Without Shaq, Cavs edge the Jazz in an uneven performance

The Cavs had won the last 8 of 10 matchups against Utah heading into last night and were catching the Jazz in a tough spot.  The Jazz were on the second game of a back-to-back and were depleted by injuries with only 9 players dressed.  Deron Williams was most notably absent. The Cavs, as it turned out, ended up having to play with a shortened rotation themselves with Shaq a late scratch due to a shoulder strain and Delonte inactive yet again. 

The Cavaliers got a solid effort from the short rotation to win their fourth in a row.  There were stretches where the offense looked brilliant, particularly in the first quarter which has become the M.O. of this team.  At other, less frequent, times, the offense became stagnant as they stopped attacking the basket and the weak interior defense of the Jazz and settled for low percentage shots which let Utah back in the game.  The Cavalier defense, on the whole, was below average.  It was poor inside, giving up a number of uncontested shots and rebounds, but also on the outside where Eric Maynor was able to get to the hoop for easy buckets.  As a result, the Jazz were able to hang around and actually take their first lead of the game inside of two minutes before the force of nature known as Lebron James took over to lead the Cavs to a narrow 107-103 victory and a four game win streak. 

Lebron spent most of the evening facilitating the offense before taking over in the final two minutes.  The recipient of many of Lebron’s passes was new starting PF J.J. Hickson.  Hickson had 20 points to set a new career high for the second game in a row.  Lebron and JJ worked well in the pick-and-roll all evening with Lebron often dishing it off to JJ for an easy dunk/layup or a foul at the rim.  JJ, perhaps most impressively, is making his free throws this season and was 6 of 7 again Saturday night.  The Jazz are seriously lacking defensive resistance in the paint and JJ took advantage of that from the beginning. 

The Cavs offense was working best when they went into the paint and attacked the rim.  They came out at the start of both halves and  made a concerted effort to either drive to the hole (via Mo or LBJ) or get the ball into the paint (often by attacking off the pick-and-roll with LBJ and JJ).  Boozer and Okur are not intimidating at the rim and the Cavaliers took advantage. 

The Cavs came out on fire to start the game and scored 34 in the first quarter.  The passing was crisp throughout the quarter and the offense looked as good as it gets – establishing themselves inside and then hitting from outside when called upon.  They were moving the ball at a fast pace and cashed in on an astonishing 10 assists in one quarter.  Mo was getting into the lane and hitting his floaters.  While he cooled off from three, I thought Mo had a good offensive game and picked up the scoring along with JJ.  I felt Mo created all the offense when Lebron was not doing so, especially in the third quarter.

The Cavs completely went away from going inside in the 2nd quarter scoring 0 points in the paint.  They fell asleep on D and coughed up a 16 point lead.  Jamario Moon started the quarter and was instant offense for the Cavaliers.  He scored 8 points on 3 consecutive possessions and finished the game with 11 points while going 3-4 from beyond the arc.  He became a little overzealous on a few possessions but overall I thought he had an extremely efficient game and it’s good to see him settling in and getting comfortable with Delonte out.  Anthony Parker continues to deliver from three which is primarily what he was brought here to do.  Lebron is driving and kicking it to him in the corner like clockwork every game on at least three occasions and he is shooting lights out.  He was 4 of 6 from three last night and finished with 14 points.

The Cavs finished the first half with 16 assists scoring from both inside and outside going 7 of 14 from three.  They nearly reached 70 by half for the third game in a row.  Unfortunately, they only had a five point lead.  The Jazz shot well all night, including an insane 71% in the 2ndQ.  The Cavaliers’ defense, however, was also once again not up to Mike Brown standards.  We all know both Mo Williams and Daniel Gibson are not the best defenders, but rookie Eric Maynor blew by both of them all night.  Once he was by them, he rarely met resistance in the lane or at the rim and on a few occasions went the length of the floor for an uncontested layup.  Maynor is a natural scorer and an impressive rookie who finished with 24 points.  His backcourt mate, Wes Matthews, is also a rookie and he pitched in with 13 of his own.  I presume Mike Brown will deem such output from a rookie backcourt simply unacceptable. 

Our old friend Carlos Boozer went off inside for 25 and 12.  I thought Andy played Boozer and Millsap pretty well on D.  Z, whose shot is still not falling, was exposed by both Boozer and  Mehmet Okur who went outside and shot right over him a few times. Ilgauskas’ height advantage was of no detriment to Utah’s bigs.  You have to take the good and the bad with a young developing JJ Hickson and the bad is his defense.  JJ is still getting muscled around inside which is definitely understandable when Carlos Boozer is the one on the other end.  But he also is always a step behind on rotating to his man and he definitely struggled on a few glaring occasions to get in good position to box out and rebound.  Fred McLeod mentioned how JJ is still learning how to use his body when it comes to rebounding and it showed last night against the experienced rebounders Boozer and Millsap. 

Utah is a team that relies on interior movement and passing.  It was disconcerting to see them, whether it was Boozer or Maynor or someone else, get so many easy buckets around the rim.  Also, inexcusably, we let them inbounds the ball under their own basket for a layup three times (even AC was incensed).  While the Cavs were out scoring almost at will, they kept falling asleep on the defensive end inside and this let the Jazz hang around.

While the Cavs would get double digit leads all night, the Jazz would mount comebacks to end each quarter and in the fourth Carlos Boozer went on a spurt which put them ahead, for the first time in the game, 97-96 with 1:55 to go.  The lead would not last long as Lebron quickly took over.  Despite scoring only 21 points, I thought Lebron played pretty well and, as always, he showed up in the last two minutes to save the day.  He quickly drove and  found Parker for a three to re-take the lead from Utah.  When the Jazz tied it back up at 99, Lebron spent the final minute of the game taking it strong to the paint and scoring our last 7 points with almost all of it coming from the free throw line. 

Utah is a poor defensive team that was without its best player, starting a rookie backcourt, and playing only seven guys on the road on the 2nd leg of a back-to-back.  They should not have had the lead inside of two minutes.  The absence of Shaq certainly had a detrimental affect but the Cavs simply fell asleep too often on defense which erased significant leads that had been built on the offensive end.  Nonetheless, it is now a four game winning streak and the offense, an overall greater concern, seems to be clicking.  During first month growing pains you have to beat teams like Utah when you do not play your best game.  The Cavs have a couple days off until the Warriors, who were embarrassed by Brandon Jennings tonight and might be the NBA team turmoil equivalent of the Browns, come to town Tuesday night.

(AP Photo: Tony Dejak)