim (65th percentile<\/a>) and 52%<\/a> of their attempts in the short midrange (75th percentile<\/a>). Harden and Mitchell were a big reason why, as they went 13-17 (76.5%) inside the paint. Their ability to score inside kept them in the game.<\/p>\n

Cleveland\u2019s bench scored 47 points. Merrill (20 points) and Dennis Schroder (11 points) contributed to the Cavs\u2019 reserves outscoring the Thunder\u2019s 47-37.<\/p>\n

Jarrett Allen took just one shot in the first quarter. The Cavs have talked a lot about why it\u2019s important to get Allen involved early. They weren\u2019t able to do so as he registered no first-quarter points.<\/p>\n

The starting front court didn\u2019t score until four and a half minutes into the second quarter. The Thunder\u2019s two-big configuration of Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein outplayed Evan Mobley and Allen. OKC\u2019s starting duo combined for 30 points, 22 rebounds, and three blocks in 60 combined minutes. Cleveland\u2019s duo had 26 points, 15 rebounds, and no blocks in their 54 minutes. The Cavs lost this matchup.<\/p>\n

Going along with that, the Thunder outscored the Cavs 17-8 in second-chance points. The Thunder grabbed only one more offensive rebound. They made the absolute most of their opportunities, as they did with their points off turnovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turnovers, an early deficit, and hot outside shooting from the Oklahoma City Thunder did the Cleveland Cavaliers in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[328,7,366,193,1024,864,576,949,560,1178,6563,183,6,310,475,179,1166,209,70610,3682,3209],"class_list":{"0":"post-618604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-alex-caruso","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-chet-holmgren","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-dennis-schroder","13":"tag-donovan-mitchell","14":"tag-evan-mobley","15":"tag-isaiah-hartenstein","16":"tag-james-harden","17":"tag-jarrett-allen","18":"tag-jaylin-williams","19":"tag-luguentz-dort","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-oklahoma","22":"tag-oklahoma-city","23":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","24":"tag-sam-merrill","25":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","26":"tag-th-percentile","27":"tag-thunder-team","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116116575144362240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618604","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=618604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}