4 Takeaways From Cavaliers’ 117-112 Loss to Thunder

The Cleveland Cavaliers trailed by 14 points in the third quarter Monday night, went ahead early in the fourth, and lost 117-112 to the Oklahoma City Thunder at Rocket Arena.

Cleveland is 4-3 overall and 3-1 at home, with Peyton Watson and Jaylon Tyson both inactive. Oklahoma City improved to 5-2 with Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams among six players on its inactive list.

Oklahoma City made 21 of 23 free throws. Cleveland made 14 of 24.

The Cavaliers shot 9-of-14 at the line in the fourth quarter, and all five misses came in the last eight minutes.

James Harden was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 8:00 left and made 1 of 3. With Cleveland down 105-104 at 3:51, Jarrett Allen missed both of his. Evan Mobley went 1-of-2 at 2:47, after an Oklahoma City challenge on the foul call came back unsuccessful.

Allen finished 4-of-6 at the line. Donovan Mitchell went 1-of-4, and Harden went 1-of-3.

Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson asked what Cleveland had shot from the line before he answered the question about it.

"That's a reason you lose," Atkinson said. "You go 14 for 24. Keep working on your free throws, get extra ones up. We do it during practice. We shoot pressure free throws. It's part of our diet."

Oklahoma City grabbed 15 offensive rebounds and outrebounded Cleveland 54-46. Isaiah Hartenstein had 7 offensive rebounds by himself, and Aday Mara added 3.

In the fourth quarter, the Thunder had 6 offensive rebounds and 7 second-chance points. The Cavaliers had none of either.

Over the full game, Cleveland finished with 24 second-chance points. Oklahoma City had 22.

Mario Hezonja, who signed with Cleveland in July, said the offensive rebounding will get cleaned up as Cleveland gets used to its five-man groups, their positions, and their strengths.

"Brand new season, brand new ball, the ball launching off the rim too far," Hezonja said. "Also, it comes with the differentiality of the basketball in NBA because so many threes are being shot nowadays. So that ball is going to fly. Sometimes you go a couple possessions up and down, up and down. Obviously, your energy tank is at that time not 100%, so you kind of find yourself in a bad spot. You're tagging your player that you're guarding, but that ball just goes over you."

"So the moment those couple of possessions we waste or the ball goes out of bounds, it's a minus for us," Hezonja continued. "So we kind of have to keep emphasizing that we have to go get those rebounds. Obviously, it still will be technical about it, tagging everybody and boxing everybody, but still going to get the rebound, being very aggressive. There's no way that we are with this size and with this quality losing so many rebounds. Kenny is honest about it, the whole coaching staff is honest about it. So I'm 100% sure that we will fix this sooner or later."

Cleveland had 14 assists in the first half and 17 after it. The Cavaliers shot 36.5% from the field before halftime and 55.3% after, making 12 of 26 3-point attempts in the second half.

Mitchell had 7 of his 11 assists after the break. The 11 assists were a season high.

Atkinson said Cleveland did not move the ball well in the first half, then started getting into the paint and kicking it out.

"I was just so pleased with how he played in that second half," Atkinson said. "He just made others better. And, unfortunately, we didn't probably make as many threes as we needed to. But that second half, how we sprayed the ball, him particularly was great."

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 26 of his 43 points in the second half. He went 8-of-20 from the field after the break and 8-of-8 at the line.

In the fourth quarter alone, he had 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting. Three of those five baskets were pull-ups or turnarounds from 13 or 14 feet. The other two were a driving layup and the step-back 3-pointer with 32.6 seconds left.

Oklahoma City scored 50 points in the paint on 25-of-42 shooting. Cleveland had 30.

Oklahoma City's injuries did not mean Cleveland could take the Thunder lightly, Mobley said at Monday's shootaround.

"With Shai, we just got to do a great job team-wise, defensively, being in the gaps, being over to help, showing a lot of help for him because he's a great scorer," Mobley said. "So it's going to be a real team battle."

Gilgeous-Alexander's 43 points were his most this season. Cleveland visits Oklahoma City on Wednesday, then hosts Philadelphia on Friday and the New York Knicks on Saturday.