I was watching the game all the way from Israel and enjoyed every minute of it to be quite honest, there was really a playoffs atmosphere, Houston's crowd was doing a great job at the game, reacting to every move from both teams.
You could really feel that the players really cared about this game, playing physical basketball, getting under each other skin, some trash talks, pushing and shoving, scuffles and hard plays, it was really a great game to watch.
And as for the Cavs, I thought we faced the Rockets very well considering the fact that Kyrie Irving was inactive due to an injury, it was really a war out there, and the guys didn't give up.
Unfortunately J.R. Smith wasn't able to get his shots to fall but he contributed in other aspects of the game and also burried a crucial jumper towards the end of the game, Mozgov wasn't really felt in this game, I reckoned that after the little trash talk with Ariza he would starting bumping bodies and be more physical and make some good plays, unfortunately he wasn't able to do so. I know there has been lots of critics about Matthew Dellavedova, and about David Blatt letting him play too many minutes, but I believe that Matthew is going to come up big eventually for the Cavs, and he wasn't too bad against the Rockets, he hustled for the ball, and he dealt pretty well with Beverley I believed, and let's not forget he is our only back up point guard for Kyrie.
About Kevin Love, he was decent, but very quiet throughout the game, he had 21 points on very decent percentages but unfortunately he didn't make a statement, I believe that if Love had played with more domination the Cavs would have gotten the W.
Tristin Thompson was the energizer off the bench, he was very important for the Cavs grabbing 19 rebounds and scoring his shots and free-throws.
And finally LeBron, it was great watching him dueling up with James Harden, it was a sight for sore eyes, and I believe that the scuffle with Beverley and the kick to the groin from Harden had only empowered the rivalry between those two, they were both really great and provided some amazing plays, I personally believe LeBron was better, in one point of the game he totally shut Harden down with strict defense causing Harden to throw an airball.
But I believe that the decision ending towards the end was the cause for the lose not only the free-throws, because it happens when you miss free-throws, but Cavs could definitely win if LeBron dribbled the ball less and let his teammates be more active, I thought James Jones should recieved more looks, same as Kevin Love, and I believe the last ball should have been set for an alley-oop to Tristin Thompson..
The Cavs and the Rockets provided us with a very good game, really you could feel like if you watched a playoff game, the Cavs will need to play together in order to beat the stubborn Boston Celtics.