The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Nos. 3 and 2 teams in the Eastern Conference en route to extending their overall winning streak to a franchise-best 15 games. Next up for the Thunder? Well, it's the team with the best record in the East -- and the NBA, for that matter -- as they visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
Oklahoma City boasts an 11-0 record versus Eastern Conference foes while Cleveland sports a 10-0 mark against Western Conference representatives. The Cavaliers also are riding high on a 10-game winning streak -- all by double digits, mind you -- and are a scintillating 18-1 at home this season. "It's going to be hard on the road to get off to the slow starts that we've been getting off to lately.
So we have to kind of fix that," Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. "We got to throw the first punch, especially on the road against good teams with their environment, their crowd behind them." Oklahoma City head coach Mark Daigneault has faith in his team after ending the New York Knicks' nine-game winning streak on Friday and defeating the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics two nights later.
"More pressure, more grit, more intensity," Daigneault said. "We've got a level we can play at that can really be good (on defense)." Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 33 points in each of the last two games and has served as the team's leading scorer in each of the last eight.
The two-time All-Star owns team-best averages in points (31.3), assists (6.1), .
