Live Thread: Cavs @ Jazz

The Cavs are in Utah tonight for game three of their six game road trip. They’ve started their past two games out hot. On Sunday, against Phoenix, they put up 41 in the first quarter and led by as many as 20. They won by just four. It was the same in Brooklyn on Friday. They were up by 20 during different points of the game and managed to win by just eight.

LeBron James and Kyrie Irving both had to reach into their bag of tricks during the fourth quarter to beat those teams who have just 20 combined wins. The Cavs didn’t seem focused.

Utah will take advantage of any carelessness Cleveland exhibits. They are 23-16. They’re 5-5 in their last ten, but they’ve been plagued by injury all season and are just a few games into having their full rotation available.

Defensively, the Jazz are anchored by Rudy Gobert (2.6 blocks a night). On the offensive end, George Hill has been putting up a career high 18.5 points and running the team giving 4.2 dimes a night. He’s an amazing defender too; his length will challenge Kyrie or at least funnel him into the paint. Gordan Hayward is above average at all facets of the game and leads them in scoring with 22 a night.

Things to watch

-The Cavs have to attack the Jazz down low, despite them having multiple bigs who can actually protect the rim. If they sit back and launch shots, they will be saving Utah the effort of working on defense. This is huge, because Utah has to use a lot of passes and cuts to get their guys open on the other end of the floor. Tired guys aren’t cutting and they aren’t passing as much, which will help the Cavs on defense.

-Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson have to fight for boards. They need to box out every possession because Derrick Favors and Gobert are beasts on the offensive glass if they aren’t accounted for.

-Love also needs to make the Jazz play him honestly. He can’t forget about the paint. Love has a great chance to get Favors and Gobert into foul trouble, both of them leave their feet quite often.

-And, finally, the Cavs have to focus. Utah is ranked in the top ten in defense and is ranked 12th in offensive efficiency. This team isn’t giving a game away, and if you give them the ball off turnovers that they aren’t forcing, they’ll have a huge advantage.

I’m picking the Cavs tonight, 94-90. This one is going to be a slug fest. Cleveland’s defense will be tested and forced to rotate multiple times as Utah looks for a sliver of space to shoot or drive through. Hopefully, this game is a wake up call and shows the league that Cleveland is just waiting for a challenge, not becoming unfocused during the regular season.

Kyle Korver is available tonight and may make his debut.

LeBron on Korver: " The first thing I told him … was, ‘If you want to fit in, shoot the ball every time you get it.’"

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 10, 2017