Cavaliers Eye To Send Rockets Reeling To Another Loss At Home

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets are set to collide on Thursday, January 26 in a battle of teams looking to get out of a slump.

The Cavaliers are coming off a loss to the New York Knicks, while the Rockets are fresh from a 114-119 defeat at the hands of the Washington Wizards.

Thursday's matchup will be the first meeting between the two teams.

On one end are the Cavs, who dropped to a Julius Randle-led quintet.

The All-Star big man dropped a double-double performance of 36 points and 13 rebounds against Cleveland.

Donovan Mitchell gave a valiant effort for the Cavs, but the Knicks would not be denied a victory.

"I went up to try and dunk it, both my legs cramped and my groin just tightened up and locked up on me so three things happened at the same time," Mitchell said.

Mitchell tallied 24 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists in the losing effort. Jarrett Allen also had a double-double outing with 24 markers and 12 boards.

Cleveland is 26th in the league in points per game with 111.5. They tote an offensive rating of 114.2.

On the defensive side, the Cavs limit their opponents to 107.2 points per contest.

For the Rockets, their plan of winning two games in a row took a hit when they bowed to the Washington Wizards.

"Late third quarter we got away from the things that are about winning, about building winning habits, about taking the right shot, about making the right path, and we've got to be better," coach Stephen Silas stated. "Young and inexperienced and all that, we've got to do better."

Alperen Segun led the way with a triple-double effort of 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.

Backing him up was Jalen Green, who finished with 19 points and seven assists.

Houston will need to step up their offense if they want to pull off a win against the Cavs. They are 29th in the league in points scored per game with 109.9. They also have a defensive rating of 109.1.

They also have to step up on defense, surrendering 117.4 points per game,

The Cavaliers are -7 favorites to prevail over the Rockets, who are at +7.

Meanwhile, the moneyline for this matchup is -300 for Cleveland and +240 for Houston.

The game can be watched via the NBA League Pass and through fuboTV at 8:00PM ET.