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Thunder vs. Cavaliers, final score: Healthy Oklahoma City Hold Off Cleveland, 103-94

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A mostly healthy Oklahoma City Thunder with an attacking Russell Westbrook took care of a Cleveland Cavaliers team without LeBron James.

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.