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The NBA's most anticipated matchup of the season is coming up, with the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder (30-5) visiting Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers (31-4).
Wednesday night's game between the Cavs and Thunder features two of the best teams in NBA history season-to-date, combining for a .871 winning percentage through 35 games. But that's not all between the two teams.
Cavaliers and Thunder making NBA history
Oklahoma City is in the midst of a 15-game winning streak and has won 19 of their last 20 games. Meanwhile, Cleveland has won 10 consecutive games for the second time this season, but this streak comes with 10 straight double-digit wins.
It's the first time in NBA history that a team on a 15-game winning streak faces off against a team on a 10-game winning streak. It's also the first inter-conference game in NBA history between teams with a winning percentage of .850 or higher this late into a season.
The Cavs started their 2024-25 campaign with a 15-game winning streak, which came to an end at the hands of the Boston Celtics. With the Thunder's current 15-game winning streak, it's the first time that multiple teams have had a winning streak of 15+ games in the same season since the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors did it in 2019-20, respectively.
Cleveland and Oklahoma City winning 30 of their first 35 games marks just the second time in NBA history that two teams have done so. The Los Angeles Lakers (32-3) and Milwaukee Bucks (30-5) in the 1971-72 NBA season were the only other teams to both win 30 of their first 35 games.
Entering this season, the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers held the record for the best point differential per game in a season, winning by an average of 12.28 points. The 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks are second, winning by an average of 12.26 points per game and the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls won by an average of 12.24 points per game.
This season's OKC Thunder (+12.1) and Cleveland Cavaliers (+11.8) are currently on pace for the fourth and fifth highest point differentials of all time in a season, respectively.
The Thunder also boast the league's best defensive rating while the Cavs have the NBA's best offensive rating.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has played in all 35 of the Thunder's games this season, averaging 31.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 2.0 steals, 1.1 blocks, and 2.2 made three-pointers per game on 52.4 percent shooting from the field and 36 percent from three. The points, rebounds, steals, blocks, threes, and field goal percentage are all career-highs. Gilgeous-Alexander's assist average and three-point point shooting are the second-highest marks of his career.
Only Michael Jordan put up those kinds of numbers over a full season.
The Cleveland Cavaliers, on the other hand, have held balanced attacks in every game this season. Donovan Mitchell is scoring at his lowest rate since his rookie season. Darius Garland is having by far the most efficient season of his career. Evan Mobley has taken a major all-around jump and even shooting a career-high 41.8 percent from three this season. Jarrett Allen is also having one of his most efficient seasons as the Cavs' dominant interior presence.
Wednesday's game between the Cavs and Thunder will be the first of two matchups, with the second coming next week on January 16.
