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The Cleveland perspective from Fear the Sword
The Oklahoma City Thunder improved to 5-1 with both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in the lineup. Westbrook had 26 points and Durant chipped in with 19, most coming in the fourth quarter as the Thunder defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers without LeBron James, 103-94.
What is your initial reaction to tonight's result?
The Thunder had a hard time closing out this game. Yes, they are still all learning to play together again and these games are really "preseason" games that count. Instead of just holding off an injured Cleveland team, the next time we should be able to see a comfortable Thunder win by 20 or so points.
What was, overall, the main reason why the Thunder won?
Health. The Cavs missing LeBron James was big, having him in there and we're looking at a completely different game. You take out the best player in the world his team is going to struggle, but they did fight. So did OKC though and Westbrook was the biggest on-court reason that the Thunder won.
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Nesgoda's Awards
Thunder Wonder: Russell Westbrook, 26 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds.
Thunder Down Under: Steven Adams, grabbing some boards and playing some nasty defense as always.
Thunder Blunder: Serge Ibaka had seven points and no rebounds. I really don't like him standing around the three point line the entire time now on offense. Thunder were better when he was gobbling up offensive rebounds and playing more mid-range.
Thunder Plunderer: It seemed like any time the Cavs needed a big basket that Matthew Dellavedova was part of it. He hit big threes to bring the Cavs back into in the fourth and also had some key assists in that stretch too.
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| Cleveland Cavaliers at Oklahoma City Thunder | |||||
| Dec 11, 2014 | 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | SCORE |
| Cleveland (13-8) | 26 | 21 | 19 | 28 | 94 |
| Oklahoma City (9-13) | 18 | 29 | 31 | 25 | 103 |
| Oklahoma City Thunder | ||||||||||
| STARTERS | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
| Kevin Durant | 30:07 | 6-14 | 1-4 | 6-6 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 19 |
| Serge Ibaka | 25:46 | 3-6 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| Steven Adams | 22:22 | 2-5 | 0-0 | 4-4 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 |
| Andre Roberson | 14:36 | 2-3 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Russell Westbrook | 35:45 | 12-24 | 0-2 | 2-2 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 26 |
| BENCH | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
| Reggie Jackson | 26:22 | 5-11 | 1-5 | 2-2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 13 |
| Nick Collison | 19:55 | 0-4 | 0-1 | 2-2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Kendrick Perkins | 20:12 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 2-4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Jeremy Lamb | 18:52 | 3-9 | 1-5 | 2-2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 9 |
| Anthony Morrow | 26:03 | 4-8 | 3-5 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| Perry Jones | -- DID NOT PLAY -- | |||||||||
| Ish Smith | -- DID NOT PLAY -- | |||||||||
| Lance Thomas | -- DID NOT PLAY -- | |||||||||
| TEAM TOTALS | 31-85 | 9-28 | 23-30 | 48 | 20 | 5 | 5 | 15 | 94 | |
| Cleveland Cavaliers | ||||||||||
| STARTERS | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
| Shawn Marion | 21:28 | 1-6 | 0-3 | 0-2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Kevin Love | 39:11 | 5-13 | 2-5 | 6-8 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 18 |
| Anderson Varejao | 26:49 | 4-11 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| Matthew Dellavedova | 33:32 | 5-8 | 4-6 | 0-0 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 14 |
| Kyrie Irving | 40:26 | 7-21 | 1-5 | 5-6 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 20 |
| BENCH | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
| Dion Waiters | 25:42 | 5-13 | 2-5 | 2-2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 14 |
| Tristan Thompson | 30:00 | 4-8 | 0-0 | 6-8 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 14 |
| James Jones | 14:04 | 0-4 | 0-4 | 3-3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Joe Harris | 7:17 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A.J. Price | 1:31 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Brendan Haywood | -- DID NOT PLAY -- | |||||||||
| Lou Amundson | -- DID NOT PLAY -- | |||||||||
| LeBron James | -- DID NOT PLAY -- | |||||||||
| TEAM TOTALS | 38-87 | 7-26 | 20-22 | 46 | 22 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 103 | |
Next game: Friday, December 12th at the Minnesota Timberwolves - 7:00 PM CDT.
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