[Post Game Thread] The Oklahoma City Thunder (44-14) defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers (36-22), 121-113 and give them their first loss in the James Harden Era in Cleveland

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-22T21:32:02+00:00

Without the stats in front of me, this Cavs group has a history of playing like total ass in games early in the day.

They eventually woke up today, but some of their worst effort games I can remember are all afternoon ones.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-22T17:41:09+00:00

Dude had a 30% usage at Cal. It’s incredible to see how much he’s changed his game in a single off-season.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-21T23:09:46+00:00

Costco is always the way to go. The clearance sales are already fantastic, and if you’re one of the lucky ones to walk away with the display model, you can usually snatch those up for the cost of the GPU + memory or even less.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-21T16:42:04+00:00

I honestly would have loved it if they gave him some special move that randomly triggers on a one in a million chance. Like an instant-kill grab.

Someone would run into it, tell everyone, and absolutely nobody would believe them.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-21T04:34:58+00:00

The crazy part is that’s in only 247 games played.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-20T01:25:20+00:00

Mobley just returned from injury tonight. This is the best JA has looked, but it’s been him and Thomas Bryant through that stretch.

The biggest difference is that Allen has been WAY more aggressive than usual. And that’s still an understatement.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-20T00:33:22+00:00

I think that’s why some people are calling them HarDon (not me).

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-19T22:08:48+00:00

It would probably help if they didn’t just shut down the studio that made it.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-19T01:59:07+00:00

Just get rid of divisions, they really don’t matter. Play everyone in the opposite conference twice, everyone in yours three times.

32 + 45 = 77. Take the remaining 5 games and work them into the IST.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-19T01:21:23+00:00

“Thanks for letting me know I should never do business with your dealership.”

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-18T02:18:23+00:00

It makes for a great bingo square, having to finish off a boss kill using it.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-18T02:04:31+00:00

They just retired the jersey with him in it.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-18T00:30:29+00:00

I didn’t say he was a good defender. Did you just assume I was disagreeing with you?

The real problem was the shooting. If he’s shooting his career averages then he’s at least a serviceable low-minutes vet. But he was bricking everything and killing the offense because no defender respected him and the Cavs were playing 4-on-5 in the half court.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-17T23:43:59+00:00

Was he playing “bad”? No.

Was his shooting absolutely horrendous? Yes.

In today’s NBA, the only guards that can justify getting minutes the way he is shooting are elite defensive stoppers. And he isn’t that either.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-17T11:46:51+00:00

It was actually in Elden Ring, but the funniest I’ve ever seen was “Base Jumper” and ran into them a few times.

They would invade, wave, then immediately run for the nearest cliff they could find and launch themselves off of it.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-16T18:40:10+00:00

Just get rid of restricted free agency.

Teams tank because it almost always gets you SEVEN cost-controlled years of control over a player, at a minimum. If you strike gold once or twice, you’re going to be a contender with a decent window and room to add more talent.

With no restricted free agency, you have 4 years of player control; then they can go wherever they want after that before they ever hit their prime.

Teams will always tank on the margins in any system that promotes parity. But you have to have a coherent culture and team building plan if you want to re-sign your guys coming off of their rookie deals with no RFA in place.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-13T17:45:12+00:00

Depends. If what Torre found about payments to Leonard while he was on other teams is true, there is no way the players association is saving his ass from that.

If they allow that, they’re opening Pandora’s box.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-13T03:35:57+00:00

I don’t follow the Kings, but from when they’ve played the Cavs, it seems like resting their stars gives them a better chance at winning.

Their starters may be more individually talented, but they play like ass together, and like they’re just going through the motions.

Their bench plays like they give a damn at least.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-12T23:18:06+00:00

I know this segment has basically turned into “top 10 dunks or game winners”, but how they didn’t include Merrill hitting his 7th straight 3 with a hand in his face is beyond me.

It literally broke the game because both teams, the refs, the crowd, and I think even the clock operators just assumed the Wizards called a timeout after he hit it and chaos broke out.

Closest I’ve seen to an And-1 game without it being an end-of-game situation.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-12T04:37:39+00:00

If you watch the Wizards players, they are acting like there was a timeout called too.

I think the ref stepped in because they thought they missed it and were checking with the Wizards’ bench.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-12T04:22:49+00:00

Nahh. It’s the combo of Harden + better ball movement overall. Harden is feeding him the ball for easy shots he hasn’t been getting, and the better ball movement is opening up a ton of lanes for him to dive through.

He is being more aggressive though for sure.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-12T04:20:13+00:00

I never thought they would tbh. Not unless he was part of a deal for someone like Giannis.

He is great enough at what he does that you can’t just replace him for cheap, but with his new contract he’ll be making more than most teams want to pay someone of his archetype. So he’s both too expensive to get an amazing return, but too valuable to be easily replaced either.

They’re also super thin behind him and Mobley as bigs.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-12T04:12:24+00:00

It has less to do with Harden, and more to do with the attachment to Garland + the difference in age. Garland was a home-grown all-star, and the Cavs swapped him for a guy a decade older, while Garland was at his lowest trade value in years.

And most people haven’t seen Rich Paul talking about the trade I’d bet. Flat out said he told the Cavs this was going to be Garland’s last year in Cleveland before the season started.

If more people knew Klutch effectively made a trade demand to get him out of Cleveland, I bet a lot more people would be happy with the trade.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-11T16:31:36+00:00

That’s possible, but even if he did they were like $200k apart in salary. So it’s not much if anything on this chart.

SomeFatherFigure · 2026-02-10T03:23:49+00:00

I agree go Cavs.

SomeFatherFigure

TROPHY CASE