WaitingForNextYear

Cleveland Cavaliers (6-3) vs
Utah Jazz (4-5)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland
Saturday, November 14, 2009
7:30 PM EST
FSNOhio/WTAM

***UPDATE – Brian Windhorst informs us that Shaq is out tonight with a shoulder strain and the Cavs are not letting on which shoulder is hurting the big man. Delonte inactive again as well. 

The Cavaliers return home after a very successful road trip to Florida brought their record to 6-3 after wins over Orlando and Miami on a back-to-back.  The Jazz come into Cleveland on the second night of a back-to-back after a relatively easy win in Philly last night over the 76ers.  Fan favorite Carlos Boozer returns to play against the team that drafted him and seems to be healthy averaging 20 and 12 over his last five games, including 24 and 12 last night in Philly.  But the major storyline heading into the game is the status of all-star point guard and team leader Deron Williams.  Word came out yesterday afternoon that Williams had left the team for an excused reason to deal with personal family matters that he did not want to address publicly (it later came out that his daughter was having some medical tests done).  While Williams did not play last night in Philadelphia, he has a private jet ready at his disposal in Utah and could re-join the team at any time.  As of right now, however, his return is doubtful.  Rookie PG Eric Maynor filled in as a more than capable replacement last night in Philadelphia but the Cavs should be able to extend their win streak to 4 catching the Jazz without their best player and on the last game of an east coast road trip and on the second night of a back-to-back. 

Projected Starting Lineups

Cleveland Cavaliers:

-G Mo Williams (18.1 ppg, 4.1 apg, 0.8 spg, 16.89 PER)
-G Anthony Parker (8.4 ppg, 1.8 apg, .581 3P%, 8.53 PER)
-F LeBron James (28.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 7.4 apg, 31.14 PER)
-F JJ Hickson (4.2 ppg, 2.1 rpg, .484 fg%, 10.16 PER)
-C Shaquille O’Neal (11.3 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 1.56 bpg, 17.65 PER)

Key Reserves: Anderson Varejao, Daniel Gibson, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Jamario Moon

Injuries: Leon Powe (out), Delonte West (questionable)

Utah Jazz:

-G Eric Maynor (3.9 ppg, 2.3 apg, .423 fg%, 13.68 PER)
-G Wes Matthews (7.0 ppg, 1.35 rpg, .500 fg%, 11.17 PER)
-F Ronnie Brewer (12.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.1 apg, 12.04 PER)
-F Carlos Boozer (16.8 ppg, 10.6 rpg, 1.22 spg, 18.55 PER)
-C Mehmet Okur (14.5 ppg, 6.6 rpg, .75 bpg, 14.86 PER)

Key Reserves: Paul Millsap, Andrei Kirilenko

Injuries: Deron Williams (doubtful-excused from team for personal matters), Ronnie Price (doubtful), Kyle Korver (out), CJ Miles (out)

Team Efficiency Stats

Cleveland Cavaliers:

-Off (97.1 ppg, 41.2 rpg, .456 FG%, 19.7 apg, 14.1 TOpg, Eff-103.4, Rank-18)
-Def (91.8 ppg, 40.2 rpg, .433 FG%, Eff-97.5, Rank-8)

Utah Jazz:

-Off (100.2 ppg, 41.9 rpg, .476 FG%, 23.9 apg, 15.1 TOpg, Eff-105.1, Rank-12)
-Def (101.3 ppg, 39.2 rpg, .466 FG%, Eff-108.2, Rank-26)

Previous Matchups

None

Future Matchups

1. Thu, Jan 14 at Utah

Game Notes

As I noted in the intro, the Jazz come into tonight’s game on the second night of a back-to-back having won in Philly last night.  With Deron Williams out last night, Jerry Sloan experimented with a new starting lineup and was forced to pare down his rotation.  He went to an almost exclusively 7 man rotation with Millsap and Kirilenko coming off the bench and playing about 30 minutes each.  Rookies Wes Matthews and Eric Maynor got their first starts last night and delivered.  Matthews was an impressive and versatile player at Marquette last year who was a prolific scorer and rebounder at his size but  could also handle the ball and run the offense for the Golden Eagles.  Maynor was the dominant player in the Colonial Athletic Association and a dynamic PG and scorer for VCU.  Maynor, the 20th pick in the draft, was very impressive last night in Philly with 13 points and 11 assists filling in for Williams.

