Jazz at Cavaliers
The Utah Jazz are kicking off 2019 with a four-game road trip and did not get off to the best start with a 122-116 loss at Toronto on New Year's Day. The Jazz will try to improve to 1-1 in the new year when they visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday.
Utah finishes up the trip with a stretch of three games in four nights at Cleveland, Detroit and Milwaukee and nearly picked off the Raptors behind a career-high 30 points from forward Jae Crowder. "We were right there, but we needed to get stops," Jazz coach Quin Snyder told reporters. "We had a couple guys with good shooting nights - obviously Jae had a big night for us - but we've gotta play defense over the course of the whole game to win." The Cavaliers are sliding with losses in seven straight and were crushed 117-92 by the Miami Heat on Wednesday to open a four-game homestand. Cleveland, which represented the Eastern Conference in the last four NBA Finals while being led by LeBron James, owns the worst record in the NBA while being outscored by an average of 9.4 points.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, AT&T Rocky Mountain (Utah), FS Ohio (Cleveland)
ABOUT THE JAZZ (18-20): Crowder averaged 11.1 points on 43.9 percent shooting in December but opened January by knocking down 9-of-15 en route to the career high. Crowder, who also went 5-of-7 from beyond the arc, is known for his work on the defensive end and was unhappy about the way he and his teammates performed in the loss. "Effort wasn't there, and it was bad," Crowder told reporters. "Especially in the third quarter - those guys got some momentum, banged home three 3s on us, got some confidence. From there it was an uphill battle."
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (8-30): Coach Larry Drew lamented his team's lack of physicality after Wednesday's loss, in which Cleveland was outrebounded 57-32 despite center Tristan Thompson returning from a 10-game absence. "We have to be grimy," Drew told reporters. "As far as our style of play, we can't play cute, we can't play pretty. We have to do all the little things that add up to be big things. Then hopefully offensively we are making some shots. But there has to be a total commitment on the defensive end and total commitment as far as really getting out there scrapping. That is the only way we win. It's got to be a real bulldog mentality." Thompson (foot) grabbed two rebounds in 23 minutes in the setback.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Jazz SF Joe Ingles is 1-of-11 from 3-point range over the last three games.
2. Cavaliers SG Rodney Hood (Achilles) returned from a four-game absence on Wednesday and scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
3. The home team took each of the last eight meetings.