Regardless of who’s in or out of the Jazz lineup, Salt Lake City has not been kind to the Cavaliers.
That trend continued for the Wine and Gold on Monday night – as the Jazz spoiled Cleveland’s plans of a perfect road trip, pulling away to hand Cavaliers the 94-85 loss, their eighth loss in the last ten visits to Utah.
In winning their first three games of the season’s final West Coast junket, the Cavaliers had been deadly from beyond the arc – drilling 34 triples in their previous two games in Los Angeles. But that was not the case in Monday night’s affair, with Cleveland shooting just 24 percent (10-of-42) from long-distance.
The Cavaliers trailed through much of the three quarters, with Utah – playing without their leading scorer, Gordon Hayward – extending its lead to nine, 61-52, with just under five minutes to play in the period. But Cleveland closed the quarter on a 14-5 run to tie the affair heading into the fourth.
But the Jazz came out swinging in the final period, with rookie Trey Lyles notching 10 points in the quarter (before being tossed for throwing an elbow into Channing Frye’s groin) as the Jazz shot 64 percent to the Cavaliers’ 33 over the final 12 minutes.
LeBron James led the Cavaliers with 23 points, going 10-of-20 from the floor and leading both squads with 12 boards.
Kyrie Irving followed up with 15 points, but – like most of his teammates – struggled from the floor, finishing 7-for-23 overall and 1-for-9 from long-distance. He and J.R. Smith were a combined 2-for-17 from three-point range.
The only other Cavalier in double-figures was Kevin Love, who notched 10 of his 12 points in the third quarter – going 4-of-6 in the period as the Wine and Gold made their run.
Channing Frye – who went a combined 10-for-14 from deep in wins over the Lakers and Clippers at the STAPLES Center – picked up an early technical foul and was sent to the showers when he head-butted Lyles, who swept through with a low elbow that caught him under the belt. Lyles picked up a Flagrant-2 and Frye, his second technical of the game.
The Jazz were propelled by their starting backcourt of Rodney Hood and Shelvin Mack. Hood led all scorers with 28 points, going 9-of-16 from the field. Mack led both squads with 10 assists to go with 17 points.
The Cavaliers only committed eight turnovers on the night, doubled Utah’s point production in the paint and held the Jazz scoreless on the fast break. But Cleveland made just eight trips to the stripe and handed out only 18 assists in the loss.
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