With 2.8 seconds left of their game against the Houston Rockets, the Cleveland Cavaliers seemed fated to complete a furious fourth-quarter rally Wednesday at Toyota Center.
With the Cavaliers down two points, Darius Garland, their potential All-Star guard and 90 percent free-throw shooter, sat alone at the free-throw line with the chance to give Cleveland the lead. Even if he failed, Cleveland would have the ball with a chance to seal the game.
Instead, Garland only hit one, and the Cavaliers’ last-ditch attempt to overtake the Rockets ended with a wild missed shot and their seventh loss of this otherwise dream season. Houston held on for a 109-108 win after coughing up a double-digit lead to begin the fourth quarter.
The Cavaliers are now 13-2 versus teams in the West, with the other loss coming against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
When asked on the broadcast to describe what happened at the end of the game, Houston guard Fred VanVleet said: “I don’t know yet. I don’t know. It’s still been a blur.”
“How not to close a game for both teams,” he later said.
The Rockets get the stop and escape with the win over Cleveland! pic.twitter.com/3yXypQ2y2P
— NBA (@NBA) January 23, 2025
The Cavaliers received this potential gift of good fortune after Garland was fouled by Houston’s Tari Eason on a 3-point attempt. After an official review, the foul was upgraded to a Flagrant One because Eason stuck his foot in Garland’s landing zone. The rule, which was put in place only a few years ago to protect shooters from potentially turning their ankle on their defenders, gave Garland three shots and allowed Cleveland to retain possession.
The last 66 seconds of the game featured multiple stoppages, reviews and turnovers. Houston center Alperen Şengün tied the game at 107 with 1:06 remaining, then shoved Cleveland’s Jarrett Allen after the play. Officials reviewed the sequence for a hostile act before concluding that the contact was incidental. On the ensuing possession, Cleveland committed a turnover and Houston’s Amen Thompson appeared to be fouled on a breakaway layup attempt, but that call was overturned into a simple out of bounds.
Cleveland had a chance to run the clock nearly all the way down to take the last shot, but Donovan Mitchell missed a 3 and Allen fouled Şengün on the rebound with 4.5 seconds left. Şengün made both free throws to give Houston the lead before Garland was fouled on his 3-point attempt.
The two teams meet again Saturday in Cleveland.
Rockets still have work to do in high-pressure scenarios
The absurdity of Garland’s late missed free throws will be the most jarring takeaway, but how the Rockets responded to the Cavs’ defensive coverages — particularly their usage of zone in the second half — was the most prominent factor in Wednesday’s much-needed win. Houston, a poor shooting team, occasionally found themselves in tough spots against Cleveland’s aggressive zone, shuffling between either Dillon Brooks or Şengün as the designated “zone breaker,” with an aim to force the defense to collapse before shifting the ball back out to the perimeter.
“I think we weren’t aggressive enough in the zone,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “We got in the middle a few times and had opportunities to score — had guys in the dunker (spot) or kickouts that were wide open and missed those, and it bogged us down a bit. Credit to them, we weren’t great against it and it let them get back in the game.”
The Rockets were fortunate to win a game in which they coughed up the ball 22 times to the Cavs’ 13 turnovers and surrendered a once 13-point lead, especially against arguably the best team in basketball at the moment. Despite Houston’s equal-opportunity approach to their half-court offense — four starters took between 13 and 15 shots and Cam Whitmore and Eason took 12 and 10 shots, respectively, off the bench — advantages on the break and on the glass proved the difference.
High-stakes matchups like what the Cavs presented are exactly what the postseason will be about and the Rockets, while emerging victorious, still have some work to do before the playoffs. — Kelly Iko, Rockets beat writer
(Photo: Logan Riely / NBAE via Getty Images)
