The Cavaliers and Thunder go head-to-head once again in a rematch of conference leaders Thursday on TNT/TruTV/Max (7:30 ET).
The teams holding the best conference records as midseason approaches are Cleveland and Oklahoma City, and here’s the strangest part: It’s 2025.
Not 2010. Or 2015.
There’s no Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook or James Harden. No LeBron James or Kyrie Irving. Those franchise players left a while ago and these franchises not only recovered but thrived, to the extent they each have a legitimate claim to being the best team in the league.
The Thunder and Cavs meet Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT), and if they stay on pace no matter who wins, they’re each staring at 65-plus wins and the top seeds in the Eastern and Western Conferences. While other contending teams have dealt with lapses — even the defending champion Celtics — the two conference leaders are enjoying robust, win-streaky seasons.
The Cavs opened the season winning 15 straight and later tacked on 12 straight. The Thunder matched that 15 straight and opened the season with seven straight. At this point, a losing streak of any length by either team would come as a surprise.
This is all due to these factors that make Cleveland and OKC the envy of the league:
Star players showing leadership and serving as examples for teammates to follow? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Donovan Mitchell are filling those roles for OKC and Cleveland.
Young players taking their game to the next level? Jalen Williams and Evan Mobley are doing it at both ends of the floor and strengthening their case for being All-Stars next month.
There’s more — Darius Garland is coming up clutch when necessary and Jarrett Allen is dropping double-doubles almost nightly for the Cavs. Lu Dort leads the league’s most tenacious and opportunistic defense and Isaiah Hartenstein upgraded OKC’s game in the paint as the team awaits the any-week-now return of Chet Holmgren.
This NBA takeover by the Thunder and Cavs isn’t just about prosperity, but also persistence, a bit of patience and a few twists of fate that fell in their favor as they dug themselves out of the rebuilding rubble following the departures of all-time great players.
That’s obvious upon reflection. They remade themselves using a combination of smart drafting, two game-changing trades and a few free-agent signings. It sounds simple enough … but if it were easy, why aren’t other teams duplicating the blueprint?
The reviews are in and the reaction to OKC and Cleveland is mostly free of suspicion and doubt about their success:
“The Thunder are the No. 1 team in the West for a reason. They play everybody tough. We know what Shai is going to do, but they have a lot of depth on their team,” said Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey.
“The Cavs look amazing right now. They’ve got an opportunity to do something special. I’m glad I was able to put on first and set the trend and hopefully we keep it going,” James said recently on the Kelce Brothers’ podcast, “New Heights.”
So here we are. But how did OKC and Cleveland get here?
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has taken the Thunder to new heights in 2024-25.
The future of the Thunder changed the moment Kawhi Leonard flexed his rights in 2019 free agency. Not long after the champagne dried from his championship in Toronto, Leonard bolted for the Clippers under one condition: they swing a deal for Paul George to give him a ready-now co-star.
George just had the best season of his career, not in Indiana, but OKC — he finished third in Kia MVP voting — and OKC envisioned many seasons of him and Russell Westbrook together. But OKC general manager Sam Presti saw a rare leverage opportunity. He knew the Clippers were desperate for Leonard and Presti could name his price.
And it was steep: five first-round picks, two swaps, Danilo Gallinari and Gilgeous-Alexander.
About that last player, Gilgeous-Alexander: He had a promising rookie season, helped the Clippers to the playoffs and had the endorsement of coach Doc Rivers, but Leonard didn’t have the patience.
But for OKC, why stop there? Rather than keep a potentially unhappy Westbrook, OKC went full rebuild. They jettisoned him to the Houston Rockets one day after trading George, getting Chris Paul, four potential first-round picks and a pick-swap in 2025. Before being flipped to Phoenix the following year, Paul steered OKC to the playoffs … and groomed his point guard replacement, who is a Kia MVP candidate this season.
Gilgeous-Alexander and first-rounders galore. The rest is history.
Meanwhile: The Cavs had less leverage with Utah in the trade that fetched Mitchell because, unlike OKC and George, the Jazz could’ve sent him anywhere. The price was rich — too rich for the New York Knicks, Mitchell’s preferred destination.
