CLEVELAND — The Cavaliers welcomed Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets for a matchup at Rocket Arena on Nov. 19 and were defeated 114-104.
The Cavs, who entered the game 10-5, were coming off back-to-back home wins over the Memphis Grizzlies and Milwaukee Bucks. After dealing with a series of injuries, Donovan Mitchell explained why the Cavs have no problem with not replicating last year’s 15-0 start.
Here’s how the Nov. 19 Cavs-Rockets game unfolded at Rocket Arena.
The Cavs lost 114-104 to the Rockets.
Despite a second-half flurry, this Cavs loss came down to an icy start from 3-point range and a poor night at the free-throw line.
Cleveland hit just 30% of its 3-point attempts and 62% of its free-throw attempts. De’Andre Hunter finished with a team-high 25 points, but it was accompanied by three costly turnovers. Donovan Mitchell had 21 points — almost all of it in the fourth quarter — to go with two assists and two steals.
Alperen Sengun had a tremendous second half and ended the game with 28 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. Kevin Durant had 20 points and three assists.
Donovan Mitchell is willing the Cavs to stay in this one, but the Rockets offense is scorching hot, and Houston leads 103-92 with four minutes left.
Mitchell has 17 points in the fourth quarter alone, and for several possessions was basically running his own iso. The issue for Cleveland is that Houston’s offense has answered — the Rockets are 11-for-16 shooting from the floor in the fourth quarter, highlighted by Aaron Holiday’s 14 points.
Another issue for the Cavs is they’ve made just 18 of their 30 free-throw attempts for an ugly 60% for the game.
Donovan Mitchell hit back-to-back 3s and Dean Wade added a 3 of his own — the Cavs finally started to see them fall — to get Cleveland within one point, but the Rockets offense came alive at the same time, and Houston is holding an 88-81 lead with 7:58 to go.
Mitchell has eight of the Cavs’ 11 points in the fourth quarter thus far.
A second-chance dunk from Jarrett Allen and a Dean Wade steal with a few seconds left has the Cavs within four, 74-70, entering the fourth quarter.
The energy has simply shifted to the Cleveland bench despite the Cavs not being able to hit a 3 tonight.
The Cavaliers had trimmed what was once a 22-point deficit to seven, and now trail the Rockets 74-67 late in the third quarter.
This run has largely been led by the energy given by Lonzo Ball and Craig Porter Jr. Ball has seven points and a steal in this quarter alone, and Porter now has six points and has given Houston headaches when advancing the ball.
In the final minute of the third quarter, Jarrett Allen locked up Kevin Durant in iso, eventually leading to Durant hitting the ball off his foot and out-of-bounds.
Just as importantly as the score itself, the Cavs trimmed the lead with Donovan Mitchell resting on the bench. He re-entered in the final minute of the quarter.
The Rockets are one of the best rebounding teams in the league, and it’s becoming more of a problem for the Cavs, who trail Houston 69-55 midway through the third quarter.
Kevin Durant had back-to-back second-chance buckets, and the Rockets are now out-scoring the Cavs 17-4 in second-chance points.
Lonzo Ball, who missed his first four 3-point attempts, finally made one and jokingly gestured to the arena’s roof with his hands up as if he was praying and saying thank you.
The Cavs struggled through one of their worst offensive halves of the season and enter halftime trailing the Rockets 57-40. Cleveland hit just four of their 20 3-point attempts. De’Andre Hunter has a team-high 11 points. Evan Mobley has 10 points and two rebounds.
Kevin Durant became more involved in the second quarter and now has 13 points for the game. Sengun has 10 points, six rebounds and three assists.
Jarrett Allen just threw down one of the best dunks (technically he threw it in, but if Dwight Howard’s dunk in the dunk contest counts, then this does too) that won’t count.
Allen drove the lane and rose up over Alperen Sengun. He somehow went over Sengun and essentially dunked it, which sent the entire Cavs bench into celebrating all over the court. But, alas, the play was rendered moot due to an offensive foul call. Allen hit Sengun in the face as he went up.
De’Andre Hunter has also now been issued a techincal foul. Kevin Durant tried to drive by him, initiating contact, which led to the foul call. Hunter gestured toward a ref as if to wave them off, which earned him the technical.
The Cavs can’t buy a 3-pointer right now.
Cleveland has hit only three of their first 19 attempts from 3-point range, good for a sub-zero-like 16 percent. The Rockets have taken advantage of the slump and lead 50-37 with 2:50 left in the second quarter.
The officiating crew is reviewing an altercation between the Cavs’ Nae’Qwan Tomlin and the Rockets’ Jabari Smith Jr. after the two exchanged words and Smith shoved Tomlin with 5:39 left in the second quarter. After Smith pushed into Tomlin, the two got right into each others’ faces and had to be separated.
A few plays earlier, Tomlin followed up a missed 3 with a Dunk Contest-worthy slam. He has seven points and two rebounds. Smith has eight points and four rebounds.
Both were eventually issued technical fouls.
The Cavaliers had an ugly first quarter and trail the Rockets 33-19 after the opening 12 minutes.
Cleveland shot just 33 percent from the floor and 25 percent from 3-point range. Donovan Mitchell has again started cold, going 1-for-5 from the floor and 0-for-3 from 3-point range. He’s had a couple games, now, where it took him time to find his rhythm.
Kevin Durant was quiet despite the Rockets’ strong quarter, scoring just three points. Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard both had eight points.
Nearly half of the Cavs’ production came from De’Andre Hunter’s eight points.
Below is some pregame information.
Cavs injury report vs Bucks
Darius Garland (toe) and Jaylon Tyson (concussion) are both out for Wednesday’s game against the Rockets.
Cavaliers unveil city edition uniforms
The Cavs unveiled their new City Edition uniforms Nov. 11.
Cavs agree to deal with Chris Livingston
The Cavs and former Buchtel player Chris Livingston agreed to terms on a two-way deal. The team confirmed the deal on Nov. 4. The Akron native has been playing for the Cleveland Charge thus far.
How can I watch/stream/listen to the Cavs vs Rockets game?
The Nov. 19 Cavs-Grizzlies game can be viewed locally on the FanDuel Sports Network — Ohio. It can heard on the radio on 100.7 WMMS, 1100 WTAM and S: LA MEGA 1300.