Recap: Utah 104, Cleveland 101 (Or, Birthday Blues)

The Cleveland Cavaliers have had a rough Western Conference road trip, starting with their Christmas Day loss to Golden State. This loss against the Utah Jazz sandwiches another such loss against the less than stellar Sacramento Kings. The Cavs dropped what ended up being a close game as they fell 104-101.

The game marked one last disappointment for a disappointing road trip. I made the mistake of underestimating the impact of the end of a three game road trip combined with the Utah altitude. Most of the Cavaliers looked to be trapped in lead boots. And while LeBron shot the ball well from inside the arc (11-15), he was abysmal from three (1-7), and just could not stop turning the ball over. He finished with 29 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, and a block, but his turnovers really killed the Cavs as they tried to get things going in the 4th. Sometimes you don’t get what you want for your birthday. I’m sure that’s how the King feels after having to choke down this last loss before heading back to celebrate with the family.

The first quarter started off strong as Cleveland looked to deliver a first round knock out. It was clear that this first burst of energy was most of what the Cavs had in the tank for the remainder of the night. The first half of the quarter was fairly back and forth as neither team asserted themselves enough to pull ahead in the early moments. Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell presented himself well as he began his highlight real for the night with a sick alley-oop. Watching Mitchell is fun, he should be a good piece for the Jazz in the future.

Luckily LeBron is still able to respond to these young fellas with monster dunks of his own as he got a big baseline dunk in the first. You can see the clip below.

At about the six minute mark the Cavs turned on their reserve boosters and tried for a big birthday blast to try and put this one away early for the King. They jumped out to a 24-14 lead and finished the quarter 32-22.

In the second quarter Cleveland started to show their exhaustion as it was clear they had heavy legs and not much under their shots. While the quarter saw the lead shrink, it also revealed two of the Cavs only bright spots during the game. Tristan Thompson looked good tonight for the first time since returning from injury. Really all season long. He looked spry, finished well at the rim, blocked a couple shots, and stayed in front of smaller guards. It was a pleasant change of pace from his lackluster performances so far.

The other stand-out was Jeff Green as he hit his second three of the night in the quarter and would finish the game a perfect 4-4 from beyond the arc. Green is consistently exceeding my expectations and tonight was no exception. I will be continuously pleased with how wrong I was about his effectiveness on this team. Aside from Green and Thompson giving the Cavaliers some much needed energy, Wade gave LeBron a birthday gift in the form of a sweet alley-oop.

Cleveland was able to maintain their lead, finishing the quarter 53-48, but it was clear the momentum was shifting back towards Utah.

The third quarter is where the wheels really fell off for the Cavs. They could not get the ball in the basket against the Jazz’s staunch defense. Even without Gobert manning the middle for Utah, Cleveland was held to a measly 16 points for the quarter. This is a time I felt the Cavs could have benefit from seeing what Frye could bring as a jump start to the offense. Though he hasn’t been shooting well, his gravity still clears space on a very cramped floor. TT was performing well enough to justify his minutes, but it still didn’t give the same electric jolt it did when Frye was coming into games during the winning streak.

You know your offense is struggling when Dwayne Wade is the one hitting your team’s threes for the quarter. He hit two in a row for the Cavs and added to an already above expected three point percentage on the season. He’s now at 36.2%. The Dinobots managed to finish the quarter well enough, but in the end, were still down 76-69, getting outscored 28-16. If it weren’t for the Jazz missing a lot of open threes, the damage would have been a lot worse.

Ty Lue road the hot hands into the fourth quarter. Tristan and Green continued to show up as they were a large part of the Cavaliers hanging around. However, Utah continued to force LeBron into coughing up turnovers frequently enough to keep the Cavs at arms length for most of the quarter. With ten minutes to go, the Cavs began to cut into the ten point deficit. Green hit his last two threes for the game and ended the night with 22 points. Cleveland would get within one with under four minutes to go but they could never get over the hump.

After Derrick Favors posterized Wade in the video below, Cleveland couldn’t recover any momentum and dropped their third straight, and LeBron’s 7th straight in Utah, 104-101. A disappointing birthday indeed.

Some Notes:

1) Tristan Thompson was a pleasant surprise this game. He finished the night with 11 points, 2 blocks, and a steal. He hustled, he made tough rebounds, he switched on the perimeter well, and he finished at the rim. I still think he slows the offense too much while he’s in. If he returns to form on the defensive end, it will help to mitigate the issue, but it will never go away.

2) Cedi Osman continues to get valuable minutes early in the season. Every minute he gets now will pay dividends in the playoffs. I keep mentioning it but I think it warrants repeating since it’s one of the few times Lue has trusted a young, unproven player over a tired old veteran. Even if it is in limited spurts.

3) Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell is a walking highlight reel. I enjoy watching him tonight, even if it was at the expense of the good guys. Check out this monster dunk.

The Cavs return to action on Tuesday the 2nd against the Trail Blazers. Hopefully with the New Year will come the return of Isaiah Thomas to the basketball court and a fresh start after a bit of a losing skid. As always, Go Cavs.