Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Utah Jazz game preview and how to watch

The Cavs will look to bounce back from a 101-91 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies last night. Hopefully the offense will get a much needed reinforcement from Collin Sexton.

How to watch:

Tip-off is at 7:30PM on Fox Sports Ohio, Fox Sports Go, and NBA League Pass.

Projected starters:

The Cavs will still be without Kevin Love (calf), Dylan Windler (hand), Darius Garland (shoulder) Matthew Dellavedova (concussion), Dante Exum (calf), and Kevin Porter Jr. (personal). Collin Sexton’s status is still up in the air as he was planning on making his return last night but was pulled just before tip-off. The good news is that Dylan Windler and Darius Garland are both getting closer to returning even though we don’t know exactly when that will be.

I’m going to guess Sexton will make his return tonight, but we really won’t know for sure until the game actually starts.

Cavs: Collin Sexton Damyean Dotson / Cedi Osman / Isaac Okoro / Larry Nance Jr. / Andre Drummond

Jazz: Mike Conley Jr. / Donovan Mitchell / Royce O’Neale / Bojan Bogdanovic / Rudy Gobert

Things to watch for:

• This could be a trap game for the Jazz. This will be Utah’s sixth game on their seven-game, two-week road trip. This would be an easy game for the Jazz to give half effort in considering it’s the end of a long road trip and they’re playing a team that doesn’t inspire much fear given their injuries. We’ll see if the Cavs can take advantage of that.
• The offense needs to be better. The injuries are a legitimate excuse for the offense being bad, but that doesn’t help on the scoreboard. The Cavs haven’t cracked 100 points in eight straight games. Their defense is keeping them in games, but you need more than just defense to win. That’s something that Cavs have been finding out the hard way recently.
• Larry Nance Jr.’s solid offensive play. Nance has been incredible the last four games as he’s averaging 14.8 points per game with an 81.6 effective field goal percentage during that stretch. Those numbers are ideal for Nance, but the Cavs need more from him right now. Nance needs to be taking more than 8 shots a game considering how anemic the offense has been. I’m a big process over results guy. From that standpoint, I respect Nance’s process as he’s functioning perfectly within his role on the offense. However, he needs to take on a bigger role. Nance needs to find ways to be more aggressive if the Cavs have any chance of winning games right now.
• Collin Sexton’s comeback. Sexton is the main reason to watch this game. He was coming into his own prior to the injury and the basketball world was beginning to take notice. Sexton averaged 25.1 points per game on .531/.516/.829 splits while averaging a career high 3.5 assists per game. This team desperately needs that half court scoring ability. Hopefully, we can see him back on the court tonight. If not, it’ll be another long day for the offense.

Update: Collin Sexton has been ruled out of tonight’s game. Andre Drummond has been listed as questionable for the game as well. This could become really ugly folks.