Key #3 – Win the turnover battle
Considering how bad the Cavs are this season, it takes a considerable amount of work to find any categories where they thrive. But one where they’ve been respectable is in taking care of the basketball. Cleveland is currently fifth in the league in turnovers at a mark of just 13.6 per contest. The Jazz, on the other hand, have been abysmal at taking care of the ball. They’re an inexcusable 27th in the NBA at 15.6 giveaways per game. Ouch.
Struggling teams like Cleveland thrive on any rare opportunity they can find to beat a superior opponent, so if the Jazz fall into their typical turnover woes, it could give the Cavs the minuscule chance they need to arise victorious. That’s simply something that can’t be allowed to happen.
Fortunately, while the Cavs take care of the ball relatively well themselves, their other stats in relation to turnovers aren’t all that impressive. Their putrid defense only forces 12.4 per game, the worst mark in the league, and despite taking pretty good care of the ball, they still give up the 13th most points off turnovers in the league. In other words, when they commit a rare turnover, their foe is often taking advantage.
The Jazz will need to do just that as well. Though they’re awful at taking care of the ball on their end, they have been decent at exposing opponents’ turnovers with 17.2 points off turnovers per game while forcing an average of 15.1 giveaways per contest.
If Utah can eliminate Cleveland’s one major strength of taking care of the basketball as well as their own weakness in that same area, they should be able to run away with an easy win.