Game 22 | Cleveland @ Houston | December 9th, 2009 | 8:30pm EST

[The Special One]

Game No. 22

Wednesday 9th December

8:30 PM EST

@

TOYOTA CENTER

Radio: WTAM 1100 (JOE TAIT)​

TV: FSN OHIO (FRED McLEOD & AUSTIN CARR)​

COACHES:

MIKE BROWN (226-123)

RICK ADELMAN (871-546)

CAVS STARTERS:


PG: MO

SG: AP

SF: LEBRON

PF: JJ

C: DIESEL

ROCKETS STARTERS:


PG: AARON BROOKS

SG: TREVOR ARIZA

SF: SHANE BATTIER

PF: LUIS SCOLA

C: CHUCK HAYES

CAVS BENCH


VAREJAO "WILD THING"

GIBSON "BOOBIE"

ILGAUSKAS "ZZZEEEEE"

WEST "REDZ"

MOON

ROCKETS BENCH:


LOWRY

ANDERSEN

LANDRY

BUDINGER

INJURY REPORT

ROCKETS: Yao Ming (Out) / Tracy McGrady (Out)
CAVS: Leon Powe (Out) / Jamario Moon (Doubtful - Left Groin Strain) / Jawad Williams (Probable)


ROCKET GIRLS

GAME INFO/PREVIEW

Cavaliers-Rockets Preview

The Cleveland Cavaliers' 13-game winning streak against Western Conference opponents is over.

One night after seeing it snapped, they must pay a visit to the club that dealt them the final loss before that streak.

LeBron James looks to help the Cavs shake off the memory of both their latest loss and an ugly performance from last season when they face the Houston Rockets on Wednesday to conclude a three-game road trip.

Cleveland (15-6) won its final eight games against the West last regular season and captured its first five interconference meetings in 2009-10 by an average of 12.0 points before heading to Memphis on Tuesday.

Leading by 11 at halftime, the Cavaliers appeared on their way to another convincing win. Instead, the Grizzlies came back to win 111-109 in overtime despite a season-high 43 points, 13 rebounds and six assists from James.

James also had five of Cleveland's 21 turnovers.

"They got up into us defensively,'' Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said. "When they did that, we had some bad turnovers that gave them easy dunks in transition.''

James, who ranks sixth in the league with 8.2 assists per game, had become even more of a distributor during Cleveland's four-game overall win streak prior to visiting Memphis, recording double digit assists in four straight games for the first time in his career.

Another first for James - one that he and the Cavaliers would love to forget - came Feb. 26 in Houston. The Rockets (11-9) held James to 21 points, one rebound and his first career zero-assist game in a 93-74 victory.

"I can't remember the last time I didn't have an assist, but as a team, we didn't move the ball at all," James said.

The Cavaliers' 10 team assists were their fewest since being held to seven in a 94-76 loss at Portland on Jan. 17, 2007.

Houston has been an unpleasant place for James and the Cavs. Cleveland has averaged 71.3 points while losing three straight in Houston by an average of 17.4 points, and shot 28.2 percent in an 81-63 loss there Dec. 2, 2006 - flirting with the team record for fewest points (59) in a game.

James is a 37.1 percent career shooter in six games in Houston. Only his 22.2-point average versus the Los Angeles Clippers is lower than his 23.1 against the Rockets.

"You try to make him a jump shooter if you can," Houston coach Rick Adelman said Monday.

This is the Rockets' lone home game in a stretch of six of seven on the road. They'd won the first three before losing 90-89 at Portland on Saturday. Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy scored his team's final 10 points down the stretch.

Point guard Aaron Brooks struggled in the loss, scoring a season-low six points. Brooks is averaging only 4.8 points per game and shooting 25.0 percent in four career games against Cleveland.

Shane Battier figures to draw the bulk of the work defending James, but a few points from Houston's small forward could pay dividends. The Rockets are 6-3 when Battier - averaging 8.4 points - scores nine or more.

Lets hope we'll be in this sorta mood when the final buzzer sounds ...

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GO CAVS.​

 

[Green Lantern]

Cavs need to bounce back and play solid ball tonight.

 

[Soda]

That picture of Jamario makes me understand what would need to happen to make him miss a game from a groin injury.

Good preview.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

Need a big come-back game tonight. Expecting a win.

I'm not much of a Mike Brown hater like some on here..but if there's any-way we can trade coaches and bring Rick Adelman back to Cleveland and leave Mike Brown in Houston....I'm not opposed to it.

 

[RonG]

I will be at this game tonight, I hope it ends better than last year when they came to visit.

 

[theSTEREO.]

I will be at this game tonight, I hope it ends better than last year when they came to visit.

No Ron Artest, No Yao.

Fresh ballgame.

 

[Typhoon]

Im pretty sure Cavs will come out with energy and stomp the Rockets and have a huge lead at the half. The third everyone will start shooting jumpers, as usual, and Rockets will go on a run. In the fourth LeBron starts bringing up the ball every play, making the offense shit but he will still make a good amount of his crazy shots. And by the end we will still win the game by about 12 points.

 

[The Special One]

MIKE BROWN (226-123)

I have to do this ... take responsibility for our loss last night.

I made the game thread a couple of nights ago, long before the Memphis game. I wanted to include the coaches' career records, so I looked up MB's knowing that the Grizz game would happen before the Houston match-up.

Being the sorta guy that quite clearly had no respect for Memphis, I went ahead and insert MB's record as 227-122 ...

Lo and behold, look at it now ... :thumbdown

Sorry fellas. I hope we get a bounce-back win tonight. We all know it's not gonna be easy though ...

 

[-KingofKings23-]

Cavs need to bounce back after that pathetic loss.

 

[Walter White]

Boobie is gonna have a big game in H Town tonight. Hometown crowd.

 

[kevinoc0]

Nice preview, lookin' at those donkey butts just made the work day go a little bit quicker...Anyways, this is a great game for the Cavs to regain their composure after last night's catastrophe. I would love to see JJ tbag scola tonight tonight too. Not sure why, but I just despise that man.

Oh, and is Jamario trying to impersonate Ira Newble with that kick? That's Johnny Cage style stuff right there.

 

[Benedict_Boozer]

I think you will see the Cavs come out focused and put Houston away, they have done well against good teams this season and they will be pissed from getting criticized so much for the Grizzlies loss.

Lebron especially doesn't have back to back bad games, he will be in playoff mode I'd bet.

 

[Adam]

How on earth are they going to mark shaq? should lead to a lot of open jumpers, lets hope they can get some easy looks for JJ

 

[Snowblind]

I'm scared about Aaron Brooks, hes lightning quick. Mo couldn't even keep Mike Conley infront of him. Pick n roll with him and Scola is gonna hurt. I think we'll see a lot of small ball to keep up with this young team.


BTW... I would love if Rick Adelman was the coach here.

 

[Karma]

Scolas is a tough matchup for us especially fro Hickson. I can see another game where Hickson's minutes will be limited. Also Carl Landry has been a beast off the bench. Instant offense and 6th man of the year candidate.

We can certainly take this one if we are with it defensively. Houston are a streaky team who can don't have a real go to guy, so when the pressure is on we can get some mistakes out them.