Outcome provides a familiar sight
CLEVELAND — Since the Rockets are mostly college-aged, they can probably relate to the analogy.
It is no fun being the homecoming game opponent.
NBA teams do not get to schedule the opponent they wish to play on a celebration day. But the Rockets’ first two opponents on the road trip were playing to clinch a playoff berth.
Though that was no more uncertain for the Cavaliers on Sunday than it was for the Grizzlies on Friday, there was an understanding of the occasion, the sort that assured that a team expecting to be in the playoffs at home would not look past a team expecting to reach the NBA draft lottery among those with the best chances to land the top pick.
The Rockets rallied in the second half, but with a fourth-quarter burst, the Cavaliers blew the game open again, finishing off a 108-91 win to clinch their first trip to the postseason without LeBron James since 1998.
“We know that teams are going to raise their level to play against us in these moments, and we have to raise our level of play against them,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “For our young guys, it’s important for them to see it, feel it, and understand it, understand the moment, and understand that’s where we want to get to.
“We want to get to a place we’re playing for our playoff lives or playing for seeding or whatever the case may be.”
Jalen Green led the Rockets with 30 points, his 22nd 30-point game and 14th this season. Jarrett Allen had a season-high 24 points, along with 14 rebounds. Evan Mobley added 19 points with five assists.
The Rockets were on the brink of a blowout. They trailed by as much as 20, and by 18 when they got on a roll to finish the third quarter. They outscored the Cavs, 19-6, in the five minutes to finish the quarter, closing to within 85-80.
Green carried them long enough, scoring 14 points in the quarter, to get some help, with Alperen Sengun finally breaking through the Cavaliers’ interior defense to score inside.
The Rockets were still within five when Green sat early in the fourth quarter. The Cavs pushed the lead to 11 by the time he returned. Darius Garland redirected a loose ball to Caris LeVert for a 3. LeVert stripped Sengun and went in for an uncontested layup to push the lead to 16.
The Cavaliers had outscored the Rockets, 15-4, in a five-minute burst to a 16point lead. With that, the celebration could begin.
Not easy being Green
When Green slipped inside to score early in the fourth quarter, he had 27 points in 32 minutes. He was also to the point where he would come out of the game.
He had only briefly found help all night. There was no surprise when the Rockets could offer him little when he was out. But as usual, the issue was not with the bench unable to support starters. The Rockets again could not shoot well enough to help him when he was in the game.
Through three quarters, Green had made five of nine 3s and missed a pair in the fourth quarter. The rest of the Rockets combined to make one of 13.
That again allowed an opponent to pack the paint and dare Green to find a way through the crowd to the rim.
It did not help that Kevin Porter Jr. struggled so badly in his first game in Cleveland since he was traded, making just three of 12 shots. But as much as the Rockets’ 3-point shooting, the worst in the NBA, has been a season-long shortcoming, rarely has that been more obvious.
Cleveland rocks
The Cavaliers made 57.5 percent of their shots in the first half, knocking down six of 13 3s. And their defense might have been more impressive than the offense.
The Cavs were sensational offensively, with Donovan Mitchell especially getting any shot he wanted, scoring 18 points in 17 minutes on 7-of-11 shooting. But defensively, the Cavaliers challenged everything, especially inside where the Rockets do score reliably.
Of course, it is easier to defend with twin 7-footers Allen and Mobley, and no concern that a team could open the lane with 3-point shooting. The Rockets made just two of 13 3-pointers from deep. Other than Green, they took eight 3pointers and missed them all. That allowed the Cavs to switch and backpedal on screens, keeping a pair of long bodies in the lane, where Sengun went 2-of-7 in the first half.
On other occasions, the Cavs swarmed so much to the lane, two or three Rockets players were wide open at the 3-point line as a Rockets player was locked up inside, surrounded with the ball.
The Cavaliers so controlled the lane that the Rockets could not even score off second shots, their strength. Averaging a league-high 16.8 secondchance points per game, the Rockets scored four in the first half.
After a third consecutive game against the second-ranked defense in the NBA (the Grizzlies were second but dropped to third behind the Bucks and Cavs), the Rockets would probably give the nod to Cleveland. But given the Rockets’ offensive shortcomings, it was difficult to compare.
Superb sophomore
Mobley is 21 years old, a couple years older than the Jabari Smith Jr., the power forward the Rockets hope will be where Mobley is now. But Mobley keeps raising the bar.
While Green, the player the Rockets chose rather than Mobley in the 2021 NBA draft, demonstrated his own talents, carrying the Rockets’ offense when nothing else was working, Mobley showed why he has potential to soar past star and to superstar status.
There was nothing he did not do spectacularly well. He does not shoot 3s and doesn’t need to. He was unstoppable inside, strong in the mid-range, deft with the ball and smart when passing. And he was not as good offensively as he was defensively, where he brought rim protection the Rockets might have difficulty even imagining.