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Man, it hurts me, deep inside my heart. to see the Utah Jazz a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. It just kills me to see our team lose twice in a row to them, on a proverbial home-and-home series. See, for me the Timberwolves are going to always perpetually be a hapless expansion team. (Perhaps this is how some fans of big market teams see us?) Over the last few seasons they've had some marketable stars like Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio -- but injuries and ineptitude has brought them down. They are in the hunt for the playoffs. They are setting on the outside looking in, but if you keep playing the Jazz enough times, you're sure to make it. (We play them twice more this year)
The Wolves of THIS season are a much better team than we are, franchise histories aside. And they started this game out trying to prove exactly that point. They won the first quarter 34-16, and it was no looking back for them. The Jazz made it interesting in garbage time because even we didn't know what crazy lineup rotations our former Timberwolf player, now our head coach Tyrone Corbin would pull out.
Utah was missing Derrick Favors, but had Gordon Hayward back. In the end, it wasn't enough when your team's defensive backbone is removed.
Three Negatives:
- The Jazz, at home, only got to the free throw line 12 times. And only two players got to the line at all, Burks and Hayward with 6 FTA each. To their credit they both went 5/6, but that's not enough when the road team is going to the line 2x as many times as you are.
- Only two people showed up, and their lines look okay because of garbage time -- you're not going to be competitive in a lot of games if three of your five starters combine for 16 points, and a fourth finishes with less than 10.
- This team. Lost to the Timberwolves. Again. These guys are one of the least successful franchises in the history of the league. I'm not being a hater, I guess I"m just stuck in the past.
Three Positives:
- Gordon Hayward came back from his hip flexor injury, stated, and scored 27 points, and added 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and trained two threes.
- Alec Burks was benched, but still had a strong game, finishing with 18 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and one three. He also has some crazy shots and pretty finishes.
- Even though he's on the bad guys side, Ricky Rubio is adorable.
Ricky Rubio bein' real cute and stuff, ya'll. http://t.co/9DnUAMDzJ4
— SB Nation GIF (@SBNationGIF) January 22, 2014
Ricky Rubio playing catch with a little girl during the Wolves/Jazz game http://t.co/QzeZzb2Cve
— Dane Carbaugh (@danecarbaugh) January 22, 2014
