Dribbles: Cavs snap skid with needed resounding rout of Jazz

Random dribbles following the Cavaliers’ 120-91 blowout road win over the Utah Jazz on Sunday. …

1. It wasn’t much of a first half, but man, the Cavaliers sure made up for it in the third quarter. They looked like the Cavs again.

2. The ball zipped. Strong defense led to fast-breaking easy baskets. Smiles returned. The Cavs (57-14) were having fun.

3. This was the team we saw during the recent 16-game win streak. Or the 12-game win streak before that. Or the 15-game win streak to start the season.

4. Then came a four-game skid. Then came the Cavs not being able to make a shot in the first half against the woeful Jazz. Seriously. If you only watched the final 24 minutes, you may not have known the Cavs started 3-of-25 on 3-pointers, or 10-of-19 on free throws.

5. The third quarter was a different story. It was as if coach Kenny Atkinson broke out the Space Jam “secret stuff” at halftime (full video at the end). Turns out that Bugs Bunny was nowhere to be found — but the Cavaliers we’ve seen most of the season sure were.

6. As my Full Court Cleveland partner and former Cavs guard Daniel “Booby” Gibson said on the postgame show: “It’s a long season. You will go through adversity and you can learn from it. But this team doesn’t get rattled by it. … We got our swagger back.”

7. Not surprisingly, Donovan Mitchell played with great energy and joy in his old stomping grounds. He finished with 16 points, four assists, and a couple of steals in just 21 minutes. Mitchell has been struggling in March. But this was something closer to what we’re used to seeing from him.

8. He also really got things rolling in that third quarter, which turned a tight game into a final 20 minutes of garbage time.

9. Atkinson to reporters on the second half: “We locked in defensively and started making some shots.” Yes, it really was that simple.

10. Jarrett Allen also had a high-energy game, finishing with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Allen and Darius Garland played 26 minutes to lead the team. That counts for a lot — as the Cavs were able to rest their regulars. That’s one goal before embarking on the playoffs next month.

11. De’Andre Hunter tacked on 15 points, and Garland and Ty Jerome recorded 12 apiece. And hey, Garland actually out-rebounded Allen (seven to six). Evan Mobley finished with 11 points and 11 boards, also in limited minutes. That marked Mobley’s 100th career double-double.

12. Rookie Kyle Filipowski led the Jazz (16-56) with 18 points, as Utah continues its goal of winning the top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Old friend Collin Sexton scored 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting. The Cavs did a nice job on him.

13. Atkinson admitted the Cavaliers needed a win like this after the recent struggles. Now, some of the main players are about to get some rest days, it seems. But not too too much. “We’re definitely not in cruise control or taking the pedal off the gas,” Atkinson said. “I don’t know that we can afford to do that.”

14. Jerome on the 15-0 streak to start the second half: “We were doing all the right things in the first half too. … Even when we were missing shots, we were doing the right things.”

15. That’s part of the message this year. Just stick with it even when the shots aren’t falling. The Cavs did that on Sunday.

16. Cleveland wraps up this extra-long trip on Tuesday at Portland. That should be a fun one. The Cavs needed a massive comeback and overtime to beat the Trail Blazers at home a couple weeks back. 

• Box Score | Cavs 120, Jazz 91
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