Cleveland Cavaliers vs Houston Rockets Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 12/27/25

Despite the loss on Christmas Day there were some positives to take away for the Cavaliers who have looked a lot sharper offensively over their last 3 games. Darius Garland appears to be improving on a nightly basis, his 20 points and 10 assists indicate that he is close to being the same player he was before the injury happened. There’s still a lot of work in front of the Cavs though, especially for the bench unit which has largely underperformed this season. Evan Mobley could be inserted back in the starting line-up here as well, he too has had injury issues this season.

Unlike the Cavs, Houston won its Christmas Day game taking down the Lakers 119-96 on the road. Whether or not beating the struggling Lakers is a good measuring stick is a question in itself, but at this point the Rockets will take a win regardless who the opponent is. We’ve seen their form dip a little over the past couple of weeks with just 2 wins in 7 games prior to this latest win, this has seen them drop to 6th in the West standings. For Saturday’s game they might be without Alperen Sengun who is bothered by a calf issue which has plagued basically the entire NBA this season.

At 8-2 SU the Rockets are one of the more dominant home teams in the league, but if Sengun isn’t able to go that’ll leave a massive hole in the middle for the Cavs to exploit. In 2 games without him they are 1-1, which isn’t exactly a large enough sample size. However, the team they lost to is Dallas which is similarly constructed these Cavs with a few quality big men on the roster. Although it’s only late December there’s still 50 games left to be played, I think the sense of urgency to get a result here is much greater for the road team. I’ll take my chances with the Cavaliers.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs Houston Rockets Predictions: Cavaliers +4.5 is available at time of publishing. Playable up to Cavaliers +3.5