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The Cavaliers tried something new today, but met the same result.
In an effort to get Kyrie Irving to work off the ball a little more, and help the teams ball movement, Kyrie started at the 2 guard tonight, and Jarrett Jack started at the 1. (according to the Cavaliers official lineup card)
Not the worst idea, Kyrie has been having trouble with the ball sticking, and Jack doesn't do too poorly with running the offense. Jack had 6 assists and 1 turnover, but had a pretty miserable shooting night (3-9, 1-6 from 3). Kyrie had 7 assists, but 6 turnovers, he finished with 21 points. CJ Miles, who Jack replaced, was 1-6 from the field, 0-4 from 3, for 2 points in 11 minutes.
Tyler Zeller also started tonight, in place of the injured Anderson Varejao, who has missed his third straight game with a knee injury. He was decent. Dwight Howard is a really tough cover, and he wasn't really terrible. The Cavs were a +1 with Zeller on the court, and he did a whole lot better with Howard than Henry Sims did.
Anyway, the Cavs did their thing, jumping out to a big deficit, but they came back in the second quarter, when Dion Waiters scored the bulk of his 19 points, and took a small lead in the third quarter. After that it was pretty obvious that the Rockets are just a lot more talented than the Cavs. They turned up the pressure, and the Cavs didn't have the horses to match.
James Harden led the Rockets with 28 points, Dwight Howard had 26, Terrence Jones 17 points and 7 rebounds, and Jeremy Lin registered a triple double with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.
The Cavs were led by Luol Deng, who finished with 24. Tristan Thompson, who has been mired in a funk lately, finished 2-6 from the field, with 6 points and 7 rebounds. Anthony Bennett had 2 points, 4 rebounds, and a block, and continues to look kind of average, which is an improvement of sorts.
The Cavaliers face the Mavericks in Dallas on Monday. That should be fun.