Live game score updates, analysis, highlights, recap

On December 24, 2024By Littum

CLEVELAND — Wearing City Edition uniforms, the Cavaliers placed a five-game winning streak under the franchise’s collective Christmas tree by defeating the Utah Jazz 124-113 on Monday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

The NBA-leading Cavs do not play again until Dec. 27 when they face the Denver Nuggets in the first of four consecutive road games against Western Conference opponents. Against the Jazz, who traded perennial All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell to the Cavs in September 2022, Cleveland improved to 6-0 against the West this season.

Here’s how the Cavs (26-4) versus the Jazz (7-21) unfolded through our updates.

The Cavs won with point guard Darius Garland scoring 23 points and Mitchell and forward Evan Mobley recording 22 points each. Merrill had 20 points. Garland also had eight assists, Mitchell had seven assists and Mobley had 10 rebounds.

Guard Jordan Clarkson scored 27 points off Utah’s bench. Forward Lauri Markkanen had 26 points for the Jazz.

Cavs backup forward Georges Niang delivered daggers in the final minute of a close game against the Jazz, one of his former teams.

With 52.7 seconds left, Niang cut and made a wide-open layup off an assist from point guard Darius Garland. Niang’s clutch field goal late in the shot clock gave the Cavs a 120-113 lead.

Then, on the ensuing possession, Niang recorded a steal and assisted on guard Caris LeVert’s fast-break dunk, which lifted the Cavs to a 122-113 advantage.

LeVert finished with 11 points off the bench. Niang added eight points and seven rebounds.

The Jazz called timeout with 3:11 left to play after Cavs point guard Darius Garland used a smart fake on center Walker Kessler and made a short turnaround jumper to give Cleveland a 113-108 lead.

Garland has 23 points at this late stage of the game.

The Cavs were clinging to a 109-104 lead when they called timeout with 5:44 left in the fourth quarter.

The Jazz have been determined not to fold, outscoring the Cavs 16-10 to this point in the fourth quarter. Clarkson, formerly of the Cavs, has seven points in the fourth quarter and 25 in the game so far.

The Cavs led the Jazz 99-88 at the end of the third quarter. Garland paced the Cavs with 21 points, followed by Merrill with 17 points. Mitchell and forward Evan Mobley each had 16 points.

Markkanen had a game-high 22 points entering the fourth quarter.

Kessler grabbed two offensive rebounds on the same possession and drew a foul from Niang. The sequence boosted Kessler to 14 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end. The Jazz then cut the Cavs’ lead to 94-87 when guard Collin Sexton made a layup with 1:52 left in the third quarter.

At this point, the Jazz held a 25-10 second-chance advantage.

The Jazz called timeout with 6:51 left in the third quarter after trailing 79-69. Then Garland made two free throws on the heels of the timeout to give the Cavs an 81-69 cushion.

Merrill began the second half on fire, hitting his first three 3-pointers to give Cleveland a boost coming out of the break.

Mobley added five points in the first half of the third quarter, hitting a 3-pointer of his own.

Garland drained a 3-pointer with another left in the first half, giving the Cavs a 60-56 halftime lead.

Garland had a game-high 17 points in the first half. Mobley added 11 points and six rebounds for the Cavs. Mitchell had eight points through two quarters.

Markkanen led the Jazz with 13 points in the first half.

The Cavs made 21 of 47 shots (44.7%) from the field (9 of 24 on 3-pointers) in the first half. The Jazz shot 20-of-54 (37%) from the floor (10-of-28 on 3s). The Jazz outscored the Cavs 33-21, including 14-7 on the offensive end of the court, through two quarters.

Before the game, Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said he wanted his team to improve its offensive rebounding, so he can’t be thrilled with how Cleveland performed on the boards in the first half.

Two of the former Cavs players Cleveland sent to the Jazz in exchange for Mitchell made back-to-back 3-pointers to give Utah a 52-49 lead with 2:42 left in the second quarter.

Markkanen made a 3-pointer with 3:07 left in the first half and Sexton followed suit with 2:42 left. The Cavs called timeout while facing a three-point deficit.

Cavs rookie guard Jaylon Tyson’s field goal with 10:36 left in the second quarter tied the score at 33-33. The Jazz responded by calling timeout a second later.

Coming out of the timeout, Tyson made another layup to give the Cavs a 35-33 lead.

Mitchell made a 3-pointer as time expired to lift the Cavs to a 29–27 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Cavs had trailed 27-23 when Sexton hit a jumper with 1:01 left in the opening quarter. But Mitchell answered with two 3-pointers, the first with 51 seconds left and the second as time expired.

Those two shots from long range accounted for Mitchell’s first points of the game. Garland and Mobley paced the Cavs with eight points each in the first quarter.

The Jazz led 18-6 when Markkanen made a 3-pointer with 3:57 left in the opening quarter and 20-19 when center Walker Kessler dunked on an alley-oop from guard Isaiah Collier.

Each time, the Cavs fired right back, with Garland assisting on a 3-pointer by LeVert and later making a driving layup. Garland’s field goal on the second of those two plays gave the Cavs a 21-20 edge with 2:24 left in the first quarter.

When the Cavs called the game’s first timeout with 6:40 left in the opening quarter, they held a 12-6 lead.

Mobley had six points and four rebounds in less than six minutes to lead the Cavs out of the gate. Garland added six points in the same span.

Here is some pre-game information:

A rim on one of the hoops had to be fixed shortly before game time, so the start was delayed. During an attempt to make amends, Cavs center Jarrett Allen entertained the crowd by doing a backward, overhead, half-court lift. Trying to fix the rim problem apparently didn’t work because arena crew members eventually decided to replace the entire hoop.

After the new hoop was set, five minutes were put on the clock to allow both teams to warm up again. Tip off was originally scheduled for 19.10, but it only happened at 19.45, which means that the delay lasted for 35 minutes.

After the game, Atkinson pointed to a dunk by center Tristan Thompson as the culprit for creating a basket problem.

Cavs injury news: What is the injury report for Cavaliers vs. Jazz?

The Cavs initially listed forwards Dean Wade (right knee soreness) and Merrill (left quadriceps contusion) as questionable to play. About an hour before game time, the Cavs ruled Wade out and announced that Merrill would be available to face his hometown Jazz.

Cavs small forward Isaac Okoro (sprained AC joint in right shoulder) was ruled out.

Merrill started along with the core four: Mitchell, Allen, Garland and Mobley.

The Jazz have ruled out forwards Taylor Hendricks (broken right fibula) and John Collins (left hip contusion) along with guard Keyonte George (sprained left ankle). Sexton played despite dealing with a left fourth finger Distal Interphalangeal (DIP) joint avulsion fracture.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Utah Jazz: What is the history between the Cavs and Jazz?

The Cavs are 52-62 in their all-time series against the Jazz. The Cavs have won the last two meetings and are 3-1 against the Jazz since the Mitchell trade.

How can I watch on TV, listen to the radio or stream the Cavs, Jazz game?

Monday’s match can be watched locally on FanDuel Sports Network. It can be heard on the radio via WMMS (100.7-FM) and WTAM (1100-AM).

Nate Ulrich can be reached at [email protected]. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.