Atlanta Hawks 100 Utah Jazz 97 Game Recap: a big run at the end of each half kill the Jazz

Every recap I've done has been a loss. You can all blame me. :)

It was the second disappointing loss in a row for the Jazz. They struggled at the end of both halves, letting Atlanta go on a 20-4 run at the end of the 2nd quarter and 11-0 run to close the game. If you do the math, that means Atlanta outscored the Jazz by 27 points in the combined 9 minutes of the two runs.

Paul Millsap took it out on his former team. 30 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks. Kyle Korver (17-10-6) and Jeff Teague (20-2-8) also played really well.

But it really came to those two runs: the Hawks got the kind of shots and stops they needed. The Jazz did not.

On the Jazz side, they got strong play (on the offensive side) from Derrick Favors (20 points off 9-11 shooting), Enes Kanter (16 points, 7-11 shooting and 2-4 from 3), and Alec Burks (22 points, 9-15 shooting). Trey Burke rebounded of sorts with 11 points and 11 assists. Kind of sad that a 5-15 performance is a rebound performance, but that's where Trey's at right now.

Gordon Hayward, sadly, did not play as strong as he had recently. He missed his last 9 shots, went 5-16 overall, and simply missed shots he made the past 8 games.

You can point to a lot of little things that hurt the Jazz:

• 6-12 FT shooting
• Giving up 13 offensive rebounds
• 5-23 from three

Despite it all, it was the defense, in my opinion, that is still the weak spot. The Jazz continue to do fairly well with the fouling ... which is weird to write after all these years of following my team. But they don't rebound quite well enough, and they still don't do a good job of preventing teams from getting good shots.

But in the end, it's still disappointing. The Jazz had a chance to win again. They did not do so again. They have now blown two really good opportunities to pull off a couple wins on the road trip. New York looms on Friday.

EDIT: I accidentally wrote Millsap had 20 points initially. Whose idea was it to put the 2 and 3 keys right next to each other? Seriously. (Thanks, JoeyLap)