Cleveland Cavaliers: Player grades from 116-110 loss to the Rockets

Grading the starters

Darius Garland is starting to find a bit of a rhythm with his jump shot. Coming into the Rockets game, according to Basketball-Reference, Garland had upped his three-point percentage to 35.9%.

After that one, that percentage is now 36.7%, according to NBA.com, as he knocked in three-of-six three-point attempts. Two of those three misses actually rattled out and were halfway down so it could have been even better.

Garland receives a grade a little lower on the scale due to the fact that he wasn’t all that involved and only played 22 minutes due to the bench’s explosion. The Cavs were also -12 in his 22 minutes on the floor.

Collin Sexton plays his tail off every night. The problem with Sexton’s game is it doesn’t mesh well with that of Garland’s. Too often, and it was the story again against Houston, Sexton pounds the air out of the ball and is the furthest from a pass-first guard there is.

Sexton was solid Wednesday with 18 points on eight-of-14 shooting but he had lapses on both ends of the floor that cause his grade from being higher. Head coach John Beilein subbed Sexton back into the contest in the fourth quarter and almost immediately he failed to close out on an open shooter.

The Cavs bench immediately issued a timeout. These types of things can’t happen if the Cavaliers want to be a winning team.

Cedi Osman would receive an “F” for Wednesday’s contest if it wasn’t for his passing. He is quietly turning into one of the Cavaliers’ better distributors and he finished Wednesday with a team-high seven assists.

Osman, however, finished with 0 points on 0-of-4 shooting. He also found himself in the same situation to that of Garland where he wasn’t able to get unglued from the bench after being subbed out in the third quarter.

He simply needs to be better if the Cavaliers want to be competitive.

It has been a trying few games for Cavaliers’ veteran Kevin Love. Over his previous three games, coming into Wednesday’s contest, Love had scored 21 total points according to Basketball-Reference. The coaching staff made a wise decision and featured Love early and often and he rewarded them with excellent play.

Love finished the night with 17 points and 11 rebounds and got back to his old-school ways of taking the shorter P.J. Tucker down on the low block. Love only attempted one three-point attempt and that was a “9-1-1” triple try with the shot clock winding down.

Love would have received a higher grade safe for the fact that he essentially disappeared in the second half offensively.

Cavaliers’ center Tristan Thompson was solid against a tough matchup in Clint Capela. Thompson finished with 11 points on 5-of-10 shooting and 7 rebounds.

He was, however, outplayed by Capela, who is a tough matchup for Thompson due to his length and quickness. Thompson typically can out quick other big men but Capela is one of the more agile centers in the NBA.

Thompson was beaten down the floor a few times on Wednesday, allowing easy buckets for Capela and it’s really the main reason his grade isn’t higher.