Recap: Utah 94, Cleveland 85 (and, All That Jazz…)

Trying to figure out what exactly happened to the Cavs last night in Utah had me looking in the mirror and shrugging wide-eyed like Roy Scheider playing an exhausted Joe Gideon (aka: a thinly veiled Bob Fosse) in a late 1970s musical… And, if any of that makes sense to you, kudos for following my tired brain deep into the recesses of this forgettable night of basketball. Maybe it was the altitude (Salt Lake, like Denver, has seen its fair share of last-stop-on-a-roadtrip losses for contenders like the Cavs). Or, possibly the product of tired legs from the second night of yet another back-to-back (thanks Adam Silver!). Or, perhaps the wine & gold did so much living by the three in the City of Angels, that the law of averages dictated they must finally die by the three for a change. Then again, maybe the road-weary Cavs just ran into another young, scrappy, playoff-starved team with more at stake (especially without their star) than the favorites in the East. In all likelihood, though, it wasn’t just a singular one of those things… it was All That Jazz…

Take Off With Us

Following the three point barrage just the day before against the Clippers, the trend seemed like it would continue when Kyrie Irving swished his first shot from downtown off a LeBron James assist, just 12 seconds into the game. Sadly, this would not be a portend of things to come. In fact, it would be the only shot from beyond the arc that Kyrie would convert from the nine he attempted this game. However, LeBron still had a little juice left in his batteries from the road trip, and he chipped in a quick six points on a drive, a sweet turnaround jumper that was smooth as glass, and yet another high-degree-of-difficulty alley-oop from J.R. Smith following a steal. You could almost hear J.R. singing the chorus “Don’t you, don’t you, don’t you… Don’t you wanna go higher now?”

https://vine.co/v/iwvr2WvnH2F

Everything Old Is New Again

Contrary to Sunday’s game, Timofey Mozgov started to believe dreams could come true again, as he actually had a little success against the long arms of the Jazz front line, throwing down two dunks in the first eight minutes. Unfortunately, neither he nor Kevin Love could do much to stop Rudy “The Stifle Tower” Gobert, and Derrick “I’ll Do You No” Favors from tearing the rim down themselves. And, when they weren’t wrecking the rim like creatures out of the old Rampage video game from Midway, they were setting screens to free up Shelvin Mack and Rodney Hood for open jumpers on the pick and roll. Hood in particular seemingly had on his white suit, tap shoes and tails, as he went off for nine points in the opening frame to help send the Cavs backwards from an early seven point lead to a five point deficit. Only a throwback fadeaway triple from LeBron at the buzzer (to give him 11 in the quarter) kept the Cavs close when all else failed. Jazz led 28-26 after one.

Who’s Sorry Now?

The start of the second quarter marked the beginning of the end for the Cavs with regard to their tempestuous relationship with the officiating crew in this one. Tom Washington and his crew were not especially in the mood to be called out or shown up, and they handed out the first of three technical fouls to the Cavs on the third possession of the period. This one went to Channing Frye, following an apparent uncalled goaltend on his shot by Favors (replays showed it probably could have gone either way) and this subsequent dunk by Frye after Iman Shumpert stole the ball back, the deep-Fryer boiled over and voiced his displeasure to official David Guthrie.

https://vine.co/v/iwvpwKr9IVa

Little did Frye know at the time, but this initial tech would prove costly later. And, even though it seemed to fire the Cavs up a bit, sparking a mini-run, they soon felt the short end of the penalty stick (six fouls vs. two on the Jazz in the quarter), as Utah cranked up the defensive intensity.

Bye Bye Love

It’s no secret that Kevin Love has been saying “bye bye” to consistency with his shot (especially his outside shot) for a little while now… and none of that changed in the first half of this game. Love was 0-4 (0-3 from downtown) in his first two quarters of play, missing mostly wide open looks at the hoop. What made him probably want to die, however, had nothing to do with his anemic jumper… and everything to do with his dreadful defense on rookie, Trey Lyles… which led to this dreadful clip…

Cavs defense on this play is not good pic.twitter.com/c6Fcvt14yC

— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) March 15, 2016

Things didn’t go much better on the next sequence either, as Kev got stripped by the very same rook before considerately keeping his arms down to allow Rodney Hood to hit a floater over him in the lane. Although, KLove wasn’t alone in his misery, as the Cavs suffered through six and a half minutes of nearly basket-free play (the only bucket, ironically, was a layup by Kyrie). Meanwhile, Mack and Hood helped Utah push the lead out to as much as six before Delly hit a floater to close the scoring for the half. Jazz led 48-44.

There’ll Be Some Changes Made

Coming out of halftime, the hope was that Ty Lue had exhorted his troops to change the way they were livin’ today, but unfortunately, they continued to brick away from the perimeter, while allowing the Jazz guards to torch them mercilessly. Then, suddenly, Love was finally in the air. Kev knocked down a trey from the top of the key, then followed it up with a fadeaway, a nifty hook shot and a second triple. He almost had another one too, but was called for offensive goaltending. Kyrie, on the other hand, just couldn’t seem to get his style straight on the offensive end (in addition to going 1-9 from three, he was also a rim-rattling 7-23 from the field in general)… but he did wind up with a rare defensive highlight with a terrific block on Mack.

https://vine.co/v/iwrBHEIa9bJ

This, along with a technical foul call on J.R., seemed to galvanize the Cavs defensively, and they tightened the screws on the Jazz over the final three minutes of the quarter. Channing Frye and LBJ then nailed back-to-back threes to finally give the Cavs their first lead in a while… which lasted until Favors rumbled down the lane for a jam to tie the score… 66 all after three.

