What is the story about?
The
Cleveland Cavaliers once again struggled against an upper-echelon team. They were blown out by the Houston Rockets 117-100 in a game that was much more one-sided than the final score would indicate.
Here are the four factors from this game. These numbers are from Cleaning the Glass.
Now, let’s dive into some of the stats.
- Houston outscored Cleveland 24-11 on points off turnovers. The Cavs finished with two fewer turnovers, but that didn’t matter much because their opponent consistently took advantage of their miscues. Houston was able to get easy offense off steals, allowing them to bury the Cavs as easily as they did.
- The Rockets’ 15-0 run in the middle of the third quarter decided the game. That took their lead from 12 to 27 and effectively ended the game. Cleveland has struggled to turn momentum around this season once it gets headed in the wrong direction. That was on full display once again.
- The Cavs once again struggled to clear the defensive glass, giving up 18 offensive rebounds. As pointed out above, Houston was in the 95th percentile for offensive rebounds. That’s on the heels of the Cavs losing to the New York Knicks on Christmas, partially due to their inability to end defensive possessions. This didn’t come back to bite them much on Saturday as the Cavs actually won the second-chance points battle 15-11.
- Cleveland shot under 31% from three for the 12th time this season. They went 11-36 from beyond the arc. They are now 4-8 when they fail to eclipse 31% shooting from three.
- Darius Garland was a team-worst -32 in the loss. Individual plus/minus from a single game can often be misleading. Garland wasn’t the worst Cavalier on the floor by any stretch. This was, however, a difficult matchup for him. Garland struggled to counteract Houston’s length. He couldn’t get to where he wanted on the floor and struggled as a result.
- Evan Mobley finished with a season-low four points. He came off the bench again as he’s on a minute restriction during his return from a calf injury. That said, this was a truly forgettable performance as he went 2-9 from the field in 20 minutes. Mobley is one of the few players with size and length on the team. They needed him to show that in this matchup, but he didn’t.
- Jarrett Allen provided just six points and four rebounds in under 18 minutes. As has been a recent trend, Allen struggled against a more physical center in Steven Adams. This has resulted in head coach Kenny Atkinson limiting his minutes with increasing regularity.
- Jaylon Tyson provided 15 rebounds, including eight offensive ones, in under 30 minutes of play. He was one of the few bright spots on Saturday. Tyson played with the energy that the rest of the team needed. And as has been the case for most of the season, his willingness to compete shouldn’t stand out as much as it has.
- Kevin Durant put up an easy 30 points on 11-17 shooting. The Cavs’ defense has been a problem all season. They’ve struggled to find someone they can put on bigger wings to help slow them down. That came up again on Saturday as Sam Merrill spent some of the evening trying to slow Durant down. The Cavs need to find a better answer than this for guarding superstar wings if they want to be taken seriously at some point this season. This includes continuing to trot out a bad 3-2 zone.
- De’Andre Hunter failed to make any of his seven field goal attempts. A lot of the Cavaliers’ issues on the wing would be solved if Hunter were playing closer to his skill level on both sides of the ball. He finished the evening with the second-worst plus/minus with a -28.
- The Cavs completed just 50% of their shots at the rim (5th percentile). Bad three-point shooting bleeds into other parts of your game. Houston was able to shrink the floor due to the lack of Cleveland’s outside shot. This resulted in an offense that had to settle for 33% of its shots in the midrange, which isn’t ideal.
- This was Cleveland’s 16th loss this season. They didn’t pick up their 16th loss last season until April 6. It’s remarkable how much of a difference a year can make.
