Cavaliers-Rockets: Cleveland Shoots Down Houston with Total Team Effort

The Quicken Loans arena is quickly becoming a house of horrors for visiting teams this season.  Tracy, Yao, Ron Ron, and the rest of the Houston Rockets found out first hand last night that all the banter about the strength of their schedule has little to do with the bottom line. The Cleveland Cavaliers are really really good!

In a hard fought game that had a playoff ferocity from the jump ball to the final horn. The team with the second best record in the league showed once again that no matter what the quality of the opposition a win against this Cavs team is going to be hard to come by.

The first half was a back and forth battle for an advantage that never really materialized for either team. Their were seven lead changes and 11 ties in the first half alone.  Each team made mini runs but the biggest lead was five points by the Cavs' while Houston could only muster a three point advantage.  The two teams battled to a half-time draw and went to the break tied at 47 points apiece.

It was more of the same to begin the second half with the two teams exchanging baskets neither able to pull away from the other at all until the Cavalier defense stiffened with about six minutes left in the quarter. Down three with the score 60-57 the Cavaliers closed out the quarter by outscoring Houston 16-6 to go into the final quarter with a seven-point cushion.   

The fourth of course was time for the King to rule his home court. And that he did LeBron had four points, three rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one otherworldly block of a point blank layup by the 7'6" Yao Ming that brought everyone in the Q to their feet.

With their usual blend of stingy defense and balanced scoring the Cavaliers finally took control of the game in the final 12 minutes.  They lead by as much as 18 points midway through, before Houston—aided by a Cavalier scoring drought—managed to chip away at the lead until it was down to a single point. 

But the comeback was not to be and Daniel (Boobie) Gibson made sure of that with back to back three pointers from basically the same position on the floor to push the lead back up to seven with only 3:33 remaining in the game, the Cavaliers were never seriously threatened again.

Houston was led by Rafer Alstons' 20 points. Yao had 19, Artest 14, Scola 11 and Aaron Brooks rounded out the Rockets in double figures with 10.  For the Cavs LeBron led all scorers with 27 points. He also added nine rebounds, five assists, three steals, and one block. He had a little help from his teamates though as Mo Williams had 23 points followed by Z and Boobie Gibson with 11 apiece, Delonte West with 10, and Big Ben and the Wild Thing each contributed six points each.

The Cavaliers have one day off before Santa brings them their Christmas gift, a win over the woe-ful Washington Wizards at the Q on Christmas day. They will follow that with a home and home series against the early favorite for comeback player of the year Dwyane Wade and the resilient Heat on Sunday and Tuesday.