Cavaliers at Jazz
THE STORY: The Utah Jazz have won four straight and are unbeaten at home entering Tuesday’s home game against Cleveland. The Cavaliers have dropped two of three on their seven-game road trip and are coming off a miserable showing Sunday at Portland. The Jazz suffered double-digit losses to the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs during the first week of the season, but have since reeled off wins against the New Orleans Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors. “We found out really early that we hadn’t paid enough attention to detail and we weren’t playing hard enough and we weren’t sharing the ball like we should,” guard Raja Bell said. “It took getting blown out a couple times for us to figure that out.” The Cavs committed 24 turnovers against the Blazers, their third 20-plus turnover game already this season, and struggled offensively – an ongoing problem for a team with little firepower beyond veteran forward Antawn Jamison and rookie point guard Kyrie Irving.
TV: 9 p.m. ET, Fox Sports Ohio, ROOT Sports
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (4-4): Coach Byron Scott said small forward Omri Casspi’s starting job is safe despite his miserable 38 percent shooting performance (30 percent on 3pointers) to start the season. Backup center Samardo Samuels, though, could be replaced by 7-footer Semih Erden, who is finally healthy after three surgeries since the end of last season. Erden made his season debut Sunday and could play 10 minutes tonight against the Jazz. Those minutes will steadily increase in the games ahead.
ABOUT THE JAZZ (5-3): Bell was complaining last week about his lack of involvement within the offense. Since then, he has produced his best two games of the season. Bell has made a 3-pointer in three consecutive games and had a season-high nine points in Saturday’s win against Golden State. He has six assists in his last two games after recording just four through the first six games.
BUZZER BEATERS:
1. The Cavs are averaging 16.1 turnovers, the fifth-most in the league this season.
2. Jazz rookie Enes Kanter and Erden are both from Turkey and were teammates a few years ago in the Euroleague.
3. The Jazz are second in the league in blocked shots, averaging 7.5 per game.