Evan Mobley (34 points, 17 boards) powers Cavaliers past Jazz
Evan Mobley scored a season-high 34 points, collected a season-high 17 rebounds and blocked three shots to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 122-113 victory over the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City on Monday night.
Donovan Mitchell added 34 points to help Cleveland (47-28) win its fifth consecutive road game. James Harden dished out a game-high 14 assists to go along with 13 points. The Cavaliers outscored the Jazz 82-40 in the paint.
Kyle Filipowski tallied 20 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three steals to lead Utah. Cody Williams added a team-high 26 points for the Jazz (21-55), who have lost six straight games and 10 of their past 11 contests. Ace Bailey chipped in 19 points and Brice Sensabaugh had 18.
Utah made six of seven 3-pointers in the third quarter to cut a 15-point deficit to a basket. John Konchar capped the flurry with an outside basket that brought the Jazz within 87-84. Mitchell made back-to-back 3s to preserve Cleveland's lead going into the fourth quarter
Utah finally took a 105-103 lead midway through the fourth quarter on Bailey's driving layup.
Cleveland went ahead for good when Mobley converted back-to-back three-point plays to cap a 14-1 run and put the Cavaliers up 117-106 with 3:14 left.
The Cavaliers dominated in the paint from the start with 20 of their first 24 points coming around the basket. Cleveland led the Jazz 46-18 in points in the paint at halftime.
Cleveland's interior dominance finally wore Utah down early in the second quarter. Starting with a running dunk from Mobley, the Cavaliers went on a 13-0 run. Mitchell drove for a layup to finish off the run and put Cleveland up 44-30.
The Jazz trimmed the deficit to 48-44 when Filipowski punctuated a 14-4 run with back-to-back baskets. Utah could not overtake the Cavaliers though.
Mitchell banked in a jumper to beat the halftime buzzer to cap a 12-5 run and put Cleveland up 63-53 going into halftime. Mobley threw down a pair of dunks and Sam Merrill added a couple of layups to fuel the run.
Mobley had three dunks in the second quarter alone after entering Monday's contest averaging a league leading 3.0 dunks per game.
--Field Level Media