A great NBA streak ends tonight! Plus, reclassifying 5 key offseason moves

On By Littum

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On this date in 1935, Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. Want your mind blown? Basketball legend Hubie Brown was almost 16 months old at the time.

The first ones: Tonight’s Cavs-Thunder showdown is a rarity

It’s probably been a while since you circled around a Cleveland Cavaliers matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Maybe since the 2009-10 season, when LeBron James was still trying to drag Boobie Gibson and Jamario Moon to the NBA Finals, when the Thunder won 50 games for the first time with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and, of course, Nenad Krstić.

Well, the Cavs and Thunder play tonight (7 p.m. ET on ESPN or Fubo — try it for free), and to say the least, this game has far more historical significance. Let’s set the stage:

  • The Cavs are 31-4 and riding a 10-game winning streak. They have the best record and currently post the second-best offensive rating in NBA history, thanks to new head coach Kenny Atkinson’s tactical wrinkles and talent maximization.
  • The Thunder are 30-5 and have a 15-game winning streak. (Technically, they lost a game after the first five of those wins, but it was the NBA Cup Final, which doesn’t count toward the standings.) In defensive rating, the Thunder are the only team from the last five seasons (since post-pandemic offense explosion) to rank in the top 200 over the last 20 seasons (when NBA rules were changed to increase offense). They are even in 63rd place.

This type of regular season matchup between two teams is so successful and this heat almost never happens. A few facts to keep in mind, according to the NBA:

  • It is the first ever game between teams with winning streaks of at least 10 and 15.
  • It is the third game ever between two teams on double-digit winning streaks and the first since 2000.
  • It is the first interconference game in NBA history between teams with winning percentages of .850 or higher at this point in a season or later.
  • OKC is 11-0 in the East. Cleveland is 10-0 in the West. It’s a classic something-must-give battle.

In addition to the team record, the NBA gets a chance to highlight some of the best individual talent. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jalen Williams and Darius Garland are All-Star-caliber players or better, plus All-Defense-grade players in Alex Caruso (though he’s out tonight) and Lu Dort, along with a ton of important role players. (Not to mention, Chet Holmgren isn’t even back yet for OKC.)

Lock in tonight and enjoy the historic showdown. We will definitely talk about this one tomorrow.


Matthew Hinton/Imagn Images

The last 24

Zion returned to court

He’s back. After sitting out 27 games with a hamstring strain, Zion Williamson played 28 minutes in the Pelicans’ loss to the Timberwolves last night. How did he do it?

50 foot winner. Wild ending in Hawks–Jazz, where Trae Young plays completely. What a shot!

No. 1 goes down. No. 8 Florida dispatched Tennessee, the last undefeated team in men’s college basketball, 73-43 last night. It was a historically bad loss.

Underrated NBA Draft Prospects. John Hollinger has the names you need to watch, especially as March Madness approaches. Some future pros here.

NBA promotion. Does the question of viewership come down to how the league is talked about? Maybe more matches are needed.

No Euro NBA? Has this new EuroLeague deal just hurt the NBA’s plans across the pond? Mike Vorkunov has the answers.

Big game after Cavs-Thunder. Spurs at Bucks, 9:30 PM ET on ESPN. You get Victor Wembanyama against Giannis Antetokounmpo. A lot of length, talent, stats and letters in their names.

Revisionist list: Updated grades for 5 big offseason moves

We are over a week into January and that means everyone has played around 35 games on the season. As we approach the halfway point, it feels like a good time to look at how offseason transactions work. We’ll do this a few times over the next week or so, but let’s start with some of the big moves.

1. Paul George to the 76ers: Four years, $212 million. This has not worked so far. PG has played 24 of 34 games. His scoring and shooting are way down. The team is bad with him on the floor, but worse with him, so … progress? The good news is: His defense has been good, and when he’s out there with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, this is a winning team. However, it has only turned into 10 games. Updated grade: C+ but it will improve as they maintain health.

2. Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo: The Knicks have thrived with Towns replacing Randle. He is averaging 25.3 points on nearly 66 percent true shooting and leads the league in rebounding (14). They kill it with KAT on the floor. Randle’s individual numbers have been good for Minnesota, but his impact has not. To make matters worse, DiVincenzo went from elite shooter to league average so far. Updated grade: A for the Knicks, D+ for the Wolves.

3. Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein for the Thunder: Caruso for Josh Giddey; Hartenstein for three years, $87 million. Caruso, who has not played since before Christmas, has shot terribly from deep, but otherwise the addition of these two has created dominance. Giddey has been solid for Chicago, but still can’t shoot. Updated grade: A+ for OKC, B for Chicago.

4. Klay Thompson to Mavericks: Three years, $50 million. We see Klay adding a big upgrade to Dallas, but things will be tested with Kyrie Irving and Luka Dončić both out for a while. Thompson is shooting over 38 percent from deep and the team is great with him on the floor. Updated grade: B+ and it gets even better.

5. Chris Paul to Spurs: One year, $11 million. The shooting hasn’t been great, but CP3 has been surgical on the floor. San Antonio is a very good team when he plays and Paul has developed good chemistry with Wemby. This team’s offense falls off a cliff when CP3 is off the floor. Updated grade: A+ as long as he is healthy.

Three bad offers: The Suns, Wolves and Pels are in strange positions

The 2025 trade deadline could be a thriller, with guys like Jimmy Butler, Brandon Ingram and maybe even Bradley Beal on the move. There’s also the very sober possibility that it could be a dud because of how teams could operate conservatively in this stupid second-apron era. For fans of drama, however, there is hope that owners and managers will not be able to help themselves.

Jon Krawczynski and Will Guillory wrote a great piece yesterday about the situations the Timberwolves and Pelicans face with Julius Randle and Ingram, respectively. These teams don’t know what to do with players who probably shouldn’t have futures on their rosters.

The Pelicans have tried to move Ingram, who will be an unrestricted free agent. His unavailability and his good-but-not-great talent leave any potential trade partner reluctant to commit big money to him. And the Pelicans need to balance their books and roster with guys who can play, so it doesn’t really make sense to stay long term.

The Wolves made a bad trade for Randle two days before training camp. He doesn’t fit into what they want to do, and the biggest advantage they got was financial flexibility under the dreaded second apron. The Wolves would be foolish to give him an extension, but they can hang with him because of a $30.1 million player option for next season. They should concentrate on keeping Naz Reid if he becomes a free agent this summer. Even if a team wanted to trade Randle at the deadline, you’d probably have to give him long-term money.

As for the Suns, Beal reminded everyone this week of the power he wields with his no-trade clause. Mike Budenholzer brought him off the bench to balance things out, and it worked: Beal had 25 points as the struggling Suns beat Philadelphia by 10 on Monday. (Last night, however, Phoenix fell by double digits in Charlotte.) Many people speculated that the move was due to trade rumors or other opportunities involving Beal. The 31-year-old guard addressed the media after that Sixers game:

“If (Phoenix is ​​interested in a trade), I have to be indicted because I have the cards. So until I’m indicted and somebody says different, I’ll be a Sun.”

Beal is one of two players in the league who have no-trade clauses. (LeBron James is the other.) All those rumors that he might be moved to Miami for Butler? It won’t happen unless Beal allows it. He is on the books for $50.2 million this season and $53.6 million next season, and he has a $57.1 million player option in 2026-27.

In previous CBAs, teams would have thrown money at players now, only to find out later. You can’t really do that anymore. Teams need to spend more intelligently so as not to be forced to attach draft picks to get rid of these deals. And even then, we don’t know how the second apron treats these trade values. We may be living in a time where teams are better off letting players go – and other teams are better off trying to sign those players to lower deals in the summer.

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(Top photo: Trevor Ruszkowski, Ken Blaze / Imagn Images)