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Hayward beats buzzer, Jazz send Cavs to 1-3

Nov 6, 2014 - 6:18 AM Salt Lake City, UT (SportsNetwork.com) - Gordon Hayward joked last month on Twitter that he'd "crush" LeBron James in a game of one-on-one.

Hayward was talking about video games, but he did get the best of James on Wednesday.

Hayward stepped back and drained a right-wing jumper at the buzzer to lift the Utah Jazz to a 102-100 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

James, who had six points in the final 13.9 seconds, hit three free throws after drawing a foul from beyond the arc on Derrick Favors with 3.4 seconds left to tie the game, but Hayward had the answer at the other end to send the Cavs to a 1-3 start.

Hayward took an inbounds pass at the top of the arc as James fell down, took a few dribbles to his right, stepped back and rose over the outstretched arm of Tristan Thompson as time expired.

"It was pretty special, especially with the way the crowd was reacting for our team. Great finish," Hayward said.

Hayward finished with 21 points and seven assists, Derrick Favors posted 21 points and 10 rebounds and Enes Kanter added 18 points for the Jazz, who have won two of three since starting 0-2.

Kyrie Irving netted a game-high 34 points and James provided 31 for Cleveland, which trailed by as many as 16.

"You have to continue to work the process. You hate to lose as competitors, but we felt like tonight we improved," James said.

Irving's runner with 5:25 left staked the Cavs to their first lead of the second half at 87-85 and a bit later, James nailed a jumper to make it 89-86 before Utah responded with a 10-1 run.

Favors put in a reverse layup and split a pair of free throws to cap the surge and give the Jazz a 96-90 advantage with 1:29 to go.

After Alec Burks sunk two foul shots to give Utah a 98-94 spread, James swished a fadeaway triple from the left corner with 13.9 ticks on the clock.

Burks knocked down two more freebies at the other end prior to James' three makes from the charity stripe.

Earlier, the Jazz made nine of their first 11 shots and raced out to a 22-14 start before settling for a 32-23 cushion following a quarter of play.

Utah led 59-48 at halftime and built the margin as high as 15 early on in the third.

Cleveland closed the third on an 18-6 surge to get within 76-75 heading into the final frame.

Game Notes

Utah outrebounded Cleveland 41-30 and held a 46-38 advantage in the paint ... The Cavs scored 24 points off 15 Utah turnovers ... The last team to win an NBA title following a 1-3 start are the 1990-91 Chicago Bulls.