Unlike a year ago, however, he did not bring down the house.

Just 13 months after a 51-point performance had Utah fans on their feet and cheering for him, James returned to EnergySolutions Arena with a solid-but-not-scintillating performance during the Jazz's 99-98 win.

James finished with 23 points on 9-for-25 shooting. He had eight points on 3-for-10 shooting in the second half, and four points on 1-for-5 shooting in the fourth quarter, when he was guarded primarily by Gordan Giricek

“I thought Gira did a good job staying in front of him,” Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. “[James] got on top of the basket a few times, but he didn't get any threes. . . . It's a tough job. But Gira did it about as well as you can. That's why he was out there.”

Giricek ended up playing almost 28 minutes, 12 more than his average and only three shy of his season-high.

Asked about trying to slow James, Giricek said, “I just tried to corral him [because] he is better going to his right and he has that great spin move. But my teammates helped out. . . . All the big guys helped and made my job easier.”

“We have nothing to be disappointed about,” James shrugged. “We had our chances to win and didn't.”

Giricek was also involved in the final sequence of the game, when the Cavs thought they were not given an earned opportunity to win.

With Utah nursing a one-point lead, Deron Williams missed an off-balance jumper with 3.9 seconds left. Paul Millsap rebounded but threw the ball away.

The Cavs' Sasha Pavlovic picked it up and started racing to up the floor. At halfcourt, he bumped into Giricek with about one second left. No foul was called and Cleveland's hopes ended when Pavlovic did not come close on an off-balance 50-footer.

“We should have come up with the rebound but didn't,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown said. “But I feel bad because Sasha got fouled. He dribbled the basketball and Giricek tried to take a charge and slid to the side and fouled him with time on the clock. . . . Maybe that's too tough of a position to put the referees in, but he got fouled with time on the clock.”

Pavlovic said: “I am not going to complain. . . . Whatever they didn't call, we should have taken care of it before.”

Teammates Larry Hughes, who scored 33 points, agreed.

“Definitely, definitely,” he said. “That's a call you obviously want at the end of the game. . . . It's something; something happened. But putting it on the last play, anything can happen.”

Said James: “I thought it was a foul, honestly. Sasha's going full speed and a guy bumps him. I mean, no matter what time of the game it is, I think that's a foul. [But] we move on.”

Giricek disputed the Cavs' version of the play.

“There was nothing,” he said. “No foul because he did not know where he was going. He saw me, like, at the last moment. He tried to slide by me and he hit into my shoulder. But I was standing there about two seconds, in my spot.”

luhm@sltrib.com