Game Preview: Rockets v Cavaliers

The Houston Rockets will play host to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday at
Toyota Center. The Rockets (8-3) have gotten into a strong offensive groove over
their recent three-game winning streak. In that stretch, the team is averaging
125 points per game and outscoring its opponents by a remarkable 21.3 points per
game. This is thanks in large part to the play of James Harden, who is coming
off arguably the best performance of his career in Sunday’s win over the Jazz,
posting a career-high 56 points while going 19-of-25 from the field and 7-of-8
from behind the arc to go along with 13 assists in just 35 minutes. His play at
point guard as both a scorer and distributor has prevented the team from missing
a beat since losing Chris Paul to a knee injury that is expected to hold him out
for at least a couple more weeks. The only other injury Houston is currently
dealing with is to elite defender Luc Mbah a Moute, who is listed as
questionable for Thursday’s game with a knee injury of his own. As for the
Cavaliers (5-6), while they are still going through some early-season struggles,
they’re coming off an impressive bounce-back win over the Bucks on Tuesday
night. The team’s defense, however, is still among the worst in the NBA, giving
up nearly 114 points per game so far, which means Cleveland could be in for a
long night against the high-powered Houston offensive attack. The Cavaliers will
likely once again have to climb on the back of LeBron James in order to keep up
with the Rockets, as James as been off to a ridiculously hot start to November,
averaging 36.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 10.0 assists and 2.3 steals across four
games. Additionally, Kevin Love is coming off his best performance of the season
so far, posting 32 points and 16 rebounds against Milwaukee.