Cleveland Cavaliers: Player grades from 116-110 loss to the Rockets
The Cleveland Cavaliers dropped their eighth consecutive contest on Wednesday, this one to the Houston Rockets.
It has been a trying few weeks for the Cleveland Cavaliers but they were at least competitive on Wednesday. They went on a monster run that spanned from the end of the third quarter through the beginning stages of the fourth quarter that allowed the Cavaliers to stretch their lead to as many as 11.
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However, the Cavaliers then found out why the Houston Rockets are a better team than they are. The Rockets have James Harden and the Cavaliers don’t.
Harden was unbelievably good, as usual, tonight. The interesting thing about his performance is the fact that he only shot five free throws. On the season, according to Basketball-Reference, Harden has attempted a staggering 14.3 free throws per night.
Cleveland did an excellent job of defending Harden tough and they did so without fouling. He, to put it simply, is just too good.
He made tough shot after tough shot throughout the contest and finished with an incredible 55 points and 8 assists on 20-for-34 shooting including 10-for-18 from three-point range.
The Cavaliers showed an obvious increase in energy as opposed to their previous couple of outings and it kept them competitive against one of the best team’s in the entire NBA.
The bench unit was a key factor in their enormous run to propel them to the lead. The bench played inspired defensively and knocked in key shots, repeatedly.
The Cavaliers now have a 5-19 record on the season and they have lost 8 consecutive contests and are just 1-14 over their last 15 games.
With that being said, let’s get into ranking the Cavaliers players from Wednesday’s contest.