The Cleveland Cavaliers can probably empathize with the Houston Rockets. The Cavs only recently ended a 10-game losing streak; the Rockets, meanwhile, entered tonight having lost 11 in a row. Evidently, Cleveland didn’t feel too bad, though, because they beat the Rockets, 101–90, to extend their winning streak to four games.
This probably should have been a more comfortable win. The Cavaliers led for most of the game and built double-digit leads on several occasions. They also won the battles for points in the paint (50–34), bench points (25–21), and the boards (57–34). But the Cavaliers didn’t appear interested in an easy win, as they handed Houston 24 points on 20 turnovers, and as a result, entered the final quarter up by just four.
Instead, they settled things by sending their star guards out for a duel at dusk. John Wall (who certainly played a basketball game last night!) and Collin Sexton went blow-for-blow in the first half, scoring 23 and 21 points, respectively. But where Wall left his touch in the locker room at halftime, Sexton picked up post-intermission right where he left off—and left Wall in the dust. Sexton not only finished with more points on better efficiency (39 points on 20 field goal attempts to Wall’s 31 on 24), he also threw eight assists to Wall’s five and matched him in rebounds.
Outside of Sexton, it was a relatively quiet night. Darius Garland continued his streak of good passing with 7 assists, Jarrett Allen hauled in 15 rebounds, and the Cavaliers’ two highest plus-minus marks belonged to Isaac Okoro (plus-19) and Dean Wade (plus-14).
Up next: The Cavaliers put a bow on the first half of the season at home against the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.