OKC Thunder: Players grades for beatdown in Cleveland

The OKC Thunder were losers of three straight heading into Sunday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers had lost nine straight games. Needless to say, neither team has found much success recently.

But the Thunder are supposed to be here.

The Thunder’s only goal this season is to give players a chance to show they deserve to wear an OKC Thunder jersey. In turn, there have been a few surprises and a couple of disappointments along the way.

There weren’t many disappointments on Sunday as the Thunder handled the Cavaliers to snap their losing streak and extend Cleveland’s to 10 straight.

The Thunder couldn’t do it without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who turned in one of his best performances of the season.

"Thunder coach Mark Daigneault was quick to acknowledge Gilgeous-Alexander in his post game comments as per ESPN: “Most nights, I feel like we’ve got the best player on the court in Shai — and that seems like an All-Star to me. I certainly feel like he’s deserving of consideration.”"

The Thunder and Cavaliers kept things even through the first quarter, but the Thunder were able to shake the Cavaliers in the second to go into the break leading 62-51.

The Thunder and Cavaliers matched each other throughout the third quarter, but Al Horford and Theo Maledon combined for 14 of the Thunder’s 31 fourth-quarter points to push Oklahoma City towards victory.

With that said, let’s dive into the player grades for the starters.