Written by Brian McPeek

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It used to be that I'd watch Cavaliers games without a remote control nearby. You didn't dare turn the channel for fear you'd miss something incredible or something that you'd never seen before. Whether it was an alley-oop dunk that defied gravity or a chase down block that you could hear and feel in your living room you had to watch from the opening tip until the final horn.

But I have to tell you that LeBron James taking his talents to Miami has freed me up to scan other channels. These days during a Cavs game I am able to sometimes catch an episode of 'The Office' or, as was the case Monday night as the Cavs went down by 20 points to the Utah Jazz, portions of the Monday Night Football game.

It's safe to say I'm not going to miss something that people are talking about at the water cooler the following morning.

I sure didn't miss anything Monday.

The Cavs modest one game winning streak came to an emphatic and decisive end Monday at The Q when the Cavaliers lost to the Jazz in a game that wasn't nearly as close as the final score of 101-90 would indicate.

Cleveland came out and played a decent first half against a Jazz team on a long road trip. But, as has been the case for most of the year, the lack of talent caught up to the Cavs in the second half.

The Jazz, behind big nights from Raja Bell, Al Jefferson, Deron Williams, C.J. Miles and (inhale and take a breath) Paul Millsap were simply too much for the Cavaliers despite a career regular season scoring effort from Daniel Gibson.

Gibson tossed in 29 points on the strength of a 7-8 effort from beyond the 3-point arc and 8-15 shooting overall to pace the Cavaliers. Mo Williams notched his second straight double-double with 16 points and 10 assists and Antawn Jamison added 13 points and 6 rebounds as the Cavs fell to 8-20 on the season.

Miles led the Jazz with 22 points and was supported by Bell and Millsap who scored 19 apiece. Williams had 10 assists to go nicely with his 17 points on the night.

Takeaways 

There are, whether you want to believe it or not, varying degrees of losses in the NBA. There are losses suffered by young teams who learn from each and every ball game and who have visions of lottery balls dancing in their heads. Then there are losses from veteran teams who simply are a collection of spare parts that take the court each night with the hope that their effort is appreciated by other teams who might be looking for their kind of production.

The Cavaliers losses are definitely looking like the latter. By and large this is not a young team. They have some young players like J.J. Hickson and Ramon Sessions but they are not 'on their way up' as it were.

That element of this season may be the most difficult to digest in that at least with a young team there is hope for the future. Outside of a multitude of trades as the deadline gets nearer this Cavs team looks to have some long, hard days ahead of them as many of the older players on the roster will succumb to human nature and ultimately lose interest. Head Coach Byron Scott has his work cut out for him as the losses continue to mount and keeping this team together and focused and giving an honest effort may take all of Scott's skills and will.

There may one day be a light at the end of the tunnel but the Cavaliers are a long way from being able to see it.

They Got Next 

The Cavaliers head to Atlanta Wednesday for a 7pm tip with the Atlanta Hawks (FSN Ohio).