The Cleveland Cavaliers, unbeaten at home and coming off their most complete win of the young season, host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night, Nov. 2, at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, with tip-off at 7 p.m., according to The Oklahoman’s game preview. Both teams enter at 4-2, but they arrive in very different shape: Cleveland is relatively healthy, while Oklahoma City travels without much of its regular rotation, according to injury reports published by The Oklahoman and by Fear The Sword, the Cavaliers site on SB Nation.
Cleveland’s confidence starts with Saturday’s result. The Cavaliers routed the Milwaukee Bucks 136-111 on the road, a game NewsForce247 covered as Mobley scoring 27 as the Cavaliers routed the Bucks for their first road win. In its preview of Monday’s game, Yardbarker reported that Evan Mobley scored 27 points and Jarrett Allen added 25 in that win, and that neither Donovan Mitchell nor James Harden had to carry the offensive load — the balance head coach Kenny Atkinson has been asking for.
Six games into the season, that balance is still a work in progress, Yardbarker reported. The Cavaliers have looked strong at times and uneven at others, and Monday offers another chance to show they can stick with what worked in Milwaukee — getting Mobley and Allen involved early rather than relying on their guards to create everything, according to Yardbarker’s preview. Cleveland is 3-0 at Rocket Arena so far this season, according to TheSpread’s preview of the game.
Oklahoma City’s problems are simpler and more severe. The Thunder have ruled out Alex Caruso with an ankle sprain, Chet Holmgren with a knee injury, Jalen Williams after ankle surgery, Cason Wallace after shoulder surgery, Nikola Topic after back surgery and Thomas Sorber after knee surgery, according to the injury report published by The Oklahoman. Fear The Sword reported the same six absences and noted that Holmgren and Caruso are the shorter-term losses, while Williams and Wallace could be out far longer.
Holmgren’s absence matters most in this matchup. TheSpread reported that the Thunder center has a small patellar tendon tear and is expected to miss eight to 10 weeks, which removes Oklahoma City’s best rim protection on a night when Cleveland’s plan is to feed Mobley and Allen inside. Without its main point-of-attack defenders, Oklahoma City will also have to chase Mitchell and Harden with a shortened backcourt, a problem The Oklahoman’s preview flagged in picking Cleveland to win comfortably.
The Thunder still have the game’s most dangerous single scorer. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander carries Oklahoma City at 26.0 points per game, with Ajay Mitchell adding 16.5, according to TheSpread’s preview. Oklahoma City has lost two straight road games, falling at Dallas and then 119-98 at Houston on Saturday, when Gilgeous-Alexander led the team with 26 points, Pick Dawgz reported in its preview.
Cleveland spreads its scoring more widely, according to TheSpread’s preview: Donovan Mitchell at 22.7 points per game, Mobley at 19.7 points with 8.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists, and Harden at 16.7 points with 6.3 assists. FanDuel’s preview noted that Mobley is shooting 58.1 percent from the floor this season. The market made Cleveland a 4.5-point home favorite in previews published by FanDuel and TheSpread, despite identical 4-2 records.
Cleveland has its own, shorter injury list. Jaylon Tyson is out with an ankle sprain and Nae’Qwan Tomlin is out with a back problem, while Peyton Watson is questionable with right hamstring tightness, according to The Oklahoman’s injury report. Fear The Sword listed the same designations and projected a Cleveland starting lineup of Harden, Mitchell, Watson, Mobley and Allen if Watson is cleared, against an Oklahoma City lineup built around Gilgeous-Alexander, Ajay Mitchell and Isaiah Hartenstein. Watson’s status is a game-time question, not a settled fact.
History gives Oklahoma City one reason for confidence, even short-handed. The Thunder swept last season’s two-game series, winning 136-104 in Cleveland and 121-113 at home, and won the most recent meeting 121-113 on Feb. 22, 2026, according to TheSpread’s preview. Fear The Sword put the streak at three straight Thunder wins over Cleveland. The same two teams meet again Wednesday in Oklahoma City, according to Fear The Sword.
Cleveland fans can also catch up on NewsForce247’s coverage of the Browns’ 27-6 loss at Pittsburgh, which cost them first place.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know comes from the previews and injury reports cited above: both teams are 4-2, Cleveland is 3-0 at home, tip-off is 7 p.m. Monday at Rocket Arena, the game airs on Peacock, NBC Sports Network, WOIO and the Rock Entertainment Sports Network according to The Oklahoman, and Oklahoma City’s six ruled-out players are confirmed in two separate published injury reports. What we are still waiting on is Peyton Watson’s final status for Cleveland, the confirmed starting lineups, and, of course, the game itself — this is a preview, and no result exists yet to report.
What happens next is tip-off at 7 p.m. Monday in Cleveland, followed quickly by the rematch Wednesday in Oklahoma City. A Cleveland win would protect its perfect home record and hand the depleted Thunder a third straight loss; an Oklahoma City win, behind Gilgeous-Alexander, would be one of the early season’s more improbable road results and would flip the pressure onto Cleveland for Wednesday.
Photo: Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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