The new-look Jazz visited the Spurs in San Antonio tonight, fighting hard but falling just short. The young players got some burn, it continues to be a little strange to see Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson
in a Jazz jersey, and both teams clearly cared about winning, which is something not always seen in preseason play.
1ST QUARTER
The game opened with Jusuf Nurkic and Victor Wembanyama trading twos and threes, followed by another three-point exchange by Devin Vassell and Svi Mykhailiuk. It was clear that Wemby was the best player on the floor, and he was clearly experimenting rather than trying to score every possession. Of course the NBA gifted the Spurs a generational athletic marvel who is a good, humble teammate. Of course they did. Speaking of League gifts to San Antonio, Dylan Harper came off the bench and scored immediately.
Ace Bailey was mostly a non factor in the first 6 minutes, going 0-1 from the field with one board. Shortly after that Will Hardy completely replaced the starters, going with WCJ/Brice/Cody/Anderson/Love. Brice showed his ability to score from anywhere, hitting two contested shots in the paint, including an and-1.
Walter Clayton Jr held his own, finishing his opening stint on the floor with two points, which came on a nifty floater, and one dime. Wemby checked back in at the 2:42 mark, sending Brice to the line on a 3-point attempt, who hit all three free throws. Ace returned to the floor too. He played some decent defense, but didn’t register any offensive stats. Wemby closed the quarter with an and-1 dunk on Kevin Love on a lob from (who else?) Dylan Harper. The Jazz closed out their scoring with a left corner three from Love, and the score stood at 34-30 in favor of the Spurs.
2ND QUARTER
WCJ opened the scoring with a smooth shot from deep, and Ace Bailey followed by drawing a foul and hitting a pair of free-throws and a three of his own, assisted by Walt. After a quick bucket on blown coverage by the Jazz, Bailey scooped and scored, bringing his point total to seven. On the other end, Julian Champagnie passed to Cody Williams for some reason, who went coast to coast and hit a contested layup, prompting a Spurs timeout.
Ace Bailey committed a clunky foul on Devin Vassell’s three point attempt out of the timeout, he hit 2/3. Ace made up for it on the Jazz end by making an elbow jumper. Wemby had another emphatic jam, and Walter hit another three off a nice screen by Jusuf Nurkic. The Spurs continued to score by getting pretty much everything they wanted inside, and the score remained close at the 6:46 mark. Lindy Waters III hit an above-the-break three, and Brice answered at the other end by slashing to the rim, drawing a foul, and hitting a pair of shots from the charity stripe. John Tonje checked in soon after that, and both teams went somewhat cold from the floor, until the Spurs added a couple easy ones in the pain by Keldon Johnson and Luke Kornet.
Brice stopped the bleeding by, again, driving and drawing free throws. But it was only a band-aid. Luke Kornet did the same for San Antonio, Wemby hit another pair, and just like that the Spurs were on a 20-7 run. Taylor Hendricks capped it there with yet more free throws, answered by Wemby, who hit an un-defendable and-1 shot over Nurkic. He continued to exploit Nurk, hit some more free throws, and grew the Spurs lead to 67-53. The Jazz closed the half with a whimper. The Spurs stretched their run to 31-11.
3RD QUARTER
Ace Bailey kicked off the scoring in the 3rd, bringing his total to 11. The teams casually exchanged buckets, and Taylor Hendricks showed some nice flashes by being active on the boards. The Jazz cut the deficit to 10 on a Nurkic bunny, but the Spurs stretched it back to 15 on a Julian Champagnie 3-pointer, a Keyonte George turnover, and another Champagnie bucket. While not scoring, Ace continued to impress with his precise, mature ball movement, forgoing bad iso shots to hit his open teammates.
Out of the TV timeout, the Jazz went small, with a Key/WCJ/Brice/Cody/KLove lineup. Cody drew and hit a pair of free throws and then nailed an elbow three, cutting the San Antonio lead to 11. The Jazz continued to be active on the boards as the Spurs cooled off, and Brice hit from distance, bringing the Jazz within 8. WCJ capped the Jazz run at 9-0 before Stanley Umude drilled one from deep. The Jazz committed some sloppy fouls, endured some bad bounces, and the Spurs grew their lead back to 11. Ace checked back in, made an athletic save, and the Jazz were rewarded with two made free throws from WCJ for the effort. The Jazz refused to quit, the Spurs rested most of their rotation players, and at the 1:34 mark the lead was down to just 5 points. Kevin Love hit from downtown and cut it to 3, answered by an Ingram slam on the other end. By the time the dust settled, the score was 95-90 in favor of the Spurs.
