Lauri Markkanen scored 28 points, Keynote George poured in 32 to pace the visiting Utah Jazz to a 123-112 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena. The Cavs were flattened in the first few minutes of the game, trailing by 17 in the first quarter, before rallying to take an eight-point lead into halftime.
Everything unraveled after that.
“They won the mental battle, and I guess I could do a better job of putting appropriate fear (into the team),” Head Coach Kenny Atkinson said after the game. “This is the NBA.”
“I think it’s the psychology of sports,” Atkinson said when asked about what the biggest issue was with the Cavs. “Sometimes the psychology is the most important thing.”
The Jazz, who now have 14 wins on the season, have certainly been playing better than in years past. But the Cavs were 12.5-point favorites coming into the game, fresh off arguably their best win of the season over the Minnesota Timberwolves, and appeared to be gathering steam. But the Jazz put that fire out, despite coming off a 50-point loss at home to Charlotte.
Once again, the Cavs had an incredibly uneven performance. They fell behind 19-4 in just a few minutes to start the game, came all the way back to take the lead, and then allowed 14-straight points to start the third quarter. They never recovered from that point, trailed heading into the fourth quarter, and could only stay within arm’s reach until the final buzzer.
Jarrett Allen finished with just eight points and four rebounds, and Evan Mobley had 15 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists (tied for a team-high). Jazz center Jusuf Nurkic out-rebounded the entire Cavs starting lineup by himself. The Cavs’ bench kept them in the game, led by Nae’Qwon Tomlin.
Tomlin was the lone bright spot for Cleveland, bringing his patented energy and hustle that the rest of the team seems to forget about. Tomlin ended the night with 13 points, three rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and a steal in 19 minutes of action.
“He plays really hard,” Atkinson said about Tomlin post-game. “He’s shooting the ball better, feels more confident. He’s fitting into that perfect role player situation.”
Too often, the Cavs appeared to either be slack in getting back in transition, fighting on the glass (they were out-rebounded 50-30), or the offense looked completely flat. Possessions would end in contested jumpers, stonewalled drives to the rim, or turnovers. They simply were not good enough, consistently enough, to win.
It doesn’t help when you dig a huge hole before the first timeout, forcing the need for a comeback. Occasionally, you will find a way to win. But more often than not, it’s insurmountable.
“When we are in this position, we can’t afford to make the little mistakes,” Donovan Mitchell said post-game. “Slow starts, a bad third quarter in Minnesota, or a bad second quarter against Detroit, we don’t have the margin for error.” Mitchell finished with 21 points (7/18 shooting) and eight assists, while Darius Garland had a team-high 23 points on a similar level of shooting efficiency.
“They were desperate, they were physical, they won the aggressive match,” Atkinson added. “We just kind of played.”
At just about the halfway point of the season, the Cavs have to do more than just play. There has to be a sense of urgency from a team that didn’t have just playoff aspirations; they had championship ones.