Cavaliers' James leads balanced attack in big win

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

After Kevin Love dunked, the Cavaliers exchanged smiles, approving nods and a flurry of fist bumps and high-fives as Quicken Loans Arena rocked.

This was the moment Cleveland desired for weeks — the Cavs at their creative, dominating best.

LeBron James scored 26 points, Love added 19 and the rejuvenated Cavs won their fourth straight, 106-92 over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.

Shaking off a flu bug that forced him to miss practice Tuesday and that also slowed Kyrie Irving, James added nine assists, seven rebounds and exacted some revenge on Utah’s Gordon Hayward.

The Cavs improved to 4-1 since the four-time MVP returned after missing eight games with a strained back and knee. Cleveland went just 1-7 without the superstar and now that he’s back, James wasn’t going to let a sore throat, stuffy nose or body aches keep him off the floor.

“It’s clicking,” James said. “We have a good groove right now.”

Irving added 18 points and Timofey Mozgov 16 for Cleveland, beginning to find its stride following a stretch of injuries and two major trades. J.R. Smith had 15 points, and all five Cavs starters scored at least that many for the second straight game. Until that happened on Monday, the Cavs hadn’t had that balance and production in the same game since March 16, 1993.

The Cavs avenged a 102-100 loss to the Jazz on Nov. 5, when Hayward dropped a buzzer-beating jumper after escaping James. There would be no such heroics this time for Hayward, who received an icy stare from James in the third quarter after a vicious dunk the Utah forward could do nothing to stop.

James said his glare at Hayward wasn’t intentional.

“It didn’t matter who it was, it could have been you,” he said playfully to a reporter. “You would have got that same look.”

Later in the period, the Cavs had perhaps their most memorable sequence this season. Hustling back on defense, Smith used both hands to blindly back tap a loose ball to Tristan Thompson, who handed it off to Irving on the fly. Cleveland’s point guard nearly fell before gaining his balance and feeding Love with an alley-oop pass for a dunk to give the Cavs a 74-48 lead.