The moribund Cleveland Cavaliers will try and rebound from the worst defeat in franchise history tonight when they resume a five-game road trip in Salt Lake City against the always tough Utah Jazz.
The Cavs dropped their 17th consecutive road game and lost for the 21st time in 22 games on Tuesday in Los Angles when Pau Gasol led a balanced attack with 13 points and 14 rebounds, as the Lakers used suffocating defense in a record- setting 112-57 victory over Cleveland.
The Lakers set a franchise regular-season record for fewest points scored by an opponent in a game, besting their previous mark set on March 12, 2002, when they held Charlotte to 66 points.
Alonzo Gee finished with 12 points and eight rebounds to pace the Cavaliers, who set a franchise-low for points in a game. The previous record was 59 points, set March 25, 1997 against San Antonio.
Ramon Sessions added 10 points for the Cavs, who fell to 0-3 on their current trip. Cleveland, which shot 29.9 percent from the field, has also lost 11 in a row overall.
"I thought that was embarrassing," Cavaliers head coach Byron Scott said. "I thought our guys looked scared. We didn't compete."
Former Cleveland superstar LeBron James, who left the team in an acrimonious fashion this past offseason, created a bit of a firestorm, feeling no sympathy for his former team when he took to Twitter in the closing minutes of the game.
"Karma is a bitch," James Tweeted. "Gets you every time. It's not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!"
Of course a number of his old teammates agreed.
"It can't get any worse than this," Cleveland forward Antawn Jamison told the Akron Beacon Journal. "If it does, y'all gonna have to help me because I don't know how much of this I can take. This, by far, is rock bottom. That's impossible with professional athletes how you lose by 55 points. I don't care who you're playing against."
Mo Williams seconded that...
"This s@#$ is embarrassing," the veteran guard Tweeted. "I feel like I can't even show my face in Cleveland."
James has since denied the message originated from him, and claimed he wasn't mocking his old club.
The Jazz, meanwhile, won their second straight contest on Wednesday by opening up a brief two-game homestand with a 131-125 victory over New York. Deron Williams scored 24 points, dished out 12 assists and grabbed seven rebounds, in that one.
C.J. Miles added 24 points and five boards off the bench for the Jazz, who have won four of six overall and are now 14-7 in Sale Lake City. Al Jefferson chipped in 19 points and six rebounds and Raja Bell made four three-pointers en route to 18 points. Paul Millsap and Andrei Kirilenko donated 17 and 14 points, respectively, for Utah, which had seven players in double figures.
"Well that's a lot of points to score," Utah head coach Jerry Sloan said. "I thought we had a half court game. I thought we had a lot of fun, our guys played well, we passed the ball well, we really did a nice job of giving the ball up. We had a tough time trying to stop them, and I think it kind of went both ways."
Utah has won two straight over the Cavs, including a 101-90 triumph in Cleveland back in December.