As much to the disappointment of Los Utah Jazz and all the fans in South America, the Jazz finished their longest homestand of the season with a 1-5 record; that one win came on a career-high night for Keyonte George. But maybe they weren’t as disappointed, since the Jazz are now closer to the league’s worst record than to the seventh-best record, despite being #6.
Though the Jazz needed to grab at least one win during one of their longest road trips of the year — it’s okay to have a cheat day once
in a while; you can’t live your life off eggplant stew. Their road trip began visiting our Yankee friends up North; free from their chains of the NBA’s Play-In Tournament (…so far), sitting high and mighty on their seats as the 4th seed in the Eastern Conference. It goes to show you can just stick a million versatile wings on your roster and it just sorta works. Not only were the Raptors nearing full health minus Jakob Poeltl and two-way Chucky Hepburn, the Jazz won’t stop unleashing the bubonic plague on their team, or at least according to their injury report.
Ah, but not quite. Yes, the Jazz were going to lose their 10th game and 11 matches, but the pain Jazz fans feel is more masochistic than anything else. They were unable to get it done as they fell to the rising Raptors 107-100 on a freezing cold Sunday.
Though the Jazz opened up the first quarter leading 5-3, that was quickly overtaken by Toronto’s 11-0 run from 9:11 to 6:38. Though the Jazz went on their own little 8-0 run to cut the Raptors’ leead 17-16, with Svi and Lauri both contributing 3 points each during that stretch. Toronto collected 3 steals and 3 blocks through the quarter, with the Jazz only forcing 1 turnover. On the Jazz end, they had 20 rebounds, led by Nurkic’s 4. Lauri led the team in scoring with 6 points and 3 rebounds, shooting 1-4 from beyond the arc. On the other hand, however, Sandro Mamukelashvili was hot early, scoring 8 points on 2-for-3 threes in 6 minutes.
The game was a switch between who had the better run. It was a 12-4 run for the Raptors across quarters. hitting three straight threes from three different players to turn a 12-point deficit into a 31-25 lead. Then Utah’s turn was a 17-2 run in 3:20 minutes for their largest lead so far of the night — 5 of the Raptors’ turnovers came during this run. Utah took advantage of Toronto’s lack of Jakob Poeltl crashing the glass. They held a 14-rebound advantage (37-23) at the half, grabbing 25 defensive rebounds, with Nurkic and Ace grabbing 7 each. They had 5 offensive boards, leading to 9 second-chance points. Isaiah Collier was superb in the second quarter, 6 of his points came during this period. Not to mention nearly filling every category on the stat sheet: 2 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal. To top off this quarter, there was this madness from Lauri Markkanen.
I know one of you did a switcheroo and tried to fool us by putting 22-23 Lauri Markkanen on the floor. We are not leaving this room until someone fusses up. Someone must’ve shown him the West All-Star reserves while he was on the bench, because that’s not normal.
The Jazz trailed by three points headed into the fourth quarter. Raptors found their rhythm, shooting 62% on 21 attempts from the field during the third period, including shooting 3-6 from beyond the arc. They erased a 4-point Jazz lead by holding them scoreless on four straight shots and two turnovers. Ingram scored or assisted on six of those points. Mamukelashvili contributed 16 points for the Raptors, accounting for a significant part of Toronto’s bench scoring.
The Jazz were starting to feel the fatigue of being in a new country. They had 16 turnovers, and the shooting took the dip we all were anticipating. Utah had a 3:58-minute drought from the field before Filipowski finally sank a two-pointer. Not to mention they missed 12-straight team threes.
Scottie Barnes then sustained a foot injury, which checked him out of the game with 4:26 remaining, and the Jazz were merely trailing 98-93. Though the game still came crumbling down regardless. They couldn’t buy their shots and came sinking down to a 9-point deficit. They finished with a ghastly 21 turnovers, resulting in 24 Raptors points off turnovers. Jazz shot a ghoulish 23% from three-point range, only sinking 8 of their 35 attempts. Just like previous games, they shot themselves in the foot.
Though I’ll give them the credit that they never fell behind in a double-digit deficit — the largest lead Toronto had all night was 9. They managed to turn a putrid night from the field into something that shimmers like a rainbow after a hurricane. It didn’t go well for them in the fourth quarter, but they had the opportunity to win this one despite what the shat sheet tells you, which they can take with them through this Eastern road trip.
At the end of the day, it was probably another loss they needed. The threshold between them and last place is dangerously close, but I think every fan has a subconscious desire that obviously wants them to win. Sometimes, games won’t have you buckled up. Tonight’s loss was one of those types of matchups.
Up Next
Jazz take a day off before they embark on their flight to Indianapolis. They play the Indiana Pacers on February 3rd at 5:00 PM MST.
