2023-24 Season | Game #27 | Rockets @ Cavs | Dec. 18, 2023 | 7:00 p.m.

[jjvors]

Cavs win by 5 in overtime!

 

[bushwick_bill]

I remember the game well but your argument is specious at best.

Rubio got hurt against the Pelicans on the 28th. They had barely played any games in a week as well. It was the week of Christmas...

Rubio did play a lot of minutes that night. DG was in protocol.

Rubio, starting with Darius Garland sidelined due to health and safety protocols, had 27 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists before injuring his left knee on a non-contact stop in the lane with 2:20 left. Rubio had to be carried off the court by teammates.

Pelicans 108-104 Cavaliers (Dec 28, 2021) Game Recap - ESPN

Expert recap and game analysis of the New Orleans Pelicans vs. Cleveland Cavaliers NBA game from December 28, 2021 on ESPN.

www.espn.com

 

[Lee]

JBB being forced to play CPJ i guess is the silver lining of DG being out.

Great move trusting Merrill in OT as well.

I cant believe it, but for sure JBB outcoached Udoka in OT.

Shocked actually, but wow, who knew?

 

[jjvors]

Cavs win by 5 in overtime!

We outshot them and they outrebounded us. We cleaned up in overtime.

LINESCORES​

TEAM	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	OT1	FINAL
HOU	34	25	39	24	8	130
CLE	33	24	42	23	13	135

TEAM	PITP	FB PTS	BIG LD	BPTS	TREB	TOV	TTOV	POT
HOU	60	13	9	46	16	13	1	19
CLE	50	9	12	48	19	11	1	15

Houston RocketsCleveland Cavaliers
PTS130 135
REB47 37
AST34 29
STL9 7
BLK5 8
TO13 11
FG%46.1 49.0
3P%36.4 39.6
FT%88.9 64.7

 

[jjvors]

Individual stats:

Starters:
Okoro 11-7-6 with a block in 32 minutes
Wade 12-3-1 with a steal and 2 blocks in 21 minutes
Allen 10-6-2 with 2 blocks in 28 minutes
Strus 17-3-2 in 34 minutes
Mitchell 37-1-6 with 2 blocks in 45 minutes

Bench: 48-17-12 in 25 minutes
Porter 3-0-3 with a steal in 9 minutes
LeVert 12-7-5 with 2 steals in 27 minutes
Merrill 19-4-3 with a steal and a block in 24 productive minutes.
Niang 10-2-0 with 2 steals in 25 minutes
Thompson 4-4-1 in 18 minutes

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

How about JBB putting Merrill in in OT? He gets five points including a huge 3 with 1:37 left. LeVert was having a bad game so JBB went with Merrill instead. Wow!

The injuries to Garland and Mobley may be a blessing in disguise because it's allowing Okoro and Merrill to really emerge and show what they can do while building their confidence. We will be a better team when Garland and Mobley get back than we were before the injuries.

Mitchell was a warrior tonight with 37 points in 44 minutes, plus 6 assists. He was involved in at least 50 points. Okoro did it all; 11 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists. Wade had 12 points on just 5 shots, going 4-for-5.

This should have been an easy win if not for 12 missed free throws, 6 by Thompson. Allen missed three more. The Rockets were 24-for-27.

VanVleet was amazing with 27 points and 17 assists the night after playing 39 minutes. I think he finally ran out of gas as he missed a shot with seven seconds left in regulation and another in the OT. Jeff Green was spectacular going 6-for-6 and was a team high +16. Can we trade for this guy? Not bad for a 37-year-old.

The other Green, Jalen, was 2-for-12 and didn't exactly prove he was a better choice than Evan Mobley with the second pick in the draft, at least not tonight.

I still think Niang might be the worst player in the NBA who is getting regular minutes. He does nothing well at either end of the floor.

Fantastic win. Merrill had 19 points in 24 minutes plus 4 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, and even a block. He was a team high +13. Amazing.

 

[Benway]

At least we've been getting our 10-man rotation!

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

The Rockets had 15 offensive rebounds. Frustrating, but with Mobley out and Allen on the bench with foul trouble we were really short-handed on the glass. The deliberate fouling of Thompson got him out of the game and left us with Wade, Niang, and three guards for part of the time.

 

[jjvors]

Cavs highlights. Close game!

 

[Smooth]

The recap is up.

Leave it to the Cavs to score 40+ points in a quarter in consecutive games without Garland and Mobley, and have Merrill score a career high 19 points..

RCF Recap: Cavs prevail against Rockets

With a win tonight, the Cavs now have a slight win percentage edge over the Houston Rockets. That’s a not a sentence I expected to write coming into the year but here we are. It took 53 minutes to decide a winner, and the Cavs used up every last second. Like the Atlanta game, the Cavs came out...

realcavsfans.com

​

 

[bushwick_bill]

 

[Comeback kid]

How about JBB putting Merrill in in OT? He gets five points including a huge 3 with 1:37 left. LeVert was having a bad game so JBB went with Merrill instead. Wow!

The injuries to Garland and Mobley may be a blessing in disguise because it's allowing Okoro and Merrill to really emerge and show what they can do while building their confidence. We will be a better team when Garland and Mobley get back than we were before the injuries.

Mitchell was a warrior tonight with 37 points in 44 minutes, plus 6 assists. He was involved in at least 50 points. Okoro did it all; 11 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists. Wade had 12 points on just 5 shots, going 4-for-5.

This should have been an easy win if not for 12 missed free throws, 6 by Thompson. Allen missed three more. The Rockets were 24-for-27.

VanVleet was amazing with 27 points and 17 assists the night after playing 39 minutes. I think he finally ran out of gas as he missed a shot with seven seconds left in regulation and another in the OT. Jeff Green was spectacular going 6-for-6 and was a team high +16. Can we trade for this guy? Not bad for a 37-year-old.

The other Green, Jalen, was 2-for-12 and didn't exactly prove he was a better choice than Evan Mobley with the second pick in the draft, at least not tonight.

I still think Niang might be the worst player in the NBA who is getting regular minutes. He does nothing well at either end of the floor.

Fantastic win. Merrill had 19 points in 24 minutes plus 4 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal, and even a block. He was a team high +13. Amazing.

LeVert was on a minutes restriction. Nothing that JB did except put in another guard who was playing well. Credit the training staff maybe!

 

[shoes22]

I remember the game well but your argument is specious at best.

I remember the game well also, and @foucault87 is exactly right. Rubio was showing signs of fatigue and overuse against the Pelicans. RandolphKeys even commented in the game thread just minutes before it happened that JBB was going to get Rubio injured. His knee buckled right after.

 

[Jscc]

I remember the game well also, and @foucault87 is exactly right. Rubio was showing signs of fatigue and overuse against the Pelicans. RandolphKeys even commented in the game thread just minutes before it happened that JBB was going to get Rubio injured. His knee buckled right after.

I remember that too. Rubio had to literally create everything on offense in a slow paced scheme. JBB drove him into the ground. He's doing the exact same thing to Mitchell so far in these past two games. He's going to get hurt and these people defending JBB riding him will be like "we were wrong, sorry" as if it was unexpected and nobody but half the board could see it coming.

 

[CavzAddict]

No doubt!
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I'm so happy for Sam. He deserved it.

Something I noticed tho. Struss is hardly ever in the locker room dog chain pics. I wonder why.