Undersized Utah Jazz get bullied by Cleveland Cavaliers

The Utah Jazz have now lost four consecutive contests, having been demolished by a final tally of 111-91 by the Cleveland Cavaliers. With that said, this game was absolutely ripe with excuses: or more specifically, one big excuse.

Yesterday, we wrote that the Jazz would need Hassan Whiteside to deliver a monster performance in Rudy Gobert’s absence. He went into the league’s health and safety protocols shortly after. That left the Jazz without anyone resembling a center, as Udoka Azubuike and small-ball option Rudy Gay were also both unavailable.

That left 6’5 Royce O’Neale with the responsibility of playing the 5. Against a Cavaliers team that fields 3 players approaching 7 feet tall, it was too tall of an order.

Utah Jazz overwhelmed by Cavaliers size

We’ll start with the rebounding discrepancy. The Cavaliers won the battle of the boards by a staggering margin of 50-32. The Jazz worked hard, but unfortunately, no amount of work can compensate for the kind of size disadvantage they faced last night.

That wasn’t the only way in which the Cavaliers size overwhelmed the Jazzmen. Without Gobert and Whiteside’s constant threat to finish in pick-and-roll sets, the entire offense suffered. Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley struggled to penetrate an oversized Cavaliers defense in the absence of reliable pick-and-rolls.

The Jazz chose the only option they had: shoot 3s, and shoot them a lot. Their 16/47 (34.0%) clip from downtown was passable, but it wasn’t enough to compensate for their complete lack of inside presence.

It’s never ideal to come away from a game with an excuse. Still, defeating the league’s largest frontcourt with a 6’5 center would seem a nearly impossible task, even for these Utah Jazz.

It’s just unfortunate that they lost their composure in the process.

Utah Jazz frustration boils over

This isn’t the first time we’ve addressed this issue. It isn’t the first time the Utah Jazz have forced us to. They finished with four technicals fouls last night. They were visibly frustrated, and they can’t allow that to be the case with this frequency.

Joe Ingles was ejected midway through the second quarter after receiving his second technical. As valuable as Jingles is to the Utah Jazz on the court, he’s of no value when he’s forced off of it. He’s making an unfortunate habit of letting that happen throughout 2021-22.

Otherwise, Bojan Bogdanovic and Jordan Clarkson each got T’d up. Neither of them have made a habit of forcing whistles this year, so we’ll be less critical. Nonetheless, the Jazzmen need to generally contain their frustration. It serves them no benefit to jaw at officials.

Not that there wasn’t reason for frustration in this contest.

Cavaliers enjoy field day vs Utah Jazz

Third-year point guard Darius Garland had his first career triple double in this contest, finishing with 11 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds. It was largely due to his masterful distribution that six Cavaliers finished this game with double digit scoring efforts.

One of those Cavs was obscure role player Lamar Stevens. He had a career high 23 points on 10/15 shooting from the field. Of every player on this Cavs roster, it’s doubtful that Quin Snyder game planned particularly carefully for Stevens.

It was just one of those games for the Utah Jazz. Fans of the squad shouldn’t be discouraged. The presence of Rudy Gobert, or even Hassan Whiteside, could have made this a different contest. Hopefully they’ll have a center available next time they square off with the Cavaliers.