From Deseret News archives:
Utah Jazz: Short-handed Jazz no match for LeBron
James scored 16 of his game-high 38 points in the fourth Saturday night, lifting Cleveland to a 105-93 win at sold-out Quicken Loans Arena — and dropping shorthanded Utah to a dismal 1-4 on its first Eastern road swing of the season.
It was the seventh straight win for the 8-2 Cavaliers, who are now 6-0 at home.
And it was yet another mind-boggling performance against the 6-4 Jazz for All-Star James, who also had 51 points against them in January, 2006, a triple-double in Utah early last November and a 40-point performance that included a 34-point second half about a week later in Cleveland.
No wonder Jazz coach Jerry Sloan might have been tempted to pass out Sharpie markers to some on his club, which was playing without injured starting point guard Deron Williams (sprained ankle), sixth man Andrei Kirilenko (sprained fingertip), reserve forward Matt Harpring (surgically repaired ankle) and absent starting center Mehmet Okur (family medical matter).
"He's a terrific player. Got everything going for him," Sloan said of James, who hit 13-of-21 from the field on the night and 6-of-10 in the fourth.
"But that doesn't make any difference," Sloan added. "If you're a young guy, you've got to compete against the guy. If you say, 'I'm not going to touch him,' you'll be standing there 20 years from now. You might as well just come get an autograph, and go home."
The Jazz led 74-72 after Ronnie Brewer's reverse layup with just more than a minute to go in the third quarter, and they were down by just two at 86-84 after a Kyle Korver 3-pointer with a little over eight minutes remaining.
But that's when Cleveland got separation with a 9-0 run that included two free throws from James stemming from a foul on Morris Almond, and a charging call against Almond — who was playing in just in his third game of the season, and only because both Kirilenko and Harpring were out — on Utah's next possession.
"I put Ronnie (Brewer) in the game (for Almond), and we just kind of stood around and watched," Sloan said. "That's where you've got to compete."
Instead, after the Jazz ended the run with a layup and free throw from Brewer, James was allowed to go right back to work, first hitting a trey over Korver, then dunking hard off a feed from former Utah guard Mo Williams to give Cleveland its biggest lead of the game at 100-87.
James, in other words, was able to do virtually everything the Jazz tried to deny him.
"You try to stay in front in him, don't let him get easy baskets, don't let him get dunks," Almond said. "That gets him fired up."
