Breaking down the Hue Jackson press conference
January 15, 2016Browns let John DeFilippo go, Hue Jackson to call plays
January 16, 2016Cleveland Cavaliers (28-10) 91
Houston Rockets (21-20) 77
Box Score
After losing a hard-fought game against the Spurs in San Antonio, it was anyone’s guess how the Cavs would play in their road trip finale against the Houston Rockets Friday night. These Cavs can be an enigmatic bunch and we’ve seen them stink it up after a big game before. A day after falling to the Golden State Warriors on Christmas, they were embarrassed by the Trail Blazers in easily their most lopsided loss of the season. On the final leg of a six-game road trip — a back-to-back and their third game in four nights — how would the Cavs respond?1
Pretty damn well, it turned out. They snapped the Rockets’ five-game winning streak and handed them an embarrassing home defeat. (This assumes the Rockets are capable of being embarrassed.) Houston scored a season-low 77 points — their worst output coming into Friday was 84 — and turned the ball over 18 times. No Rocket scored more than 14 points. They shot terribly. They were met with boos as they walked off the court at the Toyota Center.
The Cavs hardly played their best ball. They started the game by spotting Houston an 11-4 lead, which inspired David Blatt to call an early timeout. They missed heaps of shots. Their play helped inspire Jeff Van Gundy to say, not unreasonably, “I encourage every child watching at home to turn this game off” during the fourth quarter. Their defense was good, but the contest was altogether unattractive, especially in comparison to Thursday’s tussle with the Spurs.
Ah, but there were some attractive moments. If you saw only the good stuff, you could be duped into thinking that you missed a highlight-laden spectacle. Take, for instance, Kevin Love saving a rebound from going out of play and punctuating some flashy passes from Kyrie Irving and LeBron James with a corner three…
https://vine.co/v/iOexZTUUjQg
…or Irving beating 80 percent of the Rockets by himself in semi-transition. He started by undressing Patrick Beverley with a couple behind-the-back dribbles, then split Terrance Jones and Montrezl Harrell. By the time he got into the lane only James Harden remained, and he was kind enough to take himself out of the equation with a quarter-hearted block attempt. Mike Tirico’s grunt tells the tale.
https://vine.co/v/iOia2j05EJz
Alright, one more for Harden’s sake. His defense has shown some improvement after becoming a punchline, but this game suggests he’s been working on new material. LeBron is no easy cover, and there’s no shame in getting beat by him one-on-one. But it’s the last play of the half, and Harden doesn’t exactly finish the play with a proud contest. (Nor, it should be said, does Dwight Howard.)
https://vine.co/v/iOew2V3rLaO
Aside from a handful of plays it was not a beautiful game, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder — or, in this case, the win holder. The Cavs finished the year’s longest road trip with a 5-1 record, with the only loss a four-pointer to a 35-6 team that has won 32 straight on their home court. Not bad.
Let’s take a look at the numbers.
42, 16-of-31 — Two Cavaliers who made more than half their shots were Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, who combined for 42 points on 16-of-31 shooting. (Tristan Thompson also shot well, scoring 10 on a perfect 4-of-4.) It wasn’t otherworldly stuff from the soon-to-be All-Stars, but it was good enough. Each had stretches where he took over — see Irving’s scintillating fourth-quarter take above — and it didn’t take much encouragement to get Houston to roll over. Some of the Cavs’ best offense came with Kevin Love at center, an encouraging sight after the Spurs made such efforts to target him Thursday.
.391/.229/.652 — Aside from James, Irving, and Thompson, the Cavs did their darnedest to shoot worse than the Rockets. They generated a fair number of open shots, but converted just 39 percent of them. They shot just 8-of-35 from beyond the arc, with J.R. Smith turning in a 2-for-12 performance. The Cavs bolstered their point total thanks in part to some fine work on the offensive glass. They grabbed 17 offensive rebounds (seven more than Houston) and turned them into 15 second-chance points. Tristan Thompson, Kevin Love, and Matthew Dellavedova came down with three offensive boards apiece, with LeBron and Iman Shumpert each adding two.
13, 64 — Houston scored 13 points and shot 83 percent (5-of-6) in the game’s first three minutes. The Rockets scored on their first six possessions; the one miss during the sequence was a James Harden three, which Patrick Beverley put back in. After that, the Rockets’ water was shut off. They scored 64 points and shot 31 percent (21-of-68) in the game’s next 45 minutes. Hat tip to Kyle Welch for this one.
Houston Rockets tonight
First 3 minutes of game: 5-of-6 (83.3%) 13 points
Last 45 minutes: 21-of-68 (30.9%) 64 points— Kyle (@kcwelch330) January 16, 2016
The Rockets scored 30 points in the second and third quarters combined. They scored 51 in the first three periods, their most feeble such production in over a year. For the game, Houston shot 35 percent overall and 24 percent from deep. They got some good looks, but struggled to string together buckets after the game-opening barrage.
2, 8 — A big reason for the Rockets’ scoring troubles was how poorly James Harden played. He made two shots and committed eight turnovers. He made all seven free throws he took, but that’s meager by his standards — he averages 10 trips to the line per game. He totaled 11 points, one higher than his season low, on 2-of-12 shooting. The Cavs did well by making him see plenty of bodies, and then attacked the ball when Harden tried to make drop-off passes inside. Good work all around.
+15 — The Cavs’ best plus-minus of the night belonged to…anyone, anyone? That’s right — Anderson Varejao! Andy played eight minutes against Houston, snapping a six-game DNP streak. He helped the Cavs climb back into the game in the first quarter and build a lead in the second. He finished with four points, two rebounds, and two assists. It was just nice to see him out there again.
1 — The Cavs have one more regular season meeting with the Golden State Warriors. They’ll get a chance to come home and get some rest, then the Dubs are coming to town Monday night. The Cavs are 15-1 at home this year. The Warriors are 18-3 on the road. Something’s gotta give.
- I had a hunch that the scoreline would be uneven, but you could have talked me into either team winning. [↩]
9 Comments
Was definitely a weird game from an execution standpoint, but shows that the depth and talent is so that these guys can afford rough nights from a handful as long as they get 80 from the 20.
Good win. I will take 2 wins especially when it’s the Texas triangle. I really want to beat the Warriors.
Great road win last night. Could of been a “play down to the competition and let them hang around night” but they got after it after those first few minutes. Loved that K-Love ball save and hustle to the corner for a 3.
Off topic – It hurts me to see Cespedes still on the market…
I’m operating that the longer he’s out there the better. Cost never increases in these instances. Very much one-tailed.
every Cavalier, but especially LeBron, noticed when Harden was the only thing between them and the basket. I saw LeBron go full speed at Harden a handful of times for an easy layup. It was like turning on a switch, it was so obvious.
Houston is a bad team. I was flipping between Fox Sports Ohio and ESPN when I heard Van Gundy…
http://www.sbnation.com/2016/1/16/10778428/kyrie-irving-is-embarrassing-the-rockets-so-bad-jeff-van-gundy-says?ref=yfp
…I laughed. Unfortunately it reminded how bad of a broadcaster he was too.
But 5-1 on a nearly 2 week road trip…I’ll take it. Clearly Cavs have a lot to still work on but 30-10 after 40 games. I’m not complaining.
Oh and chrisdotcom I watch Ariza last night and no thank you.
The only negative to another Finals appearance will be Van Gundy on commentary.
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