Motivated Cleveland Cavaliers beat Utah Jazz 106-92

Cleveland • In large part, you have to be mindful of the competition when it comes to this road trip for the Utah Jazz.

The San Antonio Spurs are the defending world champions, have all of their players back from injury and need wins, which means they are no longer cruising through the regular season.

That brings us to Wednesday night's 106-92 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. LeBron James is back to looking like LeBron James. Cleveland is rejuvenated after a pair of trades, and the Cavaliers are — like the Spurs — fighting for playoff positioning. They are playing harder than they were in November, when Utah defeated them in Salt Lake City.

So this was never going to be easy for the Jazz. There was always a chance that things could turn out a little ugly, and that is what's transpiring now.

"We just played the Spurs and tonight we played one of the hottest teams in the league," Utah coach Quin Snyder said. "We can be better, but we have to use these games that help us get better. We have to play very good basketball to beat these teams on the road."

Even with the caveats, even with the explanations, it's tough to think the Jazz have not taken at least a small step backwards in the past four days. This was the second consecutive night the game was basically over after three quarters. This was the second consecutive night in which Snyder has played the end of his bench significant time in the last five minutes.

That speaks to a team that has not been competitive over the past two games, and even against great competition, that's a concern.

"We know that we have to stay confident in ourselves," Jazz forward Gordon Hayward said. "We have to find easier looks offensively, and we have to play better defensively as well."

On Wednesday night at Quicken Loans Arena, James had his way, scoring 26 points, handing out nine assists and grabbing seven rebounds. He ran Cleveland's offense with aplomb, consistently finding open men, or getting to the basket for scores or trips to the free-throw line.

The Cavaliers shot 51 percent from the field and generated 25 foul shots. As a result, they took the game over by the end of the first quarter. There were four lead changes, but the Jazz' biggest advantage was only a bucket. Utah trailed by as many as 28 points as the deficit ballooned after halftime. By the fourth quarter, the outcome was never in doubt.

"We have to get back to doing what we're doing," Jazz forward Derrick Favors said. "We have to get back to sharing the ball and playing good defense."

So what went wrong for Utah? There's plenty to talk about. Point guard Trey Burke shot 1-10 and scored two points in 19 minutes. Favors and Hayward combined for 26 points, when the team needs them to combine for over 40 points on a given night to be successful.

The Jazz' second unit didn't score for the first five minutes of the second period, and Rudy Gobert looked mortal, scoring six points and grabbing seven rebounds in 20 minutes. With one blocked shot, it's the first time this month he has not swatted at least three in a game.

Mainly, the Jazz didn't play with energy, and didn't defend nearly as well as they did against the Spurs on Sunday. At least defense kept Utah within contact for the first half of that contest.

"We aren't a great offensive team," Snyder said. "But tonight we didn't play with enough toughness and focus on the defensive end. We have to generate offense from defense and we have to make a couple of shots."

It is good news that Enes Kanter played very well Wednesday, scoring a team-high 24 points and grabbing a game-high 17 rebounds. From the beginning he was aggressive offensively, scoring on jumpers, or strong drives towards the basket. He went 9-20 from the field and looked like the player he was in spurts before his sprained ankle.

But that wasn't nearly enough for the Jazz on Wednesday night. Utah falls to 14-28 with the defeat, and will face Milwaukee on Thursday evening.

tjones@sltrib.com

twitter: @tjonessltrib