CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Cavs knew there would be days like this.
Darius Garland scored a game-high 39 points and Donovan Mitchell added 33 but it was not enough to overcome 19 and 17-point deficits in the second half as the Cavs dropped their third straight, 135-131 to the Rockets, Saturday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Here’s the top Wine & Gold nuggets from Saturday night.
Bump in the road – The Cavs have lost their last three for the first time this season and four of their last seven. “This is three games we've lost by eight points total,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “So this is our first patch of adversity. So this is the NBA. It's tough. Fifth game in seven days. It's a tough league. And then we've got a tough team, tough team coming in here next game. So good for our guys though. We will bounce back.” Cleveland is 5-5 in their last 10 games but still lead Boston by 4.5 games in the Eastern Conference.
Uphill climb – The Cavs trailed by as many as 18 and cut the lead to 6 in the third quarter but Houston pushed their advantage back out to 17 by the end of the quarter. “When you fight uphill, it's definitely tough,” Mitchell, who missed the first of 3 free throws and an open 3-pointer in the final minute of the game, said. “You're in the back-to-back. That's tough. But you got to be able to find a way. We were there, I missed a free throw, we missed open shots, we didn't get a rebound. We were there. So yeah, we could say we're tired, exhausted, whatever, but we were right there. We should have won this game regardless of we should have won the past two. But it happens. The sky's not falling. We're fine, but we got to just be better.” A furious fourth quarter rally allowed the Cavs to tie the game. “We took too much energy to come back,” Atkinson said.
D slump – The Cavs got outrebounded 45-40 but 31-10 on the offensive glass. “We're not protecting our paint, not protecting our rim like we usually do,” Atkinson said. “We're scoring 130 points, but it seems like consistently now we're giving up in the 130s and it's just too much. If we can get back to defending, we have most of the year we'll be fine, but right now we're leaking in too many places.”
20 and over club – Houston had four players finish with at least 20 points. Alperen Sengun and Jalen Green scored 26, Amen Thompson registered a 23 point, 14 rebound and 10 assist triple double and Fred VanVleet scored 20 for the Rockets.
Goin’ deep – The Rockets came in with the fourth worst (34%) 3-point shooting percentage in the league while the Cavs held the best at 39.7%. Houston hit 13 of 28 from deep while the Cavs were 17 of 39.
Mobley back – After missing the past four games due to a calf strain, Mobley returned to the lineup Saturday night where he finished with 7 points and 8 rebounds. “I felt like I was healthy. Had no problems tonight, so I feel like I'm good,” Mobley said.
Tick tock – The NBA’s trade deadline is February 6 at 3 p.m. and there has been plenty of speculation about the Cavs potentially making a move. So where does Atkinson fit into the conversation with president of basketball operations Koby Altman right now? “I love the group we have,” Atkinson said. “I mean this chemistry is special, the talent's there, but Kobe's got a job to do too. And when things do heat up or there are things that's talk and serious talk and I do get involved, but right now it's my focus a hundred percent on the squad.”
Starting 5 – Atkinson started Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Max Strus, and Jarrett Allen.
