The Cleveland Cavaliers once again struggled against an upper-echelon opponent. They were blown out by the Houston Rockets 117-100 in a game that was much more one-sided than the final score indicates.

Here are the four factors from this game. These numbers are from Cleaning the Glass.

Effective Field Goal Percentage

Offensive Rebounding Percentage

Offensive Turnover Percentage

Free Throw Rate

Cavs

48.4%, 18th percentile

31%, 61st percentile

15.6%, 41st percentile

7.3, 1st percentile

Rockets

120.8, 68th percentile

42.6%, 95th percentile

17.7%, 24th percentile

17, 26th percentile

Now, let’s dive into some of the stats.

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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 run away with this game.

The Rockets’ 15-0 run in the middle of the third quarter decided the outcome. 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.

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 beyond the arc.

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 as he couldn’t overcome Houston’s length and struggled as a result.

Evan Mobley finished with a season-low four points. He came off the bench again due to being on a minutes restriction because of his recent calf injury. That said, Mobley’s struggles weren’t the result of his limited playing time. This was a truly forgettable performance as he went 2-9 from the field in 20 minutes. Mobley is one of the few Cavaliers with both size and length. 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. His willingness to compete shouldn’t stand out nearly as much as it did in Houston.

Kevin Durant put up an easy 30 points on 11-17 shooting. The Cavs have struggled to find a defender to put on bigger wings all season. 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. And their bad 3-2 zone isn’t a solution to this problem.

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 Cleveland’s poor outside shooting. This resulted in the Cavs taking 33% of their 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.

The Cavaliers are now 3-8 against teams that are inside the top ten of point differential. For context, they were 16-6 against such opponents last regular season.