OKLAHOMA CITY -- On Thursday night, the “OKC” abbreviation representing the road city the Cleveland Cavaliers were playing in more appropriately stood for “Our Knees, Crap,” for the suddenly beat-up Cavs.
First, there was LeBron James sitting out with soreness behind his left knee. Cavs coach David Blatt called the injury “nothing major,” but the news still came off as rather jarring considering the ultra-competitive James was opting to sit out against perhaps his most worthy adversary in the Thunder’s Kevin Durant.
(Despite the seeming incongruence, a team source insisted to ESPN.com that James’ knee injury is “not significant” and the Cavs were merely being “overly cautious” with their franchise player. He’s questionable for Friday’s game in New Orleans.)
If missing James didn’t already put Cleveland up the creek without a paddle, then having Kyrie Irving twist his left knee in the second quarter and collapse to the floor after colliding with Russell Westbrook was the type of incident that usually sinks the ship.
Irving had to be helped off the court and went straight to the locker room with 1:31 remaining in the first half with his status for the game -- and quite frankly for the season -- in serious question. It was so bad that Irving made sure to avoid watching the replay and pledged to never set his eyes on it in the future.
“Really concerned,” Irving said when asked what immediately went through his mind. “I definitely felt something buckle. I was just really scared.”
So was James, who, bum knee and all, rushed out of the visitor’s locker room where he was receiving treatment in nothing but his tights and a T-shirt. He intercepted Irving as he made his way down the tunnel and checked in immediately on his point guard.
Not long after, Irving was checked out by Cavs trainer Steve Spiro and the Oklahoma City medical staff and was found only to have a left knee contusion -- no sprain, no tear -- and was able to return to the court for the start of the second half.
After he’d been buoyed by both his stroke of good luck and the support received from James, of course.
“It meant a lot,” Irving said. “He’s awesome and he just sincerely cares and that’s just the relationship that we have going around this entire locker room. We’re more than teammates, we’re friends and to know that your teammates care about you like that goes far.”
It was that same sense of togetherness that kept the Cavs from being far from out of it despite trailing by as many as 20 points early on in the fourth quarter.
Even though Irving ended up shooting just 7-for-21 (mirroring his team’s struggles on the offensive end as they shot 36.5 percent as a group) he kept at it -- trying to make plays, chasing down loose balls, closing out on shooters, getting back in transition defense -- and the Cavs followed suit.
“He toughened up and got in there in the second half and he showed a lot of resolve coming back and playing,” said Kevin Love. “I think he set the tone for us in the second half.”
And so even though the Thunder were at home and they had both Westbrook and Durant in the lineup and had the James-less Cavs on the ropes, it never became a knockout.
Matthew Dellavedova, in just his third game back from a knee injury of his own that sidelined him for 15 games, got the start in James’ place and not only chipped in 14 points (including a 4-for-6 shooting mark from 3) and four assists, but he guarded Durant, who has at least 7-8 inches of height on him, one-on-one.
“Just try to make it hard on them,” Dellavedova said of his personal defensive ethos. “They’re the best scorers in the world, they’re going to score, but just try to make it as hard as possible on them.”
And “Delly,” just like he did in his last two games, kept the group playing hard. If he wasn’t going to accept certain defeat guarding the reigning MVP, then who were his teammates to give up down by 20?
“We’re just gritty, man,” Love said. “If everybody could play like Delly, we’d be OK. He guarded everybody from the 5-man to the 1-man tonight. I thought we showed a lot of heart, a lot of hustle on that end of the floor.”
Added Blatt: “Nothing surprises me about what he does. Nothing. Character over everything. Over everything.”
Cleveland cut the deficit all the way down to four points with two minutes remaining before Durant scored eight points to close things out and snap the Cavs’ eight-game winning streak.
Blatt was asked to sum up his feelings while Irving’s status was still up in the air and the longtime European coach uttered a Russian phrase that he translated as meaning, “hope dies last.”
“I think we’ve been showing that for quite some time,” Blatt said of his team fighting to the end. “I’m glad that’s slowly but surely becoming a big part of our identity.”
He certainly knows his team. So far, at least. Hope is alive and well for these Cavs -- even if their knees are a little shaky at the moment.