Houston @ Cleveland preview

Last Meeting ( Jan 11, 2019 ) Cleveland 113, Houston 141

The Houston Rockets will try to bounce back from a buzzer-beating loss when they commence a two-game road trip at the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday. A 3-pointer at the horn by Sacramento's Nemanja Bjelica sent the Rockets to a 119-118 setback Monday night to cap a 1-1 homestand and prompted the team to question its execution on the final possession.

"Just a breakdown," Houston coach Mike D'Antoni told reporters. "We just left a guy wide open for no reason whatsoever." Defense is not always the strong suit for a Rockets squad that gives up 115.1 points per game, but the Cavaliers do not represent much of a challenge in that department as they average 102.3 points per contest, 29th in the NBA entering Tuesday. Cleveland fell far short of that figure in a 110-88 setback at Boston on Monday, its season-high seventh straight defeat. The Cavaliers were a woeful 9-for-19 from the line while falling shy of the 100-point mark for the fourth consecutive contest.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Southwest (Houston), FS Ohio (Cleveland)

ABOUT THE ROCKETS (15-8): Russell Westbrook scored a season-high 34 points in Monday's loss while making 13-of-17 shots, which came two nights after he was 10-of-18 and had a triple-double against Phoenix, but the shiny numbers meant little after a home loss to a sub-.500 team. "We didn't challenge ourselves," Westbrook told the media. "It's not about them. We're playing for a bigger goal." James Harden (27 points, 10 assists), Clint Capela (13 points, 17 rebounds) and P.J. Tucker (10 points, career-high 19 rebounds) all notched double-doubles in defeat.

ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (5-18): Cleveland is trying to find positives where it can as it endures a 1-13 stretch, and there was some comfort taken in a second-half rally at Boston that cut a 29-point deficit down to 12. "That's how we need to play," said forward Kevin Love, who was held to seven points on 3-of-12 shooting. "The problem is putting it together for a quarter, two quarters, three quarters, 48 minutes." Center Tristan Thompson was the only starter to score in double figures, finishing with 17 points and 11 rebounds for his 13th double-double.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Rockets C Tyson Chandler and G Austin Rivers both missed Monday's game due to illness.

2. Love is averaging seven points on 30.8 percent shooting in three games this month.

3. Harden averaged 41.5 points and 12.5 assists as the teams split two meetings last season.

PREDICTION: Rockets 114, Cavaliers 100