NBA Stats Zone: How are the league's best teams finding success?

The NBA's two best teams in the 2024/25 regular season are small-market franchises that prioritized depth and player development when building their respective rosters.

But what about the teams' on-court play makes the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder so successful this season?

Here, we'll explore the advanced NBA Synergy tracking stats behind the two teams while identifying - aside from the fact each team has talented players - what sets them apart from the rest of the league.

Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the best team in the NBA overall with a 50-10 record through 60 games, and they rank as the top team in terms of wide-open three-point percentage (43.2 percent) and points per shot resulting from off-ball movement (1.44).

That means the Cavs make the shots they should make, and they play as a team.

The Cavs make the fourth-fewest passes per game (269.4) in the NBA, but they have the second-best assist-to-pass percentage (10.7) and rank sixth in pace (100.0 possessions per game), meaning they make smart passes that quickly lead to high-percentage shots.

Cleveland does not take many close-range shots, ranking around the middle of the pack with 38.5 field goal attempts within 10 feet of the basket per game, but they make those shots at the fourth-highest percentage in the league (62.2 percent).

Head coach Kenny Atkinson has a well-rounded team with All-Star players Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley leading the group. But the team's success this season - like many other successful teams in the modern NBA - has been driven by accuracy from beyond the arc.

Cleveland leads the league with a 39.5 three-point percentage. They don't shoot from range as often as the reigning champion Boston Celtics (Cleveland takes 41.1 threes per game to Boston's 48.0), but the Cavs' efficiency has more than made up for the disparity in attempts.

Defensively, the Cavs allow the fourth-lowest average field goal percentage at 45.3 percent. That's spearheaded in part by power forward/center Evan Mobley, who ranks seventh among centers by allowing opponents to shoot just 53.6 percent from within six feet of the basket.

Plus, Cleveland is great at forcing long possessions: its opponents average 9.1 shot attempts per game within the final four seconds of the shot clock (second most), and its opponents shoot just 34.4 percent on those attempts.

Oklahoma City Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder rank as the best team in terms of pick-and-roll execution, they score the most points off turnovers and allow the fewest, and head coach Mark Daigneault's team ranks first in both deflections made (21.7) and loose balls recovered (6.0) per game.

OKC also allows the lowest opponent field goal percentage, both overall (43.5 percent) and from three-point range (33.5 percent). Their three-point percentage allowed is almost a full percentage point better than the second-best team at defending the perimeter, the Celtics.

The fact that teams often find themselves in early deficits against OKC means teams have to rely on the three earlier in games, which only plays into the Thunder's hands. The likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Alex Caruso and Jalen Williams are each among the league's best players in terms of perimeter defense and three-point percentage allowed as the closest defender.

Led on offense by MVP candidate point guard SGA, the Thunder attempt the second-most drives to the basket per game (56.1), which in turn opens things up on the perimeter. OKC ranks 12th overall in three-point percentage (36.4 percent), but when only counting catch-and-shoot attempts, they rank eighth (38.6 percent).

Out of the pick-and-roll, which usually involves SGA as the ball-handler and center Isaiah Hartenstein as the screener, the Thunder average the second-highest field goal percentage on such plays (48.5 percent).

OKC, like many other modern NBA teams, has shot the three well as part of their success. But star player SGA has only just become a league-average shooter from distance this season, so the team gets more creative than some other teams when creating openings from distance.

The Thunder lead the league in both offensive and defensive turnover percentage, which helps them create transition opportunities on offense while limiting them going the other way. OKC averages 25.8 points in transition (most in the league) and allows just 12.8 (fewest). They don't allow room for opposing mistakes when defending, and they don't make many mistakes on offense.

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