Utah Jazz beat Cleveland Cavaliers 113 – 105 – NBA Recap
The Utah Jazz defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in a well contested encounter at the EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City. The Jazz played a good game and held off a determined Cleveland side to gain the 113
– 105 victory.
Jazz centre Al Jefferson was probably the best player on the court during the game as he raked in 30 points to go along with 12 rebounds. Paul Millsap was also impressive for Utah with 19 points while they
also had notable contributions from Derrick Favors, 14 points, and Josh Howard, 17.
Veteran forward Antawn Jamison led the Cavs with 22 points and 7 rebounds on the night. Anderson Varejao had 12 points and 11 rebounds for his double-double while rookie point guard Kyrie Irving impressed again
with 20 points and 5 assists.
The first quarter was a very evenly contested affair with neither side able to get any sort of an advantage. The two teams exchanged shots with regularity, scoring a total of 53 points in the quarter. The Jazz
were up at the end with the score 27 – 26.
The second period was where the game started to drift away from Cleveland as Utah picked up on their defence. The Jazz reduced Cavaliers’ offensive output to just 17 points in the quarter while scoring 25 points
themselves. A 11 – 1 burst by the Jazz made the major dent in Cleveland’s aspirations who found themselves at the wrong end of a 52 – 43 score line at the break.
The second half was off to a frantic start as both sides pretty much abandoned the defences and went at it with extravagance and flash. As the sides produced some scintillating basketball to enthral the crowd,
the coaches must have suffered seeing as they also conceded 70 points in the third quarter. Thirty seven of them were scored by Cleveland who closed the gap on Utah to 5 points by the end of the period.
Cleveland regrouped for a final assault in the 4th quarter but their sting was taken out by a Jazz side that just wouldn’t stop scoring. The task of coming back from a deficit was made pretty much
impossible for the Cavaliers as they failed to get some stops in. In the end, the Jazz walked away with the 113 – 105 win without much fuss.
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