Sam Merrill Sends Clear Message About Cavaliers After 3 Losses in 4 Games

Sam Merrill’s 3-pointer off a Donovan Mitchell pass with 18.1 seconds left cut Oklahoma City’s lead to 122-116 Wednesday night. The Cleveland Cavaliers got no closer, and the Oklahoma City Thunder won 124-116 at Paycom Center.

His fifth foul was a take foul with 26.7 seconds left. Ajay Mitchell made one of two free throws, and Merrill’s 3 came on the next trip down.

That 3 was his second of the night. Merrill went 3-of-7 overall and 2-of-2 at the line for 10 points, and he pulled down 7 rebounds in 26:33 off the bench. He also had a steal, a block, and 5 fouls.

He went in for Jarrett Allen 4:42 into the game, with Oklahoma City up 15-9. His first points were two free throws at 2:02 of the first quarter, drawn on a Micah Peavy foul. Allen hurt his right knee before the quarter ended and did not come back.

On Monday, Oklahoma City beat Cleveland 117-112 at Rocket Arena. Wednesday’s loss left the Cavaliers 4-4, with three losses in their last four games.

The record isn’t the measure for Merrill right now. Habits are.

“You just got to continue to battle,” Merrill said. “I think we’ve talked about this multiple times, like our entire goal over the next whatever, however long it takes, whatever the record looks like, is just develop great, consistent habits of trying to play good basketball, trying to play the right way with a ton of energy, sustained for 48 minutes. We’ve had some moments, but we’ve got to keep working on that.”

Oklahoma City scored 37 points in the first quarter and 87 over the final three. Getting stops was the part Cleveland did better after the opening quarter, in Merrill’s view.

“You’ve got to find a way to find some momentum and stop the other team’s momentum,” Merrill explained. “A lot of times that’s, one, you’ve got to get stops, obviously. We did a much better job of that over the course of the last three quarters after the first quarter.”

“But then you’ve also got to find a way to create good shots, especially when teams are really good defensively and good at the point of attack and try to slow things down on us,” Merrill continued. “So we’re watching film and trying to figure out what that looks like. And we’re just working to get better at it.”

Merrill blocked a Jared McCain layup with 4:50 left in the second quarter and hit a pull-up 3 off a James Harden pass that made it 54-33 at 4:01.

In the third, he grabbed 5 rebounds, including a defensive board and two offensive boards in a 20-second span. He also stole a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander pass at 5:33 and finished a fast-break layup off a Tristan Enaruna feed at 4:13 that cut the lead to 74-64.

The Thunder led by 25 in the second quarter. Cleveland outscored them 72-64 after halftime and 42-36 in the fourth, when Donovan Mitchell made four 3-pointers in the final 3:11.

Getting off to better starts is the lesson Merrill took, along with the fact that the Cavaliers did not quit.

“This group, we’re a group that battles, and when we get down, we don’t quit,” Merrill said. “I thought we did a good job of that. But in this league, you got to find a way to get off to a better start. And you can look at what we did do well over the last three quarters and also look at what we didn’t do well in the first quarter. So you got to look at it all, take the good and the bad and just keep trying to get better.”

Donovan Mitchell led Cleveland with 27. Harden added 19, and Evan Mobley’s 16 points came with 10 rebounds.

On the other side, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 42, with 15 of them at the free-throw line. Ajay Mitchell had 23 for the Thunder, and Bennett Stirtz hit 4 of 7 from deep for 16.

Tyrese Proctor, who started in Meleek Thomas’ place, did not return after an apparent ankle injury late in the game.

Friday’s 7:30 p.m. ET home game against the Philadelphia 76ers starts NBA Cup group play for Cleveland.