Some Of These Days

When Delly hit a trey to start the final frame, it seemed like maybe just one of those days for the Cavs would turn into some of these days that we’ve seen lately from downtown. This thinking was flawed though, as Utah went on a three point fueled 20-6 run of their own, during which everyone but Quin Snyder seemingly drained one from deep. Trey Lyles hit two, Shelvin Mack hit one, Raul Neto almost did, and even Joe Ingles knocked one down. Meanwhile, the Cavs couldn’t buy a three-ball, bricking away at a 2-16 clip for the quarter (10-42 for the game). The Jazz pushed their lead out to double digits… and then the fireworks started.

After You’ve Gone

Nobody likes a sharp elbow to the groin… so it was hard to blame Channing Frye for his reaction to a rookie getting overly exuberant around his nether region. Things boiled over, and Frye (who had apparently already been elbowed in the jewels once earlier by Lyles), had had enough. Channing entered into an odd sort of mountain goat head-ramming session with Lyles, then appeared to take a half-hearted swing at the rookie as they were separated.

Cavaliers' Channing Frye goes forehead-to-forehead w/ Jazz's Trey Lyles & takes swing after below-the-belt elbow pic.twitter.com/qmbj50Wxdj

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) March 15, 2016

Naturally, the officiating crew needed umpteen viewings of the events, and 11 minutes of real time, to finally come to the conclusion that they needed to throw both parties out of the game (Frye because he was assessed his second technical, and Lyles for a Flagrant 2 crotch elbowing). The weirdest part though, had to be that since Frye was ejected before he could shoot his free throws for the flagrant foul, Jazz coach Quin Snyder was (by rule) free to pick a Cavalier of his choosing to toe the line. Paging Sasha Kaun… The Russian’s cringe-worthy free throw form still allowed him to somehow split the pair, and gave him the strangest line of one point in zero minutes.

Going Home Now

A J.R. triple and LBJ drive helped the Cavs get as close as seven points with about two minutes remaining, but the Cavs simply ran out of gas in this one. Oddly, Coach Lue kept his starters on the floor until the bitter end of things. Instead of heading home with a 4-0 clean sweep on this trip west, they’ve got a little bit of a limp in their tired legs. Jazz win 94-85.

The Evil:

• The Cavs decided to be content with jacking up 42 attempts from three against the Jazz. Hard to know if that was holdover confidence from their hot shooting swing through L.A., a general apprehension for Utah’s long-armed front line, or just the weariness of playing the second night of a back-to-back in the rarified air of Salt Lake City. It was probably a combination of the three, but since they only connected on 10 of them for 24%, maybe they should have tried to move the ball or run some plays occasionally.
• Speaking of moving the ball, the Cavs dropped only 18 dimes, as they spent much of their time in isolation ball or bricking away from the outside.
• The shooting in general was horrifying, but the standouts included Kyrie (7-23, 1-9 from three), J.R. (2-12, 1-8 from downtown), and Kevin Love (4-11, 2-7 from beyond the arc). The Cavs can win when one or two of these guys aren’t hitting, but not all three typically. Even Delly wasn’t his sharpshooting self, going just 1-5 from three.
• At least KLove and LBJ hit the glass, because TT and Moz sure didn’t. The two Centers combined for just six boards (and nine points) in 36 total minutes, as the Cavs wound up going small for large portions of the game against Utah’s formidable front line.
• Weirdly, even though the Cavs went with a fair amount of small ball, they weren’t really able to push the pace much against the Jazz. Again, this was probably due to tired legs, but they seemingly played into Utah’s gameplan by not speeding the game up.
• Defensively, the Cavs guards got torched by Hood and Mack, and the big men behind them didn’t really help much with their rotations to seal off the paint.
• Utah’s leading scorer and star, Gordon Hayward, didn’t even play, but the Jazz still handled the Cavs surprisingly easily. Road weariness aside, losing to teams without their best players is becoming a habit for the wine & gold.

The Genius:

• LeBron was the only Cav (except Delly at +2) in the positive column this game, with a +6. It wasn’t his best game, since he clearly ran down in the second half, but he still managed 23 points on 10-20 shooting, with 12 boards. He only had three assists, but given the sheer number of missed threes, it’s understandable.
• Kevin Love did turn things around from his awful first half, going 4-7 in the second half and pulling down nine rebounds. He kept the Cavs in the game in the third quarter, and kept fighting hard in the post, even though he was overmatched size-wise.
• Channing Frye, of all people, showed some fight and a refusal to back down when he tussled with Trey Lyles. After the game, LeBron said he loved seeing that from the veteran.
• This…

Kyrie is back on the Jazz floor getting up extra shots after the game as he does occasionally. Cavs aren't flying out until tomorrow.

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 15, 2016

Parting Shot:

Despite this pot hole at the end of the road for the Cavs, a 3-1 swing out west (even against the opponents they faced) is still a pretty good result. Thankfully, there are only three more back-to-backs the rest of the season, and hopefully Coach Lue will start finding some rest for his starters to prep them for the post-season ahead. Utah is always a tough place to end a journey, and the Cavs didn’t lose any ground to the Toronto Raptors, who got edged by the Bulls last night as well. The Cavaliers have a day off to rest before they face the Mavs on Wednesday. Let’s hope they can recuperated and forget about All That Jazz for a while…