Cleveland, Ohio - The Cavs take down the Utah Jazz 124-113 behind Garland, Mitchell, and Mobley, scoring 67 points, 16 rebounds, and 17 assists.
The Cavs hosted the Utah Jazz before heading out on a 4 game west coast road trip.
Cool moment; before the game, there was a delay with one of the baskets. So, while the audience waited for them to replace the basket, Jarrett Allen and the Cavs’ mascot tried some half-court shots backward. To the crowds' pleasure, Jarrett nailed one of his first attempts.
After the game Coach Atkinson explaiined how he spent his time during the delay and who he suspected to be behind the affected basket.
“I went back up to my office, hung out in the video room and talked to them. Glad everybody stayed patient. Our crowd is so good and our guys stayed out there. Darius was in the crowd talking to people and I thought it was pretty cool.”
“I think Tristan might have something to do with it. I’m not calling him out. You guys go to the videotape. He does his Daryl Dawkins dunk. I could be wrong. That’s my guess.”
After a more than 30-minute delay, the game finally got underway. The Cavs host the Jazz, who have three former Cavs players: Colin Sexton, Lauri Markkane,n and Jordan Clarkson.
The game also welcomed back home Northeast Ohio native Micah Potter, who attended Mentor High School.
The opening period started off with the Cavs not shooting their best they ended the quarter shooting 33% from behind the arc. The Cavs defense was present as they held the Jazz to just 35% shooting from. However, the Cavs struggled to keep the Jazz off the offensive glass.
The Jazz grabbed 9 offensive rebounds to the Cavs 5 and outrebounded the Cavs 19 to 12 in the first quarters.
During pregame Coach Atkinson stated the Cavs biggest area for improvement was the offensive glass.
“Offensive rebounding is still, I feel like worries me. The playoffs, there's going to be games where we're going to miss shots. And especially in the playoffs, I think how can we gain more possessions? But I do think, I know last game, I think we're in the 88th percentile they told me. So we're trying, but I think it's important. Offensive rebounding without affecting your transition defense, we can do a better job there. I think it'll help us. If we get more possessions, obviously the way we shoot the ball, could really help our offense.”
The Jazz ended the game out rebounding the Cavs in total 52-40, and had 8 more offensive rebounds than the Cavaliers.
Even with both teams not shooting their best, there were 7 lead changes in the first quarter. The Cavaliers ended the quarter strong with an Evan Mobley block, Max Strus corralled the loose ball and kicked to Donovan Mitchell, who nailed a shot right before the end-of-quarter buzzer to give the Cavs a 29-27 lead.
To start the second quarter, the Jazz hit two 3-pointers to take a 33-29 lead. The Cavs continued to struggle with keeping the Jazz off of the offensive glass, allowing for 5 more offensive rebounds.
Despite the Cavs struggling with keeping the Jazz off the glass, the Cavs did a decent job protecting the ball, only having 5 first half turnovers.
Darius Garland was the start of the first half, scoring 17 points and 3 assists. Evan Mobley threw in 11 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks.
The Cavaliers took a 60-56 lead over the Jazz into halftime. Lauri Markkanen led the way for the Jazz with 13 points and 5 rebounds.
Mobley also notched a career achievement, pulling down his 2,000th rebound of his career in the third quarter.
Donovan Mitchell had a relatively quiet first half, he scored only 8 points, 4 assists, and 2 steals, Coach Atkinson mentioned before the game how Mitchell realized taking a step back could help his teammates.
“I think he's, and I don't know if this is he progressed in this area or not, but he's an excellent communicator. I would say that's No. 1. He's aggressive in his communication in a good way, whether it's with his teammates, with me, we're always talking, talking about things. He's got a big voice in the huddle. And then I would say, and again, I would think this is always a part of his personality, but he's so even-keeled. He's literally the embodiment of never gets too high, never gets too low. When things start getting a little crazy or frazzled, we're a little out of sorts. He kind of calms us, but he's in that sweet spot in terms of maturity, I feel. And he's leading. The last thing I'd say, and I've said this to this group a lot, but he's realized he's got to take a step back to empower the others. And I'll put Evan kind of in that. Evan, I think, needed that. He needed someone to say, 'Hey, man, we need you here, just throw you the ball in the trail position, throw you the ball here, I'm going to set a pick and roll for you. You know this league. That takes humility and someone who's willing to be a part of something bigger than themself. Right? Here you go, Evan, I'm going to empower you. And I think that's kind of the unspoken thing that's happened with Evan's game. A lot of it's Donovan empowering him.”
The third quarter turned into the Sam Merrill show. He shot ⅘ from 3-point land, scoring 14 points in the quarter, helping the Cavs push their lead as high as 17 in the quarter. Merrill set a season high for points with 20 for the game.
However, the Jazz had their best shooting quarter of the game (54% FG, 66% 3PFG) and cut the deficit to 11 entering the fourth quarter.
The Cavs led the Jazz 99-88 to start the final period. Utah was not done fighting and outscored the Cavs 18-10 in the first 7 minutes of the quarter. The Jazz pulled within 1 point, 109-108, after Lauri Markanen nailed two free throws around the 4:30 mark. Donovan Mitchell responded with a floater in the lane to push the lead back to 3, 111-108.
With under 4 minutes to go, Jazz center Walker Kessler missed 2 free throws to bring the game within 3, but the Cavs didn’t come up with the rebound, and Jordan Clarkson nailed 2 free throws after drawing a foul on Caris LeVert.
The Cavs have sealed the game after Darius Garland looked to have nowhere to go with the ball, and found Georges Niang cutting baseline for an easy layup. On the next possession, Niang gets a steal, leading to a Caris LeVert dunk to put the Cavs up 122-113 with 39 seconds in regulation.
The Cavs went on to beat the Jazz 122-113 to give the home fans a holiday gift before going on the road.
After the victory Coach Atkinson was happy his team had a close game and feels they need games like this.
“We need games like that. I was thinking, ‘That’s going to be the playoffs.’ Rarely are you blowing people out by 20. A lot of end-of-game situations tonight. Did hack-a-Kessler there. You start reaching into your strategy bag, which we haven’t had to do a lot because of our margin of victory. That was good practice for us. Thought we did a really good job executing.”
Evan Mobley echoed the same sentiments after the game, saying it was good practice to have a game like this.
“I feel like we need games like this as well, just for good practice. Not every game is gonna be a blowout. So games like this, when it goes down to the wire, you got to lock in, run your sets, and play great defense, and that's what we did tonight.”
Donovan Mitchell also believed tonight's game is perfect preparation for the teams they'll be facing for their upcoming road trip.
"I love it. I think it just helps us find ways to execute late game. Winning by double digits is nice, and it shows we're taking care of business but you have these moments. These are fun. These are like, all right, cool, How do we execute? How do we find different things? Strategizing. Fouling Walker Kessler, thinking about that. Thinking about, okay, we get Ev [Evan Mobley] in the post for a possession. I get an iso, DG [Darius Garland] attacks, you know, swing the ball. Georges [Niang] cuts out the corner, thinking the game, talking the game out. Those are the reps that I find the most exciting. Because that's ultimately what's going to help us continue to build. I'm not saying I'm mad we’re blowing teams out because it's not bad. But, especially with these games coming up, it's going to continue to, it's gonna be the next level of layers of thinking and that's what tonight was."
The Cavs now hit the road for a 4-game road trip starting Friday, December 27, 202,4, in Denver against the Nuggets.