Considering the Cleveland Cavaliers are an Eastern Conference-leading 56-14 and the Utah Jazz are merely 16-55, there’s a surprising fact about these teams heading into Sunday’s matchup in Salt Lake City.
Believe it or not, the Jazz have won more recently than the Cavaliers.
Though Utah stumbled at home against the Boston Celtics on Friday night, the young team won its previous game. On Wednesday night, the Jazz snapped a 10-game losing streak by blowing out the Washington Wizards to the tune of 128-112.
The Cavaliers, meanwhile, haven’t earned a victory in more than a week. Since defeating Memphis on March 14, Cleveland has dropped four consecutive games, including a 123-112 decision at Phoenix on Friday night.
Former Jazz star Donovan Mitchell took the blame for that setback after only connecting on 2 of 18 field goals — and going 0-for-8 beyond the arc — in a season-worst seven-point performance.
Mitchell, who’s averaging 23.8 points on 44.1 percent shooting, has only scored in single figures one other time this season. That happened in January during a 3-for-15 outing vs. Oklahoma City — also a loss.
“Put this on me,” Mitchell said. “When your leader ain’t doing (expletive), this is what happens. Yeah, we have to guard better, rebound, (expletive) like that. But if I’m not being who I need to be, then we’re not going to get to where we want to get to.”
The Cavaliers are 0-3 to begin their five-game road trip, which is strange considering they compiled a franchise-record 16-game winning streak before their current four-game skid.
Mitchell scored 22 points on 7-of-15 shooting in a 124-113 December win over Utah, but he’s been mired in a slump before and after missing a game due to left groin soreness. As CBSSports.com pointed out, the guard has averaged just 18.8 points on 29.6 percent shooting, including a 7-for-50 clip from 3-point range, over his last six games.
“It’s been like this for the past four games, and we’ve lost four straight,” Mitchell said. “I have to be better, simple as that. You can point to all these different things, yeah — KD (Kevin Durant) having 30-whatever, we gave him some — (expletive) all that, it’s on me. I have to be better for the group. I’ve been good for the group all year, and this is on me.”
Cleveland still has a sizable five-game lead for the first seed in the East over No. 2 Boston, which routed the Jazz on Friday thanks to 27 points from Kristaps Porzingis and 26 via Jayson Tatum.
That put a quick end to Utah’s brief positive momentum from the win over the Wizards, who have the worst record in the NBA.
Collin Sexton made 12 of 16 shots for 30 points to lead Utah, which rallied out of an early 17-point hole to get within two before unraveling later in the second half.
“I think the team hung in and competed for a majority of the game,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “We were able to cut the lead there in the second half, which I was proud of.”
