The two best teams in the NBA since the start of the 2024-25 regular season by record did battle on Wednesday night. In the end, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder by seven points in a game that featured 30 lead changes and eight ties.
Longtime Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert seemingly took a victory lap on X following his team’s win and acknowledged that Cleveland is on pace to win 73 games this season. That would tie the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors for the most wins by a squad in one season in NBA history.
.@cavs business tonight…
Number 1: Won our 11th straight game
Number 2: Scored 129 points on the league’s best defense
Number 3: Ended OKC’s 15 game winning streak
Number 4: Pacing for a 73 win season
Number 5: Showed the world our fans are the best in the country#LetEmKnow— Dan Gilbert (@cavsdan) January 9, 2025
Gilbert bought the Cavs back in 2005 and was able to witness much of LeBron James’ time in Cleveland in an ownership role, including when the team rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the 2016 NBA Finals to win its first championship in franchise history.
The 62-year-old is likely hoping that the current iteration of the Cavaliers will add to the team’s championship count later this year. So far, Cleveland has looked every bit like a title contender, as the Cavaliers hold the best record in the league at 32-4 and are on an 11-game winning streak on top of the fact that they’re on track to win 70-plus games.
One has to go back in time more than a month to find the team’s most recent defeat. The Cavaliers lost to the Miami Heat by nine points back on Dec. 8. Heat star Jimmy Butler played in that contest and dropped 18 points. Butler might not even be a member of the Heat by the time Cleveland takes on Miami again this season, as he’s currently serving a seven-game suspension and has allegedly indicated to the Heat that he wants a trade.
Clearly, a lot has changed in the NBA since Cleveland’s last loss.
The Cavaliers can keep their impressive winning streak alive with a victory over the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night. The Raptors have come up short in all but one of their last 10 contests and are riding a three-game losing streak heading into the bout. Toronto lost its most recent game to the New York Knicks by a final score of 112-98 on Wednesday night.
