CLEVELAND — There are certain games an NBA team should never lose, but in previous years the Cavaliers managed to lose their share of them anyway.
Cleveland is still working on learning how to blow someone totally out of Quicken Loans Arena, but it showed in beating the road-weary and injury-riddled Utah Jazz 105-93 Saturday night that it is starting to understand the importance of not letting a game slip away.
“Teams of the past, we might have taken this game lightly,” said LeBron James, who led the Cavaliers with 38 points, five rebounds and seven assists. “Now that we’re growing up, we know that every game matters. These guys are in the NBA for a reason. No matter how many guys are out or in, you’ve got to approach it the same way.”
That mentality is why the Cavaliers are 8-2 overall and owners of a seven-game winning streak, their longest since winning eight in a row in March of 2007.
There were tons of reasons for Utah (6-4) not to even show up — and for the Cavaliers to look past the Jazz — but that’s just not the nature of a Jerry Sloan-coached team.
Center Mehmet Okur was in Turkey attending to personal matters, point guard Deron Williams was out with a sprained ankle and top reserve Andrei Kirilenko was sidelined with a sprained finger, meaning the Jazz was minus three of its top four players.
That left former Cavalier Carlos Boozer in a starting lineup that featured raw Ohio State rookie Kosta Koufos, Skyline (Texas) High School’s C.J. Miles, Utah Valley State’s Ronnie Price and Arkansas’ Ronnie Brewer.
Utah had also played Friday, was playing for the fourth time in five nights and was concluding a five-game road trip.
When Cleveland jumped out to an 11-point lead late in the first period, its players momentarily assumed the Jazz was done for the night, which allowed Utah to regroup and hold a 10-point lead with 8:29 to play in the third period.
“We faced some adversity as a group,” Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said. “Utah put a nice little run together, but our guys did a nice job of fighting through the adversity.”
The Cavaliers finally went back up 76-74 on a pair of James free throws with 30.1 seconds to go in the third period — Delonte West had 11 of his 12 points in the first 3:35 of that quarter — and never trailed again.
Utah was still within two when Kyle Korver hit a 3-pointer with 8:32 to go in the fourth period, but the Cavaliers put together a 9-0 run to effectively end the game.
As he so often does, James played a pivotal role in the fourth quarter, scoring 16 points and making a number of key defensive plays.
“I’ve got to be the best player at both ends of the floor,” he said. “I can’t afford to get lax on defense because I’m the leader.”
Mo Williams finished with 20 points for Cleveland, with Zydrunas Ilgauskas adding 16 points and seven rebounds. Ben Wallace, who played with a bruised knee, had just one point but pulled down 10 boards and did a nice defensive job on Boozer (17 points, nine rebounds).
The Cavaliers were up 25-14 late in the first period and seemed headed for an easy win, but they’re still a work in progress when it comes to going for the jugular.
Utah scored seven points in the final 29 seconds of the quarter — Price banked in a 3-pointer from midcourt to end it — and then added 11 more in the first 2:54 of the second period to complete an 18-0 run.
“Their confidence soared,” Brown said. “That’s what happens with a young team.”
The Cavaliers, who missed 12 of their first 13 shots in the second quarter, were outscored 21-2 in the 5:32 James sat on the bench in the first half, resulting in a 53-46 deficit at intermission.
James had 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the first half, while his teammates were 10-of-31.
“We were certainly intimidated by him when he was out there on the floor,” Sloan said of James. “He just had free rein. When he was out, everybody started playing and we got a lot tougher.
“He’s a terrific player with everything going for him, but that doesn’t make a difference. You have to compete against a guy.”
Cleveland came back to outscore Utah 59-40 in the second half, when it shot .513 from the field (20-of-39) and held the Jazz to .382 (13-of-34).
“One of our mantras is to come as close to (giving 100 percent for) 48 minutes as possible,” Brown said. “We haven’t quite done that yet. Hopefully, we will soon.”

Tip-ins

James is convinced CC Sabathia will end up in pinstripes.
The Akron native and New York Yankees fan wants his favorite baseball team to land Sabathia, the top starting pitcher in this year’s free-agent class.
The Yankees have formulated a proposal to Sabathia that would exceed Johan Santana’s $137.5 million, six-year contract with the New York Mets both in total and average.
Asked if he thought the Yankees would win the Sabathia sweepstakes, James smiled and said, “We’re gonna get him. Absolutely.”
James’ attachment to the Yankees has been a controversial subject in Cleveland, a city where baseball’s most storied franchise is very unpopular. James was criticized for attending an Indians-Yankees playoff game in Cleveland wearing a Yankees cap during the 2007 postseason.
•  Saturday was Sasha Pavlovic’s 25th birthday. He celebrated with zero points in four minutes.
•  The Cavaliers had 30 assists Thursday against Denver, making them 26-0 when they’ve reached that total dating back to March 16, 2003.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Rick Noland (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

NEXT UP

WHO: Cleveland at New Jersey
WHEN: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Izod Center, East Rutherford, N.J.
TV/RADIO: FSN Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM
 

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