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For the first time this season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored more than 40 points (43, actually) and carried the Thunder to a much-needed 117-112 win over Cleveland. It snapped a two-game slide in which OKC had been blown out twice, and it was the Thunder’s second win in four tries since it felt like the bottom may have dropped out of their whole season back on Oct. 25. “I am just trying to figure out what winning will look like for this team, with this group,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after the game. “Myself and the rest of the group had become so accustomed to what winning looked like with the whole group that we had.
On HoopsMatic over the past 24 hours, Bam Adebayo showed up in 6.2% of all trades built. Among those, he was most often sent to Sacramento (14.5%), Cleveland (9.2%), and Denver (9.2%), and the return pieces that came up most often were Evan Mobley (9.2%), Zach LaVine (9.2%), and Jaren Jackson Jr (7.9%).
Danny Cunningham: #Cavs beat the Bucks 136-111 in a game that wasn't as close as the final score. Cleveland led by 36 points in the second half of this one. Evan Mobley had 27 points, Jarrett Allen had 25 & 11 as both guys played 24 minutes. They took care of business on both ends of the floor against a bad team.
He had been in conversations with the Cavaliers for more than a year and a half before his eventual return to the league. Cleveland’s interest never wavered. Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman and his staff continued scouting talent in Europe, keeping tabs on Hezonja. He was equally eager to return to the NBA, but with his contract with Real Madrid still active at the time, he had to wait for the right opportunity to make the move. “They were just high on me all the way along, and the coaching staff and my teammates made it super comfortable for me to make the transition,” Hezonja said.
In the moments after the Philadelphia 76ers’ 114-106 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sixers forward LeBron James said he considered joining Cleveland before ultimately signing with Philly. “The nature of the meeting, I probably won’t discuss much,” James said on Thursday night. “But it was in consideration for sure. I mean, obviously, as a team trying to build towards a championship and things of that nature, I was trying to decide where I wanted to go with the rest of my career, to finish my career, or the next step. So, they had a lot of consideration for sure.”
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Dave McMenamin: Cleveland's season essentially ended last spring when they blew a 22-point 4th Q lead in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. They start this season by blowing a 24-point halftime lead in Philadelphia. The Sixers win, 114-106, to improve to 2-0.
That extension backs up what Mitchell has been saying for years. It’s his pledge to Cleveland. This is where he wants to be. Forever. “Everybody always says, ‘Why Cleveland? Why Cleveland?’ “Cleveland’s home,” Mitchell said. “I don’t ever want to wear another uniform. I don’t have that vision. Business is business. I understand how that works. There may be a situation where we may not be in a position to win anymore and business happens, right? “... But the purpose behind this extension is to be here forever. ... I’ve got to deliver. We’ve got to deliver. I’m not saying an extension guarantees a championship. But that’s the goal. It’s why I wake up every morning. I don’t want to be anywhere else. I don’t see it. Can’t ever picture it. “I dream of myself being here forever and hopefully having 45 in the rafters one day.”
Every career setback is a lesson. Getting swept by the Knicks in 2023. Losing to Boston in the conference semifinals a year later. The embarrassment against Indiana in the 2025 playoffs after a 64-win regular season. And, most recently, the conference finals collapse that included Cleveland’s Game 1 implosion in which the Cavs gagged away a 22-point fourth-quarter lead. So, what did Mitchell take from that? “I think everything we do needs to move with intention,” he said. “Every single film session, every single rep, your diet, your weightlifting session. I think the details of everything. You realize how much smaller the margins are when you go from the top eight to the top four. “There’s just so much less room for error and it can compound. That one block out. That one turnover. That one extra possession. That one mental error. The details are so key. “You watch that Knicks team, even after they beat us and got to the Finals, they were winning the game within the margins. It’s just different when you go through it. When we came into camp, there’s a purpose behind each thing we’re doing.”
Shawn Marion, the four-time All-Star who played with James in Cleveland in 2014-15, said the 76ers could have some chemistry concerns as they try to mesh the newcomers with Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecombe. “There are a lot of guys over there and ain’t but one ball,” Marion said in an exclusive interview. “They don’t really call plays anymore so that’s the uniqueness of the game now, but a lot of guys don’t play well without the ball. Every star doesn’t play well together. We see it time and time again. We’re going to see how it rolls out. I’m optimistic, but I want to see what happens.”
The Spot Up Shot: The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed Jaxson Robinson and Noam Yaacov to training camp deals. Waiting to see which two players Cleveland waived to open 2 roster spots.
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Oh No He Didn't: Marc Spears: "You still got that chip from Cleveland? Darius Garland: "Yeah, 1,000%. It wasn't even a trade, it was just everything that's happened. So everybody thought that I was just out of the league basically. But now I'm tryna get that spark back, tryna get back to the all star level that I'm used to being at"
Austin Krell: Gansey on what's stood out about Maxey: "It’s funny, I was…I don’t know who I was telling the other day, but like every time we played Tyrese when I was in Cleveland, I used to call him the Cavs Killer. He’d always have like 35. I’m like, ‘Man, this guy, we can’t stop him.’ But just seeing him up close, because I haven’t really been around him much, but like just his body, he’s really got stronger. Athletically, he’s really bouncy right now. But the thing that I’ve noticed that people have told me that he hasn’t done in the past is being more vocal. I think, like, you know, obviously he’s…him and Jo are like the old elder statesmen here with the team and with Jaylen and LeBron and all the other new guys in here, I think he’s trying to take on a vocal leadership role with our group because the talent, the skill level, I mean, some of the stuff he does in practice is like, ‘Woah.’ You know, like I’ve never seen that before. So I think he’s doing great. He’s in a great space and I love what I’ve been seeing so far.”
Sam Merrill on Donovan Mitchell: “Donovan’s always been 100% committed here. I remember when he signed his last extension, when everyone thought he was going to leave and there was questions about it, like that whole season I would make jokes about it to him because we can joke about that stuff. He’d always be like, ‘Is it not obvious?’ He felt like it was pretty clear that he was committed to Cleveland and he’s shown that again with this new extension. He really, really wants to be in Cleveland, loves it here, and really wants to win at the highest level.”
Donovan Mitchell on LeBron James signing with Philadelphia after Cleveland’s pursuit: “I mean, I think for a lot of reasons it made sense. I didn’t think Philly. I thought if he didn’t come here, it’d be Golden State. But I probably knew as much as you did as far as that. It made sense to me. That’s why my brain was like, ‘Alright, it’s probably going to happen.’ But it didn’t. At the end of the day, I’m glad we made the move and we got P-Watt [Peyton Watson].