Cavs Look Great And Fun At the Same Time, Dominating Jazz in Win

Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images

For the first time all season, the Cleveland Cavaliers looked like a team to be feared. The offense was firing on all cylinders, the defense was on lock down and they handily defeated a team they should handily beat, blowing the Utah Jazz away with a 106-92 win at home.

More important than being a team to be feared, the Cavaliers were a team that was fun to watch. LeBron James nearly had a triple-double, Kevin Love threw two beautiful outlet passes to LeBron and Kyrie Irving razzled and dazzled the Jazz defenders all night long. J.R. Smith provided some heat check moments and Timofey Mozgov looked like the second coming of Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Of all good that had happened for the Cavaliers, it was one play that stood out above them all.

With 4:11 left in the third quarter, Gordon Hayward grabbed a rebound off of a J.R. Smith three-point attempt, leading a three-on-one fast break toward their basket. The one on that fast break was point guard Kyrie Irving, basically giving the Jazz a 99.9 percent chance of scoring on the advantage. For Irving, he did not care about the percentages or the fact that it was a 24-point game in favor of the Cavaliers, as he tipped Hayward's pass in the air. Smith, who was following behind the fast break, flipped the ball behind his head to Tristan Thompson at half court, who preceded to hand the ball off to a surging Irving, who then threw an alley-oop to Kevin Love, finishing the highlight reel play with a dunk. Utah then called a timeout, and everyone on the Cavaliers was ecstatic.

For the first time in my life, I was nearly in tears from a regular season sports play. I've seen walk-off home runs, game-winning touchdowns and buzzer-beating three-pointers, but none compared this play. It wasn't just the play that almost brought me to tears, but nearly everything else that happened surrounding the play. 

It the defensive effort by Irving on a play in which he could of just let them score, in a game the Cavaliers virtually had won with 16 minutes left in the game. It was the theatrics of Smith on the back tip to Thompson and the excitement of both the crowd and the bench when Love slammed the dunk home. It was also the fact that LeBron James had virtually no involvement on the play.

All of things made that play so spectacular, but they were also everything the Cavaliers have needed all season. They needed show some extra defensive effort, even when it wasn't exactly needed. They needed a fourth player to coincide with their three All-Stars, who would make plays when those three couldn't. They needed ball movement and they needed it to look smooth. And lastly, they needed to do something without their king. All of these things were accomplished in one play, and it happened to happen on a play that would ice the game for Cleveland.

With the win tonight, it gives the Cavaliers four straight wins. Don't look now, but it looks like the Cavaliers may be back, and the turning point may be a play that involved in the third quarter of January blowout win against the Utah Jazz. 

Three Things:

1. Is this team for real?

Now that Cleveland is FINALLY healthy, they have started winning some basketball games, including two against playoff contenders. It was obvious that whatever happened over that two week stretch would be wash, considering LeBron played in zero of those nine games. Of course, they also added some new pieces and needed time to gel. With Iman Shumpert set to make his Cavalier debut this Friday, just how deadly could this team be? The strides are their on defense and the team chemistry is starting to take its place. It's hard to make a judgment when they play a team like the Jazz, but they did what they were suppose to against a team of their caliber. But they also blew out a Chicago Bulls team at the time was one of the best in the Eastern Conference. With Oklahoma City coming to town on Sunday, we'll get out first taste of what to truly think of this team.

2. Mozgov might be the answer we needed.

Immediately after the Cavaliers gave away two first-round picks for Mozgov, everyone immediately stated how much of an overpay that was for a back-up center. So far in a Cavalier uniform, Mozgov has been everything and more for Cleveland. He's been the rim protector they so desperately needed (even with Anderson Varejao), and has even provided some offense from the interior. Just his presence on the court has made things easier for other Cavalier players, taking pressure off of other players defensively and allowing them to take more chances without having to worry about the consequences. I don't know about you guys, but I feel the Cavaliers got the better deal between them and Denver, and Mozgov has given us no reason to think otherwise so far.

3. Shout out to winning games.

David Blatt has uttered this phrase at least once over the past three days and you'd be idiotic to tell me otherwise. Since the Cavaliers beat the Bulls on Monday, no one has called for Blatt's job, as they did just over a week ago. No one has questioned whether he is the right coach for LeBron, as they did just over a week ago. And no one has criticized his ability to coach in the NBA, as they did over a week ago. The Cavaliers may not be perfect quite yet, but winning solves a lot of problems. Just in the past week, everyone has went from PANIC MODE to "wow this team is pretty good." Forreal though, shout out to winning streaks as well, which the Cavaliers have right now.

Statline of the Game:

LeBron James: 26 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 steals, 8-of-16 shooting.

Not much to say about this performance, other than to those who thought he was on the decline: guess what, he's not on the decline (zing).

What's Next:

Jan. 21, at home against the Charlotte Hornets,