Game Recap: Utah Jazz fall to the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-72

January Game Streams -- Canis Hoopus -- Jazz vs Timberwolves coverage

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I'm going to level with you guys. I tried for the entire first quarter to get my paid subscription to NBA's League Pass to work. I stopped trying after the first few minutes of the second quarter. I followed the game, in horror, on twitter and through the box score. Man, the Minnesota Timberwolves sure laid the lumber on the Utah Jazz tonight. The final score was 98-72, but let's be real, this game was worse than that. During my preview posts leading up to this game I mentioned that it was the last game of a road trip, and the fear would be that our players could be at risk of having one foot on the plane back home before this game even started.

That seems to have been the case.

The Jazz were competitive in the first quarter, but the second quarter was the game within the game. Bad fouls, poor shot selection, and a constant need to send the Timberwolves to the line resulted in a 28-9 second quarter destruction. The game was over then and there.

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Three Negatives:

• We really got our butts handed to us tonight
• The tandem of Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic combined for 45 points, 27 rebounds, 2 blocks, 4 steals, and 6 assists. I don't know why assists came last there. It just did. That's what an All-Star front court does.
  
• Gordon Hayward does not appear close to being healthy yet

Three Positives:

• Uh, Rudy Gobert did okay in garbage time -- managing 2 points off of no shots, and two made free throws. The Frenchmen also had 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 1 steal in 12 minutes of action.
  
• Alec Burks went 9/12 from the free throw line and scored 18 points tonight, mostly in garbage time. That slightly offsets the 5/6 from the free throw line and 20 points Kevin Martin scored. See! It was close in the end!
• They did not score 100 points.

Moving On:

The Jazz host the Timberwolves in Utah on Tuesday. Both teams have the next two nights off.