Once again the Utah Jazz won a game, only if games were 46 minutes long. The Oklahoma City Thunder tied the game, and made the Jazz play bad offense, and sent the game to OT. In overtime Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and Serge Ibaka came up big when their team needed them most. Utah was held without a field goal for most of the extra period, Utah players missing layups, missing 2nd chance put backs, jumpers, and even fast break dunk attempts. It's almost as if I talked about star players playing up to that quality in the game preview. OKC went out of their way to make their young draft picks into stars. The Utah Jazz did not. And here we are in Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors ' sixth season in the NBA, and they still do not know how to regularly close games. It's sad. Sure, you can hold your head up high, and see that the Jazz took OKC to OT in their own gym while Utah was playing without two starters: Rudy Gobert and Dante Exum. Or, you can see another loss on poor late game execution.
I'm not happy with this. i don't think anyone is.
- Derrick Favors (41 mins): 14 points, 10 rebounds
- Gordon Hayward (41 mins): 22 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block
- Rodney Hood (37 mins): 23 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assists, 1 steal, 4 threes
- Alec Burks (37 mins): 21 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 threes
- Trevor Booker (30 mins): 4 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal
- Elijah Millsap (22 mins): 2 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal
- Trey Lyles (20 mins): 0 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assists, 1 block
- Trey Burke (17 mins): 10 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 three
The Utah Jazz next play on Monday, yes, the second night of a back-to-back, against the San Antonio Spurs. Lovely.