Cleveland Cavaliers collapse late, lose to Oklahoma City Thunder

Cleveland Cavaliers suffer another late collapse on the road

The Cleveland Cavaliers add to their road woes and surrendered a 112-100 loss against the surging, young Oklahoma City Thunder team. With another disappointing collapse late in the game, the Cavs are now 10-16 away from home and have fallen to 30-21 overall.

Once again being without first-time All-Star starter and undoubted superstar of the team Donovan Mitchell (groin), veteran reserve Kevin Love (back), as well as Ricky Rubio who will yet to play in back-to-backs owing to his recent knee rehab, Cleveland ran out of steam in the final period.

Despite being able to hold on to a slim lead for the majority of the game, the Cavs buckled in the fourth quarter and simply appeared gassed on the back end of consecutive game nights.

Darius Garland continued to lead with team-highs of 31 points, nine assists, and four steals for the Cavs, while Evan Mobley stayed hot with another double-double, finishing with 23 and 11 to go with two blocked shots in the loss.

On the other hand, Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tallied a game-high 35 points with eight assists, while rookie Jalen Williams and Australian phenom Josh Giddey added a combined 32 to help OKC race to the finish.

The Cavs need to find a way to pick it back up

Apart from having three consecutive victories in a promising start to the year, the Cavs have been currently unable to tally any more winning streaks and have now gone 8-7 since ringing in 2023 and only won four games in their last 10 outings.

Pretty much alternating between wins and losses is not a mark of a playoff-contending team, and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and the rest of the coaching staff need to figure out a way to pick it back up and avoid repeating the struggle during the second half of the season last year, where the team fell all the way into the play-in territory and failing to reach the Playoffs.

Perhaps this might also force the front office to scramble to make some player movements ahead of the nearing NBA trade deadline.

For now, the Cleveland Cavaliers should look to avoid floundering further as they return home to the friendly confines of the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse to host the red-hot Los Angeles Clippers on January 29th.