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Photo: David J. Phillip/AP
The Cavaliers knew they were in for it tonight. After last night's unforgivable overtime loss to the Grizzlies, they had a date with an undersized, guard-oriented, yet tough and fast-breaking team in the Houston Rockets. The Rockets took off to an early 8-0 lead and had a 33-19 lead launched by the end of the first quarter. The Cavaliers battled, but they choked on those first quarter exhaust fumes the rest of the evening and got red-hot in several instances, logging five technical fouls, which led to their second straight loss in as many nights.
Moon landing in Houston: Reserve forward Jamario Moon returned after missing the past two games with a groin injury. The Cavaliers paid dearly last night without Moon, but his impact wasn't felt much tonight as he logged just 4 rebounds and 1 block in nearly 19 minutes.
Rockets run on Diesel fuel: The Rockets start 6'6" Chuck Hayes at center, which makes him the shortest starting center in NBA history. They do have the 6'9" Luis Scola at power forward, but it was Hayes who took the assignment of guarding 7'1" Shaq. The wine and gold looked to exploit the matchup early, and they did have some success with it. Shaq scored two buckets and had two assists in his first quarter action, but he also missed a couple of cheap ones, and he struggled to provide helpside defense on the lightning-quick Houston backcourt. Shaq in all tonight shot just 2-of-8 from the floor for 7 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 fouls, and 2 turnovers in 23 minutes. That stat line is nothing short of disappointing to me. The Cavaliers are making all of this effort to throw the ball into Shaq on the first 10 possessions of the game, and he just is not converting efficiently enough right now. In all honesty, the Cavaliers might be a better team without Shaq against 20 of the team's in the league. However, it's what he can offer against Boston, Los Angeles, and Orlando that makes him necessary. Against this small front line, there was absolutely no excuse for Shaq not to have a 16-20 point night or have many more assists, finding the open man. Shaq has Ben Wallace syndrome from last year: he is having trouble adjusting to having absolutely no jumping ability anymore. I don't know how many times this year already J.J. and Shaq have went for the same alley-oop. Sure, J.J. is climbing over Shaq's back to try and get it, but I KNOW J.J. can flush it. With Shaq, I'm not so sure anymore. One thing's for sure, though, at least Ben Wallace knew how to get out of the way.
Short homecoming: Daniel Gibson had the honor of getting his number 22 retired at his high school in a ceremony earlier today. What he did not have the honor of doing was playing much in front of his hometown fans. Gibson picked up three quick personal fouls in under two minutes late in the first quarter. In that time, Gibson managed to get a hand contusion and he did not return to the game. Gibson has been playing very well so far this season, so let's hope this doesn't affect his shooting stroke or keep him out of commission for very long.
Officials, we have a problem!: The increasing lack of calls for LeBron James league-wide finally got to the Cavaliers tonight. Even after Mike Brown told his team to keep their cool, Brown led the charge in a beautiful meltdown. With 1:22 remaining in the half, two straight no-calls for LeBron James, the last resulting in an 8-foot airball from LBJ, sent Brown to his boiling point. A breakaway layup for Luis Scola on the other end drew a technical foul from Delonte West for arguing, then Mike Brown picked two up mighty quick. For the second one, he made it clear that he wanted to watch the rest of the game from the locker room. After his heated re-entry to the locker room, offensive coordinator/assistant coach Mike Malone took over the coaching duties. Mo Williams and Shaquille O'Neal each picked up third quarter technicals as well. The Cavaliers won that statistic convincingly 5-1, with Houston coach Rick Adelman picking one up in the fourth quarter. Worst of all, Houston poured in all five tech free throws, which would have cut the final defecit in half. The Cavaliers need to learn to clamp their traps from time-to-time, arguing constantly like LeBron does won't get the job done. The Cavaliers fell victim to two repeat calls tonight: charging fouls and moving screens. Zydrunas Ilgauskas alone got called for two or three illegal screens, and it seemed like every block-charge call went against the wine and gold. There will be nights like that in the NBA, but I'm going to put Kennedy, Phillips, and Wall on my watch-list for the worst crew out there.
Fourth quarter push with rotation change: Give Mike Malone credit for trying something different with the rotation. Down ten to start the fourth quarter, a LeBron James breather would have likely done the Cavaliers in. Instead, Malone deployed a lineup of West, Moon, James, Varejao, and Z, and the Cavaliers got things as close as five with nine minutes to go. James, who was just 3-of-13 shooting at one point, finally figured out the Houston defense a bit. He closed out with 5-of-8 shooting, and scored 13 fourth quarter points. West, Andy, and Z all contributed with big fourth quarter buckets as well.
Quick breather costs Cavs dearly: I know it's difficult, considering the amount of minutes LBJ was starting at, but when Malone inserted Mo and Shaq for LeBron and Z, the tide turned for good. Shaq committed a foul, Landry sunk two free throws, Shaq turned the ball over, and Trevor Ariza stuck a dagger three. Just like that, the Cavaliers were staring at a 12-point hole again, and they never recovered from it.
Their duo is better than our duo (tonight): Tonight, the Rocket backcourt of Aaron Brooks and Trevor Ariza thoroughly outplayed the Cavalier duo of Mo Williams and LeBron James. Brooks and Ariza shot 18-of-36 (5-of-10 from three point range) for 53 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists. Brooks hit 12-of-13 free throws, while Ariza hit four key three pointers. As for the Mo and LeBron, the duo shot only 10-of-31 for 34 points, 7 rebounds, and 11 assists. Mo shot just 2-of-10 from the field, while LeBron committed five turnovers. The Cavaliers won't survive many nights when they get poor performances from Mo AND LeBron, and that is just fact.
 goes to: Anderson Varejao. Andy and Delonte both gave them a big bench lift tonight, but I'm not about to give multiple game balls out on an evening such as this. Andy's 10 points and 6 rebounds in 30 minutes were huge, but he also drew multiple offensive fouls.
Team Grade: D
The Cavaliers now have back-to-back evenings of 20 turnovers, which is absolutely nauseating. They did win the board battle 47-37, held Houston to 41 percent shooting, and they had 35 bench points. All those things make you think the Cavaliers played well. But, getting just 23 points from the four starters besides LeBron, including just 14 from Mo and Shaq together, is just not going to be enough.
The Cavaliers head home for one game to take on the Oden-less Portland Trailblazers Friday night. The Cavaliers had better take a long look at themselves in the areas of offensive execution, perimeter defense, and turnovers, or this losing streak could be extended.
All for one. One for all.
Kirk
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