Pretty sure I contracted some form of radiation poisoning with one look at the Wolves’ NBA Cup court. Turns out, it’s difficult to hit your shots when you’re playing on the surface of the sun. For 48 minutes, the Jazz were completely lost on the floor. Wolves blunder the Jazz 137-97, and Utah goes winless in their NBA Cup group play (0-2). No one showed up on the Jazz; Anthony Edwards did.
The bigger surprise tonight was Isaiah Collier replacing Taylor Hendricks in the starting lineup, their third
different starting lineup of the season. Hardy opted for more Taylor Hendricks at the 5 positional minutes off the bench.
For the first quarter, it felt like the Wolves made some kind of sacrificial offering to outscore the Jazz 43-15. Will Hardy even chipped in a technical foul off a Gobert no-call to make his contribution to the chaos on the court. The intensity on offense immediately dipped, and the Wolves kept punishing. It was that kind of night — fans switched the channel to ESPN to watch the more entertaining Darryn Peterson vs Caleb Wilson matchup.
Keyonte kept his head held high through the onslaught. He kept playing his brand of basketball, creating open looks, driving inside, trying to keep the energy going for all the guys on the court. The Jazz ran a half-court defense that gave the Wolves a decent bit of trouble, shooting 3-12 during that stretch and turning the ball over 5 times.
Nothing, however, could keep the prey out of the Wolves’ eyes. They continued their onslaught, outscoring the Jazz 79-43 at halftime. Fun fact: That is equal to the LARGEST deficit the Jazz have ever had at halftime (The last time the Jazz trailed by 34 they beat the Nuggets back in 1996!). Anthony Edwards will have to take that DNA test eventually. He took everything out of his system to finish the half with 29 points. Julius Randle could’ve easily broken Utah’s triple-double record with 15 points, 9 rebounds and 10 assists. Minnesota rained open threes, and it clanked off the orange circle in every instance for the Jazz. Eventually, Hardy raised the white flag, subbing out the starters to bring in Kyle Anderson, Kevin Love and Cody Williams. The bright side: 8 minutes left in this slaughter, Joe Ingles makes an appearance on the basketball court.
Keyonte was the team’s highest scorer with a cool 18-4-2 stat line, and I felt personally that he was the only man who showed up tonight. Ace Bailey added 1o points for his first double-digit performance in his career. None of it mattered in retrospect to the Atlantan Anthony Edwards: 37-5-1 on 12-21 FG, 7-12 3P shooting splits. Randle contributed a triple-double, McDaniels dropped a steady 22, and Minnesota was just flat-out beating Utah in every facet of the game.
Those who panicked after a quick 3-4 start, the Jazz are just flat-out not a good basketball team, with great emphasis. Walker Kessler’s season-ending injury just landed the finishing blow to what may have been a promising group of young guys. They’re feisty when they want to be…but the other 70% of the time — no matter how many times Will Hardy rips into them — they won’t show up.
Jazz travel back home after their five-game road trip on November 10th in their rematch against the Minnesota Timberwolves at 7:00 PM MT.
