Cleveland Cavaliers’ takeaways from awful loss to Houston Rockets

The Cleveland Cavaliers dropped their 12th game in a row with a 141-113 loss to the Houston Rockets.

The surging Houston Rockets dominated this game from the jump. Houston was able to get whatever they wanted on the offensive end of the floor, as they hung 42 points on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first quarter. The game appeared to be over from that point as Cleveland was never able to mount any type of comeback on the road.

James Harden was fantastic on Friday night. He continued his stretch of MVP caliber play with 43 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds in the blowout, per ESPN. Cleveland could not do much against Harden, as most haven’t been able to during his recent tear; he seemingly got whatever matchup he wanted in this one against the Cavs’ horrendous defense.

On a positive note, Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman had decent games for Cleveland offensively. Sexton finished with 14 points on four-of-10 shooting, to go with five assists and two steals. Osman contributed 15 points and three boards in the loss.

Ante Zizic put up a solid offensive night for Cleveland off the bench. He finished as the Cavs’ leading scorer with 18 points on six-of-eight shooting with eight boards, per ESPN.

With Larry Nance Jr. potentially out for upwards of a month with a reported MCL sprain (the Cavs announced Thursday), that sort of production from Zizic will help a good deal.

This was a tough one to watch. Things are heading in the wrong direction and there doesn’t appear to be an end in sight. Here’s what we learned from another blowout loss.