Cavs beat Rockets 91-77 in sluggish game

The Cavaliers closed their longest road trip of the season with a 91-77 victory against the Houston Rockets, ending a six-game losing streak to the Rockets and an eight-game streak inside Toyota Center.

“We just played better defense in the second half”, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

The Cavaliers committed 18 turnovers in Thursday night’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs, and they were plagued by miscues on the offensive end of the floor again in the early going against the Rockets.

Although both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Spurs are clearly talented teams, San Antonio just brought the better game on Thursday night. Kevin Love had 10 points and 11 rebounds while Irving was limited to 16 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists in this one. San Antonio’s total of plus-14.1 would be the NBA’s best ever. “They gave us so many mismatches”, Ginobili said.

Parker is 33, a few years younger than the Spurs’ other long-time core players Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. “Of course, when you have a guy like LeBron, the whole team plays different”.

The Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard is having the kind of season that puts him in MVP chatter. “We were not guarding the pick-and-roll very aggressively so we are lucky that that happened in the first quarter”.

LeBron James led the Cavs with 22 points, hitting 9 of 17 shots.

Kyrie Irving scored a career-high 57 points in that game.

Butler joined Michael Jordan as the only Bulls players with 50-plus points, 10-plus rebounds and five-plus assists in a single game over the past 30 seasons. However it looked as if the Spurs skipped class the way they played the first quarter.

Robert Covington scored 25 points and Ish Smith had 24 for the 76ers, who fell to 4-37.

Chicago were without star guard Derrick Rose (injured knee) and starting center Pau Gasol (resting).

In Oakland, California, Stephen Curry scored 26 points, with his first eight baskets coming on 3-pointers, and Golden State beat Los Angeles in what was likely Kobe Bryant’s last game in Oakland.

Aldridge, the Spurs’ big free agent pickup, had just six points and eight rebounds, but the Spurs clamped down defensively in the second half.

Despite this being the sixth straight year the National Basketball Association has played a regular-season game in London, commissioner Adam Silver said before the game he has no plans of putting a franchise in Europe.

While the Spurs were holding the Cavs to just 18 points in the second, Parker was putting them back in the game, taking it right to the Cavs for 12 points in the quarter.

Kyle Lowry’s 24 points helped the Raptors to an global win and their fourth successive victory, while Victor Oladipo scored 27 points for the Magic. Paul George scored 21 points for the Pacers. The Raptors built a five-point edge in the extra session and held off the Magic when Nik Vucevic’s half-court shot bounced off the rim as time expired. Jae Crowder will be a tough matchup for the Celtics, as he’s averaging 18.6 points per game, more than double his career average.

Isaiah Thomas weighed in with 19 points in Boston Celtics’ 117-103 triumph over Phoenix Suns and in the final game of the evening John Wall led Washington Wizards to a 118-104 win over Indiana Pacers with 28 points.