Nikola Vučević did not play due to pain in his right calf, but neither did three of Chicago's most effective players this season (Kobe White, Josh Gaddie, Lonzo Ball), so Cleveland did not have much trouble confirming first place in the East against the Bulls.
The Cavs celebrated 135:113, they are calm about the East before the playoffs, while in the last three rounds of the league stage they will try to jump over Oklahoma, the best team in the West. True, they face a practically impossible task, considering that OKC has 65 wins, and Cleveland has two less.
Darius Garland led the Cavaliers to victory with 28 points, followed by Ivan Mobley with 21. For the Bulls, Patrick Williams scored 21 points.
When it comes to the best team in the West, Oklahoma has once again shown how mentally strong they are this season - Shai Gilges-Alexander and his teammates were crushed by the LA Lakers three days ago (126:99), and last night they celebrated against the same rival (136:120).
And, of course - it was the Canadian master who shone, scoring 42 points. The match was also marked by the ejection of Luka Dončić after two technical fouls - with seven and a half minutes left in the game.
With 65 wins and 14 losses, Oklahoma City achieved its best performance in franchise history, surpassing the 64-18 record recorded by the team in the 1995/96 season when it was called the Seattle SuperSonics.
Luka scored 23 points before being sent off, while only LeBron James with 28 and Austin Reeves with 24 points were more efficient than him on the Lakers team.
The "craziest" match of the evening was played in Milwaukee, where the Bucks were trailing 95:71 to Minnesota after two minutes of the last quarter and eventually managed to overcome an unreal 24-point deficit and win 110:103.
As announced by the NBA, this is the biggest turnaround in the final quarter since statistics have been kept, and to make things even more interesting, Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 13 points in that part of the game, as many as the entire Wolves team.
The Greek master finished the match with a triple-double (23 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists), while on the other side, Anthony Edwards with 25 and Donte DiVincenzo with 24 points were better than the others.
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