Houston Rockets vs. Cleveland Cavaliers: How to watch NBA online, TV channel, live stream info, start time – CBS Sports

1st Quarter Report

The Rockets are giving their home crowd exactly what they were hoping for. They have jumped out to a quick 34-29 lead against the Cavaliers.

The Rockets entered the matchup having won four straight and they’re just three quarters away from another. Will they make it five, or will the Cavaliers step up and spoil it? We’ll know soon.

Who’s Playing

Cleveland Cavaliers @ Houston Rockets

Current Records: Cleveland 42-24, Houston 31-35

How To Watch

• When: Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 5 p.m. ET
• Where: Toyota Center — Houston, Texas
• TV: Bally Sports – Ohio
• Follow: CBS Sports App
• Online streaming: fuboTV (Try for free. Regional restrictions may apply.)
• Ticket Cost: $24.00

What to Know

The Cleveland Cavaliers will head out on the road to take on the Houston Rockets at 5:00 p.m. ET on Saturday at Toyota Center. Coming in fresh off a victory as the underdog, the Cavaliers will stroll into this one as the favorite.

Winning is just a little bit easier when you work as a team to rack up 16 more assists than your opponent, a fact the Cavaliers proved on Wednesday. Everything went their way against New Orleans as Cleveland made off with a 116-95 victory. The Cavaliers pushed the score to 87-68 by the end of the third, a deficit the Pelicans had little chance of recovering from.

Darius Garland was a one-man wrecking crew for the Cavaliers as he shot 6-for-10 from deep and dropped a double-double on 27 points and 11 assists.

Meanwhile, the Rockets had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 8.7 points), and they went ahead and made it four on Thursday. They strolled past Washington with points to spare, taking the game 135-119.

The Rockets’ win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jalen Green, who scored 37 points along with eight rebounds. As a matter of fact, that’s the most points Green has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Fred VanVleet, who almost dropped a double-double on 27 points and nine assists.

Cleveland’s win bumped their record up to 42-24. As for Houston, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they’ve won six of their last seven matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 31-35 record this season.

This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: The Cavaliers haven’t given up the ball easily this season, having only averaged 12.6 turnovers per game. However, it’s not like the Rockets struggle in that department as they’ve been averaging only 12.5 turnovers per game. Given these competing strengths, it’ll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.

The Cavaliers didn’t have too much breathing room in their match against the Rockets in their previous matchup back in December of 2023, but they still walked away with a 135-130 win. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was VanVleet, who dropped a double-double on 27 points and 17 assists. Now that he’s got a second chance to win this matchup, will the Cavaliers still be able to contain VanVleet? There’s only one way to find out.

Odds

Cleveland is a 4.5-point favorite against Houston, according to the latest NBA odds.

The oddsmakers had a good feel for the line for this one, as the game opened with the Cavaliers as a 5.5-point favorite.

The over/under is 214.5 points.

See NBA picks for every single game, including this one, from SportsLine’s advanced computer model. Get picks now.

Series History

Cleveland has won 7 out of their last 10 games against Houston.

• Dec 18, 2023 – Cleveland 135 vs. Houston 130
• Mar 26, 2023 – Cleveland 108 vs. Houston 91
• Jan 26, 2023 – Cleveland 113 vs. Houston 95
• Feb 02, 2022 – Houston 115 vs. Cleveland 104
• Dec 15, 2021 – Cleveland 124 vs. Houston 89
• Mar 01, 2021 – Cleveland 101 vs. Houston 90
• Feb 24, 2021 – Cleveland 112 vs. Houston 96
• Dec 11, 2019 – Houston 116 vs. Cleveland 110
• Jan 11, 2019 – Houston 141 vs. Cleveland 113
• Nov 24, 2018 – Cleveland 117 vs. Houston 108