The Cavs were all-in, sending a package that included Lauri Markkanen and three first-rounders. Mitchell was in his prime, just 25, and already a star to build around, unlike Markkanen at the time. Placing him next to Garland to form a loaded backcourt was too enticing.
Since then: Mitchell became a fourth-quarter hero and signed an extension last summer to remain in Cleveland.
Donovan Mitchell pulled the Cavaliers together in the summer, and his chemistry with Darius Garland has been evident since.
No team is spotless when it comes to drafting. And OKC is no exception. Since the rebuilding began, the Thunder, for example, swapped the Draft rights to Alperen Sengun, now the centerpiece of the Rockets.
For the most part, OKC has done it right. Holmgren was a no-brainer at No. 2 in 2022. But there’s also Jalen Williams (with one of the Clippers’ picks), Jaylen Williams (second-rounder, same Draft), Aaron Wiggins (second-rounder), Cason Wallace (in the Dereck Lively II Draft-day trade) and last summer, Ajay Mitchell, now a surprising rotational player taken in the second round.
All of the above are productive, compliment Gilgeous-Alexander and give OKC young assets on rookie contracts. That’s the highest commodity a team could have after franchise players. These can be kept and given extensions or traded (as OKC did with Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso last summer).
The Cavs haven’t had as many shots at the Draft, nor have they drafted higher than No. 5 (once) despite failing to win more than 25 games in three straight seasons. They were tied with the highest odds for the first overall pick in the 2020 Anthony Edwards draft but whiffed. They made the most of the Draft anyway since the rebuild: Mobley, Garland and Isaac Okoro in three straight classes.
Losing and rebuilding does have its benefits. It means high drafting and almost as important, low payroll. In that sense, the Cavs were in the perfect position when the Nets and Rockets wanted to make the Harden deal but needed partners.
The Cavs came to the rescue in the four-team deal and became a landing spot for someone who right now is producing just as much if not more, than Harden: Jarrett Allen.
Houston didn’t want him, opting for three unprotected firsts and four swaps instead, but the Cavs were in no position to be choosy. Besides, Allen was even then a solid defender and rebounder; only his offense needed polish. The Cavs had time to allow that to develop, and it only cost them Dante Exum and Rodions Kurucs.
Allen was an All-Star two seasons ago and could make it for a second time next month. He’s averaging 14.1 points and 10. 2 rebounds per game with 22 double-doubles. As a bonus, Caris LeVert (who went to the Pacers in the trade) is now with the Cavs and a valuable bench player.
Cap space caused by rookie contracts also played a major role in OKC getting Hartenstein in what was arguably the most important free-agent signing last summer. He left a winning team in New York for perhaps a championship contender in OKC, which badly needed rebounding help. Hartenstein is averaging 12.2 rpg and 1.3 bpg, allowing Holmgren to play away from the basket when he returns.
The Cavs had five coaches in the six years after James left, and John Beilein didn’t even make it through his first season on the bench. There was blowback in the fraternity when JB Bickerstaff was dismissed last summer despite two playoff appearances, but it’s crickets now under Kenny Atkinson.
Speaking of whom: Atkinson was an assistant in Golden State when he accepted, then declined, the Hornets’ job in 2022. As we now see, the impact of that reversal was mainly felt two years later in Cleveland.
Run it back: And now Oklahoma City and Cleveland have arrived at the same intersection, and the same floor on Thursday.
Allen and Mobley combined for 46 points in Cleveland’s win on Jan. 8, snapping the Thunder’s 15-game win streak. Mitchell shot just 3-for-16 and the Cavs still dropped 129 points, proof that this team’s success is mainly due to the collective.
“It’s very clear that we belong here,” Mitchell said.
The Thunder followed up that loss with a 25-point win at MSG and a 41-point win against the Washington Wizards to recover nicely. This rematch is in OKC where the Thunder haven’t lost since mid-November, and only twice all season.
And OKC, armed with the pending return of Holmgren and tons of assets, never needs to worry about the future defection of a fourth MVP-caliber player following Durant, Westbrook and Harden.
“I love where I am,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
There are questions about whether these teams will meet yet again — which would have to take place in the NBA Finals — but that’s a discussion for springtime. And besides, no other game involving two teams in the league right now has a showdown-feel as this one.
Oklahoma City and Cleveland will do, must do, for now. They’ve earned that status.
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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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