"Cleveland celebrates the return of . . . Boozer, who is greeted with a predictable cascade of boos for his backstabbing routine in the offseason. . . . As for the game itself, it passes without incident until late in the fourth quarter, when LeBron James offers Robert Traylor 'some of that Nike scratch' to take a flagrant-2 on Boozer, and the Tractor obliges by flattening the ex-Cav — stopping only long enough to contemplate the irony of a guy named 'Boozer' playing in Utah."

The other Jazz mention is — get this — their March 19 visit to Washington: "Considering these might be two of the league's six division winners (and no, I haven't been sharing the peace pipe with Ricky Williams, but thanks for asking), you'd think they could find more (TV) time for them. I mean, c'mon Mr. Stern — you can find time to get Golden State and the Clippers on TNT, but you can't squeeze these teams in?"

WORLD VIEW: The Jazz open the season with seven international players on their 15-man roster: Arroyo (Puerto Rico), Lopez (Spain), Giricek (Croatia), Okur (Turkey), Kirilenko (Russia), Raja Bell (Virgin Islands) and injured-list center Aleksandar Radojevic (Serbia-Montenegro). That ties San Antonio for tops in the league.

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E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com