The Cavaliers are back at .500, and right now that record feels a little too familiar.
After Wednesday’s 124-116 loss on the road to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland sits at 4-4 through eight games. That’s not a disaster. It’s also not the kind of start that matches the expectations around this group, especially after last season ended with a sweep by the eventual champion Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals.
What’s been most noticeable is how often the Cavs keep looking like the same team. There are stretches when they look sharp and in control, and then there are the stretches where the game gets loose in a hurry. The recurring issues are hard to miss: not enough stops, not enough rebounds, and too many possessions where the decision-making falls apart.
Wednesday was a perfect example, because Cleveland never really gave itself a clean shot at the game. The Cavs missed 12 of their first 16 attempts, fell behind 37-20 after the opening quarter and eventually trailed by as many as 25. That’s a rough place to start on the road against a contender, and it left them spending the rest of the night trying to climb out of their own hole.
The Thunder didn’t make it any easier, even without Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace. Oklahoma City still found a way to beat Cleveland for the second time in three nights. The Cavs had a chance to answer Monday’s loss, but instead they spent most of the rematch chasing the game.
Cleveland had its own injury trouble as well. Peyton Watson and Jaylon Tyson were out, and Jarrett Allen exited late in the first quarter with a right knee injury and did not return. That’s a major loss for a team already struggling to finish defensive possessions, and Allen’s status now looms beyond just this result.
Still, the poor start was already in motion before Allen went down. His injury made the task tougher, but it doesn’t explain why the Cavs weren’t ready from the opening tip.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was again the difference-maker, following up his 43-point night Monday with 42 more Wednesday. That gives him 85 points in two games against a Cleveland team that knew stopping him had to be priority one.
Nobody is asking the Cavs to erase him completely. Making him a little less comfortable would have gone a long way.
Oklahoma City also got 23 points from Ajay Mitchell and 16 off the bench from rookie Bennett Stirtz. That kind of production around the star is exactly what the Thunder keep finding, even with so many regulars unavailable. It’s also the kind of balance the Cavs are trying to build themselves: habits that hold up no matter who is on the floor.
Donovan Mitchell tried to drag Cleveland back late. He scored 27 points, with 14 of them coming in the fourth quarter, and his three late 3-pointers helped pull the Cavs within six.
He kept competing, and that mattered. But the Cavs need more than a late burst from their best scorer after spending most of the night digging out of a bad start.
There were other contributions, too. James Harden finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists after being held scoreless in the first quarter.
Mario Hezonja added 12 points and eight boards. The problem wasn’t a total lack of effort or production.
It was that the Cavs never put together enough connected basketball for those numbers to carry real weight.
They did open the second half with a 9-0 run, which looked like the kind of response they needed. Then the Thunder answered with the next seven points. That’s been part of the frustration so far: Cleveland can show the level it needs to play at, but it hasn’t stayed there long enough.
The rebounding issues are still hanging around, and so is the tendency to drift for stretches. Monday’s loss already showed plenty of those problems, and Wednesday didn’t offer much reason to believe they’ve gone away. Oklahoma City also held a 21-12 edge in fast-break points, another sign that the Cavs are making life easier on good teams than they should.
They can beat the Nets and Wizards. They’ve already done that.
The bigger question is whether they can consistently handle the kinds of teams they’ll have to get through if they want to do something meaningful. Two losses to a shorthanded Thunder team won’t do much to answer that in a positive way.
That doesn’t mean this roster is stuck. It just means there hasn’t been enough evidence yet to believe it’s ready to move beyond what it showed last season.
Some nights, the Cavs look like a team capable of finishing near the top of the East. Other nights, they look like exactly what their record says they are.
Now comes another chance to change that. The 76ers are in Cleveland on Friday, and the Knicks follow on Saturday. The Cavs are also 1-3 on the road, so eventually they’ll need to prove this can travel, too.
There are 74 games left. Plenty of time.
But at 4-4, the Cavs aren’t being misread. Their record matches the way they’ve played.
If they want to be seen as something more, they’ll have to start showing something more.
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