Cavaliers at the zenith

On a perfect, ethical basketball game.

Good morning. Shout out Logan Murdock; appreciate the shouts and welcome back. Let’s basketball.

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The Cavaliers, now 32-4, beat the Thunder, now 30-6 in what was the zenith of ethical basketball on Wednesday. Just a perfect game: 30 lead changes, neither team led by more than nine points, spurts of incredible offense and incredible defense, some spectacular individual play and even more spectacular team play, minimal long stoppages, minimal complaining to the refs, excellent commentary from the broadcast team, a great crowd, a final two minutes that took reasonably close to two minutes.

That was a perfect basketball game. I might watch it again this weekend just to better appreciate it. It’s like sitting in front of a Monet for three hours, just basking and dissecting and basking.

Water Lilies; Claude Monet; 1915

(Unfortunately, the NBA’s normal full game highlight reels aren’t up this morning, so I have to add a shorter substitute here.)

We know these teams are incredible — that’s been the story for them all season long. That’s why everyone was so rightfully hyped for this game. But what sticks out in the wake of the match is that while everyone knew Oklahoma City, who was punted out of the second round by a more seasoned opponent last year, would be this good, Cleveland was much less certain coming into this year.

What sticks out is that we spent much of last season wondering if Donovan Mitchell would disappear in free agency, or whether his re-signing would lead Darius Garland to ask out. We wondered when — not if, when — the Cavaliers would break up the Evan Mobley-Jarrett Allen frontline. Once Mitchell re-signed, we wondered whether this would be one of those scenarios like Kevin Durant in Brooklyn, where a new contract didn’t prevent a trade request soon after execution. When Allen extended, we wondered if Cleveland would instead clock the market for Mobley. When the team stayed together and said all the right things and got a new head coach and got ready for the season, few placed Cleveland near the top of the pecking order in the East. Speaking personally, it felt bold to lump all seven teams not named Boston into a single chase group behind the Celtics. In reality, the Celtics are closer to the chase group than they are the Cavaliers, who now have a 5.5-game lead for the No. 1 seed.

Cleveland chose patience.