After this 4th defeat in 15 games, OKC fell to 2nd place in the West. San Antonio (7v-8d) is twelfth.
The Thunder will have the opportunity to recover this Wednesday by hosting Portland. This will be the second meeting of the season between the Belgians present in the NBA. This time, Mitchell welcomes Toumani Camara. On November 1, Oklahoma City won 114-137 in Portland.
A first defeat for the Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers, who had won their first 15 games, suffered their first defeat on the floor of NBA champion Boston (120-117) on Tuesday.
Authors of the second best start to the season in the history of the North American basketball league, tied with three other teams, the Cavaliers will therefore not be able to worry the record of the Golden State Warriors (24 successes in 2015).
The big show at the start of the year, between the team of the moment and the reigning champion – who faced each other in the 2nd round of the play-offs with Boston qualifying 4-1 – partly kept its promises, after a start to the match which gave rise to fears of a demonstration from Boston.
The Celtics brought down the lightning at three points, displaying an insolent 53.7% (22 out of 41) at the end of the match, after shooting 14 out of 22 at the break!
The gap thus reached 21 points in the 3rd quarter, Cleveland not being helped by the unusual clumsiness of its leader Darius Garland (8 points at 3/21 shooting).
By concentrating their efforts under the basket with their two strong Evan Mobley (22 points, 11 rebounds) and Jarrett Allen (10 points, 11 rebounds), the Cavaliers regained confidence before the Donovan Mitchell festival (35 points, 8 rebounds), which allowed the “Cavs” to come back to 2 points on 5 occasions.
Boston, however, never allowed its opponent to get back in front, relying on another great game from Jayson Tatum (33 points at 6/10 from far, 12 rebounds, 7 assists), the NBA player who scored the most at the start of the season.
A good lay-up drive from Jayon Brown (17 points, 8 assists) widened the decisive gap 40 seconds from time, rewarding the excellent game of veteran Al Horford (20 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks).
