Utah Jazz @ Cleveland Cavaliers
Monday, December 23, 2024 at 7:00 PM ET
Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, OH | Game ID: 22400392
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
CLE 29 31 39 25 124UTA 27 29 32 25 113
ESPN UpdateESPN Update
Darius Garland scores 23 and NBA-best Cavaliers beat Jazz 124-113 for 17th home win in 18 games
CLEVELAND -- — Darius Garland scored 23 points and the NBA-best Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Utah Jazz 124-113 on Monday night for their 17th victory in 18 home games.
Evan Mobley had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Donovan Mitchell also scored 22 points, Sam Merrill scored a season-high 20 and Garland had eight assists for Cleveland. The Cavaliers (26-4) have won five straight by an average margin of 20 points.
Jordan Clarkson scored 27 points off the bench for the Jazz, while Lauri Markkanen had 26 and Collin Sexton had 24. Utah traded Mitchell to Cleveland in exchange for Markkanen, Sexton and multiple draft picks on Sept. 1, 2022.
The start of the game was delayed 35 minutes because of a broken rim that forced the replacement of one of the hoops and a stanchion.
Takeaways Jazz: Center Walker Kessler dominated the glass with 16 rebounds, eight of them offensive, but went 1 of 6 on free throws in the final four minutes as Cleveland intentionally sent him to the line. Kessler is shooting 53.6% from the stripe.
Cavaliers: Merrill made his second start of the season at small forward, draining six 3-pointers in 11 attempts. The Utah State product scored 14 points in the first eight minutes of the third, giving Cleveland its initial double-digit lead.
Key moment Georges Niang scored on a backdoor layup with 52 seconds left, then stripped the ball from Clarkson and fed Caris LeVert for a dunk on the other end to push Cleveland’s lead to 122-113.
Key stat Sexton, who spent his first four seasons with Cleveland, has the fifth-highest scoring average in Cavaliers history at 20.0 points, behind LeBron James (27.2), Mitchell (26.7), World B. Free (23.0) and Kyrie Irving (21.6).
Up next The Jazz wrap up their five-game trip Thursday at Portland. The Cavaliers play at Denver on Friday.
Who is who
the initials in the Players column
CLECL C. LeVert
DG D. Garland
DM D. Mitchell
EM E. Mobley
GN G. Niang
JA J. Allen
JT J. Tyson
MS M. Strus
SM S. Merrill
TJ T. Jerome
UTABS B. Sensabaugh
CS C. Sexton
IC I. Collier
JC J. Clarkson
JJ J. Juzang
KF K. Filipowski
LM L. Markkanen
MP M. Potter
SM S. Mykhailiuk
WK W. Kessler
CLE/UTA the team itself, not a player
-- the feed named nobody
What
What happened
the codes in the Events column
M2 / M3 made 2 / made 3
X2 / X3 missed 2 / missed 3
FT / X1 free throw made / missed
AST assist
OR / DR offensive / defensive rebound
STL steal
BLK block
TO turnover
FL foul
OF offensive foul — ends the possession
VIOL violation
JUMP jump ball
TM timeout
IR instant replay
HE heave at the buzzer, filed to the team
Where
Where a shot came from
the middle field of M3.LW.25
RM at the rim inside 4 ft
RC right corner
RW right wing
SO straight on
LW left wing
LC left corner
M3.LW.25 made 3, left wing, 25 ft
X2.RM.01 missed 2, at the rim, 1 ft
When
When it happened
the Offset column
one number per event, in the Events order:
whole seconds from the start of the
possession to that event
Events FL X3.RC.23 OR M2.RM.01
Offset 0 18 22 24
the foul opens the possession at 0s;
the putback ends it at 24s, which is
the possession's own Dur