With that said, the Cavs are catching the Jazz at a very vulnerable time.  I would imagine they might have to extend beyond a 7 man rotation given how much those 7 played last night.  We may see old friend Kosta Koufos get some significant minutes…which is nice.  This is the last game of a road trip in a tumultuous and frustrating  season thus far for Utah…annnnd they most likely will not have their best player.

The Cavaliers, on the other hand, are coming off of their best stretch of the short season and a 3 game winning streak, all on the road.  While Delonte was inactive for the Fla. trip and his status tonight is TBD,  the offense really picked up on the trip mostly due to the improved play and hot shooting of Mo Williams.  The offense was occasionally stagnant while watching Lebron pound the ball for a majority of the shot clock but it was much less frequent and often happened when the game was already in hand, particularly in Orlando in the 4th quarter.  The Cavs defense is still not up to the standards that they have set in the Mike Brown era but Orlando and Miami are both tough to handle on the offensive end. 

Expect JJ Hickson to get his fourth straight start coming off the best game of his career in Miami on Thursday.  Hickson has been a nice pairing in the frontcourt with Shaq and certainly provides athleticism.  The Cavs came home from Florida with fans and pundits much more pleased with the current big man rotation put in place by Coach Brown.  Z and Andy off the bench seems to be a much better match even though Z is currently going through the worst shooting slump of his career and is really struggling.  The Z and Shaq combination was not on the floor in Miami and I highly doubt we will see that tonight.

Utah definitely presents a different style of play.  Their true bigs are Millsap and Boozer and he is not particularly lengthy or intimidating on the defensive end.  Both Millsap and Boozer, however, will hit the glass hard on both ends of the floor and will be a tough matchup for JJ and Andy on the boards.  The current Utah rotation consists of a bunch of lengthy wings, but at the same time they are not the long distance shooters like an Orlando (esp. with Korver out).  I would expect the Jazz, as every other team has done thus far, to employ the pick-and-roll offense heavily tonight.  I expect it even more than normal because of the mismatch between Okur and Shaq.  Okur can spot up outside, off the pick, and is known as a three point shooter.  He is shooting 40% from 3 this season.

On the other end, I would expect us to pound the ball inside to Shaq and see Lebron constantly drive the lane and challenge their bigs.  Utah’s defense has ranked near the bottom of the league and is not intimidating at all.  They do not have a shot blocking intimidating force under the hoop on  defense (even though Kirilenko is a renowned shot blocker but is more of a wing).  Their defensive strengths consist of their rebounding and long rangy wings like Matthews, Brewer, and Kirilenko challenging on the perimeter.  Maynor is also long for a PG and will present a size differential for Mo.  It is definitely a clash of style which presents matchup problems on both ends for both teams. 

The Cavs are playing their best ball of the admittedly short season and are coming off a day of rest.  The Jazz are injured, tired, and, despite their win last night, frustrated with their struggles this season.  Deron Williams has expressed his frustration this season through a series of tweets stating he was looking for answers and needed the team to “turn it around” and get the ship righted.  I expect the Cavs to take advantage tonight.  As always, it would be nice to get ahead by a large margin and rest LBJ and Shaq in the fourth quarter.  The Cavs are the better team and are obviously operating under better circumstances at this point of the season.   

Vegas Line

Cleveland -13
Over/Under 191

From The Outside Looking In

Jazzbots

SLCDunk

Utah Jazz Notes

Next Game For The Cavaliers

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
7:00 PM EST
Golden State Warriors at Cleveland Cavaliers
FSNOhio/WTAM