SALT LAKE CITY: In a scene that has become all too common this season, the Cavaliers struggled to put away a team missing its biggest star.
LeBron James had 23 points and 12 rebounds, but the Cavs concluded their West Coast trip with a 94-85 loss at the Utah Jazz, who were playing without leading scorer Gordon Hayward. The 85 points were the fewest the Cavs scored since a Jan. 23 loss to the Chicago Bulls – Tyronn Lue’s first game as coach.
Lue elected to play all his starters in the trip finale because none of the starters played heavy minutes in Sunday’s impressive win against the Los Angeles Clippers. But none of them appeared to have their legs.
The Jazz shot 49 percent while the Cavs made just 10-of-42 3-point attempts. Kyrie Irving scored 15 points while shooting 7-of-23, while Kevin Love had 12 points and nine rebounds.
Joe Ingles’ 3-pointer with 4:38 left extended the Jazz lead to 86-73, their largest of the game. Ingles started in place of Hayward, who missed his first game this season with plantar fasciitis. The Cavs also lost to the Memphis Grizzlies, who were without their three best players, and the Charlotte Hornets, who were missing Al Jefferson and Kemba Walker.
Playing on the second night of a back-to-back in the altitude, and to close a road trip, is always difficult. The Jazz won here last season on Hayward’s buzzer beater over an outstretched Tristan Thompson. This one didn’t come down to the buzzer.
J.R. Smith’s 3-pointer pulled the Cavs within 89-81 with 2:24 left, but they never really threatened the rest of the night. Smith shot just 1-of-8 from 3 and scored five points.
Tempers flared in the fourth quarter when Channing Frye and Utah’s Trey Lyles butted heads twice after Lyles appeared to elbow Frye in the groin. Frye responded by yelling at Lyles before the two butted foreheads and went nose to nose with 3:57 left.
The two were quickly separated and ultimately ejected. Lyles was given a flagrant-2, an automatic ejection, while Frye was given a technical and ejected because it was his second one. Frye was assessed a technical earlier for arguing what he thought should have been a goaltending call when one of his shots was blocked.
The Jazz picked apart the Cavs’ defense, outshot them from the 3-point line and ended their three-game winning streak.
The Cavs trailed much of the night, although they tied it at 66 entering the fourth. Lyles made a pair of big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter before he was ejected and Rodney Hood scored 28 points for the Jazz. Point guard Shelvin Mack had 17 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
At one point, the Jazz starting backcourt of Hood and Mack had outscored the Cavs’ combination of Smith and Irving, 31-9.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.