The Cavaliers couldn’t stop one man. One man in the closing minute was to much for Cleveland to handle. It had actually been the whole team that the Cavaliers were having problems guarding. None the less, Deron Williams was the tip of Utah dagger that was being slowly plunged into the heart of the Cavaliers ever since the end of the first quarter.

The first quarter started out nicely enough for LeBron and company in a hostle Utah enviroment. Varejao was starting in place of Ilgauskas, who was attending to some family problems back home. The rookie Gibson would also start in place of Eric Snow.

Varejao came out flat. Unable to stay with Okur no matter how hard he tried. Okur would set a pick-and-roll for a Utah guard. Varejao fell for it every time. Taking the Turkish bait that Okur maliciously placed before him. Varejao smothered the guard coming off of Okur’s pick. The problem with this was that he never went back to guarding Okur. He would stay with the guard, now double-teaming him, since the other Cleveland defender is still guarding the Jazz guard. This left Okur wide open every time. It was to easy for the man from Turkey, he would proceed to nail that open jumper the whole night. Varejao would keep losing sight of Okur the whole game. Okur would go backdoor, baseline, come off screens, move without the ball, and basically anything else he felt like doing. He would get away from Varejao, getting open and being a scoring threat. This was the biggest reason Okur had 22 points at the end of the game. Sasha was another Cavalier having problem with the screens and off ball movement of the Utah Jazz. Sasha couldn’t seem to get around Utah’s big men while he was chasing Gordan Giricek all over the court. This allowed Giricek to get open and shoot the ball.

In the first quarter alone, the Utah’s off ball movement on offense was a sight to see. They were able to rub off screens, slip back door, and find open spaces that the Cavaliers weren’t keeping track of. They were able to have at least one man open the whole first quarter, and this would only be a prelude to what was to come the rest of the game. The brightside for the Cavaliers was that the Utah Jazz couldn’t hit their shots. Cleveland shot a whole ten percent better than Utah from the field. This, would change however.

The whole first quarter didn’t go this bad for the Cavaliers, I did say it started out nicely didn’t I? LeBron was on fire in the first. Him and Hughes were playing nice solid on ball defense. Plugging up passing lanes and slapping away at anything that came near them. The Cavaliers controlled the boards with 15 team rebounds while the Jazz were able to nab 7. LeBron ended the quarter with 10 points and the Cavaliers ended with 29 to the Jazz’s 19.

The second quarter appeared to be another good one for the Cavs. The subs came into the game and Eric Snow turned on his physical defense like he usually does. He was able to stop a three-on-one fast break all by himself (hence the term, on-one). Hughes was again brilliant on both ends of the court. At one point in the second, he pump faked and got Deron Williams to bite. Hughes then jumped under Williams and shot the ball, swooshing a shot from 18 feet out and getting the foul. He then completed the and-1 play.

Then, about half way through the second, the game took a turn for the worse. Deron Williams began his “Deron’ization” of the Cavaliers. His weapon of choice? His cross-over. Slicing and dicing, he forced Coach Brown to take Gibson off him and to move Hughes over in his place. Hughes did a nice job, but he wasn’t able to guard him every Utah possession. There was three times in a row that Varejao, some how, was forced to take on Deron at the top of the key. He failed miserably each time. Giricek was again killing the Cavaliers on his off ball movement. But this time, teammate Matt Harpring (known for his sharp shooting) decided to get in the action as well. Utah did a better job of making their shots, but it still wasn’t enough to seal the lead. Each time they caught up to the Cavaliers, LeBron would begin a drive to push the lead back to double digits. At one point the Jazz were with in two. The score was 43-41. LeBron had the ball with only a few ticks left on the shot clock. He launched it up. He nailed it. This sparked a 9-0 run for Cleveland. The end of the quarter however, with .04 left on the game clock, Deron Williams hit a fade-away jumper. This was the turning point for the Jazz, and the crowd knew it.

Varejao started the second half off better than his did the first. He was able to contain Okur and he was a beast on the offensive and defensive boards. He would rack up 17 rebounds before it was all said and done, but he wasn’t able to get the most important rebound at the end of the game.

Gooden hit the Cavaliers first bucket, in fact, he had the Cavaliers first eight points in the second half. He ended the game with a double-double.

Larry Hughes was a work of art all game, he was set to add to his 19 points in the first half. He was slashing to the hoop and pouring on the threes. His defense was killer and the motivation the Cavaliers would need in the closing minutes of the game.

Deron Williams and his cross-over brought the game to with in one with a dish to Millsap. LeBron pushed the lead up a bit with a three point buzzer beater over two Jazz defenders to end the third.

The game is in the closing minutes, only two to go. Okur is left open by Varejao again, and again he hits a three. Hughes comes back, slashing to the hoop, to answer with an and-1 play. This wasn’t enough for the Cavaliers who were unable to locate the open man. The Jazz loved setting screens off the ball with in the foul line and its surrounding area. The Cavaliers seemed not to notice this tad bit of info the whole game.

The Cavaliers were now down by six and there was left than a minute left. Hughes turned on the the heat defensively and offensively as did LeBron. Off an out let pass, LeBron tore down the court, blazing past everyone, to score a lay-up and get the game closer. Hughes and LeBron both played hard nosed defense, the kind of defense that no matter what team you liked or who you hated, you couldn’t help but to watch with adoration. They were able to bring the game with in one point, 98-99. The Jazz had the ball with around 28 seconds left. Deron Williams, the all-star should be, brought the ball down the court. He tried his cross-over to jumper that had already been successful twice during this last minute of play. This time it didn’t work. He missed the shot. The ball bounced right with in Vajerao’s grasp, he tried to snatch it out of the air. He wasn’t able to, the rookie Millsap did it for him. The game was seemingly over now. But as fate would have it, Millsap made a big rookie mistake- he began to panic. He then just half threw, half dropped the ball and Sasha scooped it up. Sasha raced to Utah’s basket with 2 seconds left. He ran into a Utah defender who tried to draw a charge. Shasha through up the half court shot, but it fell short. As did the Cavaliers.

Two big things kept the Cavaliers from winning this game:

The first, was the fact that they couldn’t keep their defensive triangles. They kept losing their men off screens or whatever else. The Jazz had to many wide open jumpers.

The second, was Deron Williams. Who’s passing ability, jumper, and cross-over was enough to destroy any hopes the Cavaliers had of winning the game. The “Deron’ization” ended with a career high 33 points, 12 assists, 2 steals, 6 rebounds, and only 2 turnovers.

The Cavaliers, who looked strong coming out of the first quarter, had been Deron’ized. They knew they should have won. You could see it in their faces at the end of the game. The way they were pleading with the refs for them to call a foul on the shot Sasha took at the end. The way LeBron stood at half court, dumbfounded. The way Larry Hughes just hung his head and walked off the court.

The Cavaliers didn’t shake any hands that game. They didn’t congratulate anyone. They just walked to the locker room, looking at the confetti that had now worked its way to the floor, laying there, reminding the Cavs of what had happend, mocking them. The Cavs had lost by one point, they had lost a lead they were, for the most part, in control of the whole game- and they knew it.

-Drake