Utah even had a nine point lead over Cleveland in the fourth; however, LeBron James turned it up a few notches and willed his team to victory – which is what you want from a star player.
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The bench started off looking like the Cavs’ greatest upgrade, but then opponents’ reserves started to keep pace and coach David Blatt subsequently started to shrink his rotation to keep the winning streak alive. “I’m always looking for Tristan rolling because that’s what he does best, and (Knicks center Robin) Lopez kept backing off under the bucket, so it was an uncontested floater, and I think being aggressive at the start of the season with my floater has opened up the lob to Tristan”.
The Cavaliers trailed by as many as nine in the fourth, but James stole a pass and dribbled the length of the floor for an impressive three-point play to pull the Cavs within 95-94.
James converted a three-point play after he was fouled as he made a layup, with the Cavs moving to within four of the Jazz.
James made the foul shot and Cleveland followed with a 10-0 run to go ahead 104-98.
“It was pretty good”, James said with a laugh of Hood’s bear hug.
Utah cut the lead to 107-105, but James hit a hook shot in the lane and split four free throws. That’s why I’m here playing with this team. “We were holding them to 40% at one point in the second but we had 10 turnovers and there were all from the starters”. “Trying to make a push, see if we could change the momentum”. Trey Burke scored 24 points, including a career-high six 3-pointers to lead the Jazz. “They also had 8 offensive rebounds in the first half”, LeBron said.
The Lakers were without Kobe Bryant, who missed his first game of the season because of a back problem he said prevented him from walking properly. “He did the things that a great, great player like only him could do”.
Cleveland is without Kyrie Irving and still figuring out exactly how to use Kevin Love, who had 22 points and eight rebounds. Love had a slight injury scare after falling on his leg while going for a dunk, but he was able to stay in the game.
The two paired for 40 points, and outscored the Cavaliers starting duo of Mo Williams and J.R. Smith, returning from a three-game absence after banging knees a week ago against the 76ers. They were. Raul Neto didn’t score, again, but did finish with 5 assists and 2 steals in 13 minutes of action.
“This showed us we could play with anybody”, Hayward said.
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The Utah Jazz were getting a classic Montreal Screwjob early on in the first, second, third, and fourth quarters of this game, but failed to back down to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
