Spacing, shooting and a little luck helped the Jazz overcome a Giannis Antetokounmpo triple-double

A road trip featuring the three best teams in the Eastern Conference was a welcomed challenge by the Utah Jazz, albeit an intimidating one.

But, with a 132-116 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night, the Jazz finished the trip with a 2-1 record and improved to 18-20 on the season.

So how did the Jazz do it? Well first, it started with a little luck.

The team in front of you

The Jazz started out the trip in Boston and they were thoroughly rocked. They had one of their worst shooting nights of the season and the Celtics capitalized on every single mistake.

Deflated, the Jazz walked out of TD Garden looking like a team that was going to easily get swept on this trip, especially considering that they were going to be facing the Philadelphia 76ers the very next night.

But then the news came down that the Sixers would be playing without three of their starters — no Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris or De’Anthony Melton.

Despite another rough shooting night, the Jazz scraped and clawed and got a win on the second night of a back-to-back on the road and it didn’t matter who was sitting or who was playing.

The Sixers will look at that game as a test of their depth, a test that they failed. The Jazz will see it as a bounce-back performance that proves they are not defined by a bad loss in Boston.

Sure, it’s lucky break to not have to play the reigning MVP, but that’s the NBA. You play the team that’s in front of you and you never underestimate anyone.

The Jazz got lucky again Monday with the Bucks having to play without Damian Lillard and Cam Payne, but there was still Giannis Antetokounmpo and a lot of championship-tested players on the court.

The Jazz executed a game plan against the Bucks that closed out a really successful week on the road.

Spacing

“Our spacing was very clean,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “I thought we executed the way that we wanted to, and then it comes down to our players being great players and making shots.”

Knowing that the Bucks were going to be without two of their most important perimeter players, the Jazz figured that Brook Lopez and Antetokounmpo were going to make life tough at the rim.

That’s why Collin Sexton spent extra time on Sunday and Monday watching film to see where the most likely 3-point looks would be available for him.

That’s why the Jazz put an emphasis on movement and spacing and all the little things that help a team move and space — hard screens, quick cuts, quicker decisions.

“I watched so much film on those guys. Many, many hours,” Sexton said, “so I knew what was going to work.”

If the Jazz were going to use the 3-point game to their advantage, they wanted the best looks they could get. Turns out, the plan worked. The Jazz shot a ton of open looks and got off 44 3-point attempts, 30 of which came in the first half.

Shooting

Of course, getting to the open looks is just the first part of the plan. Then you have to make them.

Well, that part worked out, too. The Jazz shot an incredible 11 of 17 from deep in the first quarter and finished the night having hit 20 of 44 (45.5%) from 3-point range.

At one point, Sexton hit back-to-back-to-back 3s to help the Jazz break open a 33-point lead that they would need in order to hold off the Bucks.

After shooting just 21.9% in the first two games of this trip, the Jazz knew that they were due for a good night and were more than happy that it happened in Milwaukee.

“It’s way better than what we had in Philly,” Lauri Markkanen said with a laugh. “When you make couple shots it obviously feeds the confidence of everybody.”

The confidence of the whole team is high right now as the Jazz head home, but they know that they only have the night to celebrate, because the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets are the opponent that will be waiting for them when they return to the Delta Center on Wednesday night.