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SALT LAKE CITY -- The top pick is coming to the top of the mountains.
Kyrie Irving, the number one overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft, is coming to town, and he’s bringing the rest of his surprisingly good Cleveland Cavaliers teammates with him.
Irving, a first year player out of Duke, leads all rookies (Jimmer included) in scoring at 15 ppg and is second only to Minnesota’s Ricky Rubio in assists at 5.1 per game.
The explosive point guard is at the forefront of a resurgent Cavaliers team that is climbing up the NBA’s power rankings. ESPN has the Cavs ranked No. 22 in the power rankings, while NBA.com has Cleveland ranked at 20th.
The Cavs (4-4) are looking to get back in the win column after suffering a 98-78 blowout loss to Wesley Matthews and the Trailblazers on Sunday night in Portland. Irving scored 21 in the loss, but the Cavs turned the ball over 24 times and only shot 36.7 percent from the field.
“I thought mentally, especially on the offensive end, we weren’t as focused as we needed to be,” said head coach Byron Scott to Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Tom Reed following the game. “I have never seen us that flip with the ball. We were throwing it everywhere like it was a hot potato. That was my message tonight. We didn’t give ourselves a chance to win the basketball game.”
The Jazz (5-3), winners of four straight, are coming off a dramatic 88-87 road victory over the Golden State Warriors in Oakland on Saturday night. For the Jazz, it was their first road win of the season after being beaten in their three previous road contests. Second-year forward Gordon Hayward hit the go-ahead free throw with 11 seconds left, then the Jazz needed a defensive stop to secure the victory. The Jazz got what they needed as the Warriors' Monta Ellis missed at the buzzer.
"That was the slowest moment of my life to see Monta shoot that ball. When it came off … and I seen it was no foul, (and) we won, it's good. It's a great feeling to get a win on the road,” said Al Jefferson.
To secure a victory over the Cavs, the Jazz may need to take advantage of stellar team defense against a Cleveland team that frequently turns the ball over. The Cavs, as a team, turn the ball over on average 16.1 times per game, one of the worst marks in the league. The Jazz are in the top six in creating turnovers at 8.9 steals per game and 7.5 blocks per game.
With the Jazz still struggling to put points on the board, defense will be critical to the team’s success in tonight’s game against the Cavs and their explosive young rookie.
"We have to be able to stop people in order to win," Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said.
The game takes place at 7 p.m. and can be seen on Root Sports.
Jarrod Hiatt is a freelance writer who writes Jazz previews for KSL.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @jarrodhiatt.
