Jazz meltdown: Cavaliers rally from 19 back to beat Utah in Delta Center

The masked man better known as LeBron James was in the zone.

The second-half Jazz masquerading as an NBA offense?

It had no clue whatsoever against the zone.

Such was the way it went Saturday night at the Delta Center, where a second-half switch to zone defense was all it took for James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to recover from an early 19-point deficit and rally to beat the Jazz 84-71.

"I thought we played well-enough to win," said ex-Cavs power forward Carlos Boozer, who started strong on the boards in the first quarter but zoned out with the rest of the Jazz offense in the second half.

"We had a great first half, and in the second half we really couldn't score in the zone for a long stretch of time," Boozer, the Robin to James' Batman for their one season together in Cleveland, added after the Jazz scored their fewest points so far this season. "So, I think the zone is what really threw us off there."

Right on.

The 13-26 Jazz were up by as many as 19 at 42-23 after a Boozer layup with one minute and 43 seconds remaining in the opening half, but the 22-13 Cavs would score the game's final six points prior to halftime.

Utah's worst break before the break came when Drew Gooden was fouled by Matt Harpring with 38.9 seconds left. Gooden missed his second free-throw attempt, but Anderson Varejao grabbed the rebound (one of his career-high 14) and Jeff McInnis, who hit only 3-of-12 from 3-point range but scored 24, followed with a trey.

"From that point on," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said, "we seemed to just stand around and didn't get anything going.

"They did what they had to do to win the ballgame," he added, "and when they went into that zone against us we just fired the ball up there — with no purpose other than to just get it out of our hands."

The Jazz shot just 25.8 percent (8-of-31) from the field in the second half, and 36.6 percent for the game (matching their season low).

"We let down a little bit right before the end of the half," Jazz co-captain Raja Bell said, "and . . . in the third quarter they went in their zone and we didn't figure it out very well."

Thanks to its early cushion, Utah was able to hold its advantage throughout the third.

Cleveland, in fact, did not take its first lead of the second half until Eric Snow drove for a layup to make it 65-63 with five-and-a-half minutes to go.