The question for the Utah Jazz tonight was simple. Who was going to play? They went into this game severely undermanned, with both Lauri Markkanen (right quad contusion) and Walker Kessler (foot) being ruled out and starting point guard Keyonte George attempting to play through an illness. Keyonte wound up only playing 6 minutes before being ruled out for the rest of the game and Taylor Hendricks went out in the 1st half with a toe injury. Even without all those key contributors, the Jazz survived a hot-shooting Washington Wizards team and stole the win in a 127-115 affair.
The Jazz came out sluggish in the 1st half and struggled to contain the Wizards offense early. In a somewhat surprising turn of events, Golden State castaway Jordan Poole started his game on fire, putting up 23 points in the first half on incredible shooting (8-9 overall with 5/6 threes). Washington saw strong contributions as well from Tyus Jones and Kyle Kuzma. Simply put, the Wizards were red hot for the majority of the game.
However, the Jazz fought back with their own team of misfits in the second half. While Washington finally started to cool off, the Jazz hung tough and kept it close. They saw minutes from a wide-range of guys that haven’t played consistently: Omer Yurtseven, Luka Samanic, Brice Sensabaugh, Talen Horton-Tucker, and even Johnny Juzang. Apart from a few ill-advised plays from THT, most of the team played valiantly.
The story of the game, though, came in the 4th quarter when Jordan Clarkson decided he wasn’t going to lose this game and caught fire. JC finished the game with a season-high 38 points on 4-9 from three and also contributed 10 rebounds and 7 assists. His play in the 4th roused a dormant Delta Center crowd and noticeably fired up the rest of the team.
Collin Sexton continued his consistent play, as always, with 29 points and 7 assists. John Collins came up big on defense with a monster 6 blocks to go with his 17 points and 15 rebounds.
It’s always nice to get a win at home and some great play from a team that has struggled of late. The Jazz struggled on the recent road trip and finally snapped their 3 game losing streak. This team gained some good momentum here, somehow winning without many contributing players. Perhaps that good juju will transition into another win streak and some positive growth from the young guys. Inconsistent, yes, but you can’t say this team doesn’t have heart.
The Jazz will be back at again on Wednesday at home in an 7:00 PM MST showdown with the Chicago Bulls. I’ll cap off this recap with my favorite highlight of the night:
