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Jazz visit reeling Cavs

Mar 5, 2012 - 3:47 PM (Sports Network) - It's been a Jekyll and Hyde season for the Utah Jazz when it comes to playing on the road and in Salt Lake City.

Dominant at home with a 14-6 record, the Jazz are just 3-13 as the visitor and will resume a five-game trek tonight against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. The Jazz got their road swing started on the wrong foot and dropped a 102-96 decision at Dallas on Saturday. Dirk Nowitzki was too much for Utah, scoring a season-high 40 points, while Paul Millsap led the Jazz with 24 points on 11-of-17 shooting.

Derrick Favors and C.J. Miles scored 14 and 13 points, respectively, off the bench and Al Jefferson tallied 11 and 10 rebounds in defeat -- Utah's sixth in a row on the road and seventh in the last 10 tries overall. The Jazz, who are last in the Northwest Division, were coming off back-to-back home wins over Houston and Miami.

"They really flooded the paint and they weren't going to let Al get off to a big night," Utah head coach Tyrone Corbin said. "As a result, Paul was able to get some shots on the weak side, coming across and attacking. I thought Derrick did a good job of coming in there, but they really concentrated on getting the ball out of Al's hands or making sure there were two guys on him once he had it."

The Jazz are scheduled to make stops in Charlotte, Philadelphia and Chicago on the current sojourn. Their last road win was Feb. 12 at Memphis.

Cleveland will try to stop a pair of losing streaks tonight and has dropped five in a row overall and three straight at home.

The Cavaliers dropped a 101-98 decision at Washington on Saturday despite getting 29 points from Antawn Jamison and 20 out of rookie Kyrie Irving. Ryan Hollins scored a season-high 15 points in defeat for the Cavs, who shot a decent 44.6 percent and fell to 8-17 against the Eastern Conference.

"It's frustrating," said Irving. "We definitely need to get back on the right track. This is not the way we wanted to start out the second half of the season after the All-Star break."

Irving was back in the lineup after missing Friday's game versus Chicago because of an illness. The former Duke star is averaging a rookie-best 18.6 points this season and his 5.2 assists per game is second. He has scored 20 or more points in three straight contests.

Jamison is averaging 22.4 points and 8.7 rebounds in his last seven games. Ramon Sessions had 11 points off the bench against the Wizards and has scored in double figures in 10 of the last 12 games, averaging 13.3 ppg in that span.

Cleveland suffered a 113-105 loss in Utah on Jan. 10, as Jamison added 22 points and Irving finished with 20 in defeat. Jefferson was a beast in that one with 30 points and 12 rebounds for the Jazz, who have won four straight matchups against the Cavs.

Utah, though, has dropped 10 of 14 games in the Forest City.