4TH QUARTER
The Jazz started the final frame playing small again, with a WCJ/Cody/Ace/Anderson/Hendricks lineup. WCJ hit two free throws to start the final frame, Cody Williams did the same, and the Spurs lead was down to 1. Lindy Waters hit a 27-footer, Ace answered with one of his own, and Hendricks drew a scrappy foul under the basket while crashing the boards and attempting a putback. He hit both FTs, giving the Jazz the lead for the first time since the 47-46 mark. The teams exchanged buckets over the next several minutes, with Will Hardy running the offense largely through Cody Williams. The score was 103-100 in favor of the Jazz at the 7:35 mark after a contested baseline layup by Taylor Hendricks.
Kyle Anderson hit a driving Cody Williams out of the timeout, giving the Jazz a 4-point lead. Imude answered, and Keyonte George split two free throws after being fouled on a dunk attempt. Ace Bailey checked back in at the 6:03 mark, fought for a rebound, and WCJ found Taylor Hendricks for an emphatic slam.
Out of a Spurs timeout, WCJ stole a rebound, went coast-to-coast, finished the break, and stretched the Jazz lead to 7. That was cut nearly in half by a Carter Bryant three, and cut to one on an Umude bomb following a Brice brick. Ace pushed it to 3 on a putback, and then sent David Jones-Garcia to the line at the other end.
Bismack Biyombo got WCJ to bite on a pump fake and drove for a dunk, but Ace answered on the other end with a nice midrange. By the 1:30 mark the game was knotted at 115, and San Antonio took the lead with 1:15 left. Ace drove in, got in trouble, and found Taylor Hendricks for a layup on a seemingly impossible pass, tying it up again. Biyombo bricked a terrible shot, and WCJ dunked on the other end, only to see fellow rookie Carter Bryant (again, of course he fell to the Spurs) answer from 3-point land.
The Jazz had the chance at a win, down one with 22 seconds left. It started with Ace at the top. He attacked, came up short in the iso, and the Jazz quickly fouled Jones-Garcia on the rebound with 11.7 left. They needed a 3, and Keyonte George answered the call. He tried to take a page out of Jordan Clarkson’s book and get a 4-point play, but was only partially successful—the three-pointer was good and the score was tied with 4.2 seconds remaining. The Spurs set up a shot for Jones-Garcia, guarded by WCJ, who failed to hit, triggering a somewhat improbable overtime.
OVERTIME
Both teams failed to score on their opening possession, but the Spurs opened up a 4-point lead on buckets from Imude, Ingram, and Jones-Garcia. The Jazz only managed a bucket—albeit a good one—from Walter Clayton Jr. Will Hardy called timeout, the Jazz continued to fall apart, and their tired legs were evident. Sensabaugh made a great steal from Jones-Garcia, but gave it right back on a horrific outlet pass. Jones-Garcia drove to the hoop, hit a layup and missed the subsequent free throw. He did score at the other end, Carter Bryant committed a rookie foul, and Ace made the Spurs pay with a silky midranger. The Spurs had a 2-point lead with about 36 seconds left, and Jones-Garcia, the unexpected hero of the game for San Antonio, hit a contested mid-range. Keyonte George hit a runner with 9 to go, the Jazz kept trying to play the free throw game, but they ran out of time. The Jazz inbounded the ball, took too much time, drew a foul, took even more time, and failed to get a shot off. The score stood at Spurs 134 Jazz 130.
NOTES:
- Brice Sensabaugh finished with 26 points on 13 shots in 28 minutes, 2-8 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 12-12 from the line. He also posted the second-worst +/- at -13, second only to Svi’s -14. I suspect he’ll be a great scorer in the League for a long time, and if he can manage to find even replacement-level defense . . . watch out.
- Ace Bailey was fine tonight. He had 20 points on 13 shots, 2-5 from deep and 2-2 from the line. He was serviceable on defense and did well at playing within the offense. One aspect of his game to watch for this season is free throws. Like it or not, foul-baiting leads to wins—just look at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic. He has the tools to make defenders pay the same way those two do, and he needs to use them.
- People saying the Jazz can win over 35 games this season can officially pump the brakes. This team will not win many games if they continue to play defense the way they have the past two nights. All signs indicate that they will. However, the future is bright. Will Hardy played Keyonte, Walt, Brice, Ace, and Taylor together, and it was a fun group to watch.
Next game will be at the Delta Center on Tuesday, October 13th, where they will wrap up the preseason against Portland on the 16th.
