Wrap-Up – The NBA Playoffs don’t tip off for another seven weeks, but if you had tuned in out of the blue on Sunday afternoon, you’d swear the Finals were in full-swing.
Sunday’s game was beyond competitive – it was flat-out contentious – featuring a pair of Conference heavyweights with their sights set on June basketball. It had everything a national television audience could hope for: a bare-knuckle ballgame featuring a pair of superstars duking it out for four quarters and an extra-session. Unfortunately for the audience in Cleveland, the Rockets made a couple more down the stretch and held on for the thrilling 105-103 win at the Toyota Center.
Naturally, LeBron James and James Harden were at the center of most of the action.
James found himself in the middle of a melee twice on Sunday. Early in the third quarter, he steamrolled Patrick Beverley and held him briefly on the floor with his left hand. The two teams had to be separated and both players received technical fouls. Later that quarter, after tying Harden up and knocking him down near center court – Houston’s MVP candidate kicked LeBron in the groin and once again, both teams had to be split up, with Harden getting whistled for a flagrant-1.
Amidst all this, there was a basketball game played. And LeBron did it all – almost. He finished with a game-37 points on 15-for-35 shooting, adding eight boards, four assists, three steals and three blocked shots. But James struggled from the stripe all afternoon – missing eight of his 11 free throw attempts, most notably a pair with 4.2 to play in overtime that would have given Cleveland the lead.
Kevin Love followed up with 21 points on 8-for-19 shooting to go with six boards and three helpers. Love tallied nine of his points in the third quarter, but didn’t score again in the fourth or overtime periods.
Tristan Thompson came off the bench to grab a game- and season-high 19 rebounds along with 14 points, two steals and a block. Timofey Mozgov rounded out the Cavaliers in double-figures with 10 points and four boards, and J.R. Smith had a solid all-around game – finishing with eight points, 10 boards, four assists and four steals.
Each team was missing an All-Star player on Sunday afternoon. Dwight Howard is still nursing a right knee injury and is out indefinitely. For the Cavs, Kyrie Irving missed his second straight contest while nursing a strained left shoulder suffered last Thursday against Golden State.
The Cavs shot 41 percent from the floor to Houston’s 46 percent. Cleveland shot just 52 percent from the stripe and took a dozen fewer attempts than the Rockets, who converted on 79 percent of their free throws.
LBJ drops a game-high 37 points.
View some of the best snapshots.
Thompson finishes the alley-oop.
Go inside the locker room.
Watch final game highlights from Sunday's game.
Turning Point – The Rockets tried to put the Wine and Gold away in the third quarter, but behind Kevin Love’s three triples and 14 points from LeBron, couldn’t get separation. Still, they went into the fourth quarter up eight – 82-74.
But with LeBron on the bench, the Cavaliers caught up in short order – scoring eight points in 88 seconds, with James Jones drilling a pair of bombs to even the score at 82-apeice. It was a slugfest the rest of the way, with Tristan Thompson tying the affair with a pair of free throws with 1:09 to play in the fourth quarter.
By the Numbers – 18 … straight games that LeBron has scored at least 20 points against the Rockets, including nine games of 30 or more.
Quotable – Tristan Thompson, on Sunday afternoon’s game in Houston …
”This was two teams that wanted to send a message; two teams that want to show the rest of the NBA what they’re capable of doing. We approach every game like it’s the postseason. This is a game we wanted to win. We didn’t make good plays down the stretch and they got the win.”
Up Next – The Cavaliers tipped off a difficult month of March on the road with Sunday’s loss in Houston, but they’ll get a brief home respite on Tuesday night against the surging young Celtics at The Q. Following that, the Wine and Gold hit the road, and it’s for a pair of big Eastern Conference showdowns – taking on the faltering Raptors on Wednesday night before traveling to Atlanta to face off against the East-leading Hawks on Friday. The Wine and Gold return home to complete the four-games-in-five-nights set with Phoenix on Saturday night in Cleveland.