Cavaliers at Thunder
THE STORY:
The Oklahoma City Thunder have won 14 straight at home, rallying from
16 points down late in the third quarter Wednesday to beat Phoenix and
bump their league-best home mark to 17-1. The Cleveland Cavaliers ended a
six-game losing skid Wednesday with their own thrilling victory over
the Nuggets, which was sealed by rookie Kyrie Irving’s fourth
game-winning basket in the final seconds.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FS Ohio (Cavaliers), FS Oklahoma (Thunder)
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (14-23): Irving
is quickly developing the reputation as a fearless closer despite being
only 19 years old. He wants – and often gets – the ball at the end of
games and the veterans know he give them their best chance to win.
Cavaliers guard Daniel Gibson said Irving should be the runaway winner
of the Rookie of the Year award. “Nobody on the ballot is playing with
the type of consistency he is,” Gibson said. “He’s doing pretty much
everything. I don’t think there’s anybody close to the way he’s
playing.”
ABOUT THE THUNDER (31-8): A large reason for the
Thunder’s success has been their ability to close out opponents with
tremendous fourth quarters. The Thunder routinely squandered leads in
playoff games each of the last two years, but over the last nine games
have held opponents to less than 40 percent shooting in the fourth
quarter. In Wednesday’s thrilling comeback, the Thunder held Phoenix to 3
of 17 shooting in the fourth quarter.
BUZZER BEATERS:
1.
Russell Westbrook (31 points), Kevin Durant (30) and James Harden (30)
on Wednesday became the franchise’s first trio to each score 30 points
in a game since Tom Chambers, Dale Ellis and Xavier McDaniel did it for
the then-Seattle SuperSonics on Feb. 26, 1988.
2. Irving is
averaging 9.6 points in the fourth quarter of his last seven games,
which ranks third in the league during that stretch. Irving is shooting
60 percent from the floor, 50 percent on 3-pointers and 93 percent from
the foul line in the fourth quarters of his last seven games.
3. The Thunder are 8-2 against the Eastern Conference and 30-10 against the East dating back to the start of last season.