In the first matchup between the Thunder and Cavaliers, OKC won the matchup with some clutch shots from Shai Gielgeous-Alexander as he finished the night with 43 points on 35 shots.
Cleveland played great team basketball. Donovan Mitchell led the team with 17 points alongside Meleek Thomas in the first NBA start of his career.
OKC was riddled with injuries and the Cavs could have taken advantage of the lack of bigs, but Allen and Mobley did not get the touches to make the difference.
Despite this loss, the immediate reactions to the game are pretty positive, but there is one big problem that needs explaining.
31 assists on 40 shots taken. They only turned the ball over eight times as well. This is one of the biggest stories of the game. With a great playmaking performance like that from everybody, they can win games like that.
The problem that came with this one, was that Donovan Mitchell was the lead playmaker. He had 11 assists tonight, that is great, but with Donovan, the Cavs also need him to play the game late.
In the closing moments of this game he was needed to take way more shots. Just the other day in the loss to the Hawks, he took two shots in the final 15 seconds. He did miss both of them, but the fault there goes more on Kenny Atkinson not calling a timeout to make an actual play.
It just feels like Don right now is really in his own head. Every game he plays differently. After the first game of the season when they lost to the 76ers, Mitchell had 32 points on 19 shots.
After that game, he has not scored more than 25 points except on one occasion when they beat the T-Wolves, he scored 26.
Comparing this game to the performance in the last game against the Bucks. His 15 point game against Milwaukee was highlighted because of his willingness to take a backseat when Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley were killing it.
That was not the case tonight when he could have then stepped up to be that guy in this situation. In a game where no specific player is having a great night, they need somebody to go out there and take the game.
Really thinking about it, there is nothing wrong with going into every game with a different plan, but right now it seems like it's the correct idea, but it does not match the game they are playing.
This playmaking and basketball would have been better suited in the Philly game, where as the style of that game would have fit better tonight.
The big question is whether or not the Cavaliers look for a new gameplan for Wednesday in Oklahoma City or try to run the same thing with a better result.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/nba/cavaliers/onsi as One Thing That Needs Explaining After Cavs Loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder .
