Utah Jazz 93 Toronto Raptors 111: Jazz play good, hard basketball for 40 minutes, get burned in the end

Jazz fought rather valiantly this game. Remember this was the closing game on a 5 game road trip with this being the 5th game in 7 nights. This was also against the top team in the East this season. That all said, here are some of my notes from the game:

1st quarter went beautifully on the offensive end as the Jazz assisted on 10 of a possible 11 made field goals as they beat the Raptors in first period 25-23.

Jazz continue to need to work on their defensive intensity as many times the Raptors were just getting easy shots. However, they did a good job of only letting the Raptors have 2 free throws in the first half (missing both).

Both Jazz big men had very solid first halfs as they both went 5 for 7 from the field....each!

Both of the 1st 2 quarters had the Jazz starting out cold, with the 1st quarter starting out 0 for 5 from the field, then 1 for 6 in the 2nd quarter. Burke solved this slow start issue in the 3rd quarter with 6 quick points in the first 4 possessions.

However, the Raptors came out extremely aggressive in the 2nd half to to increase their free throw attempt total from 2 in the first half to 15 at the end of 3 quarters.

Gobert continued to do the things that Goberts do in throwing down emphatic dunks from space.

This game was ultimately lost in the 4th quarter as the Jazz led 83-82 with 8 minutes to go in the 4th. Then the Raptors showed why they are one of the top teams in the league as they went on a rampage to lead it 99-86 with 4:24 to go int he game.

DeRozan absolutely killed the Jazz tonight with 27 points. Other Jazzkillers tonight were Lowry (19 points), Valanciunas (17 points, 14 rebounds) and Patrick Patterson (16 points in 25 minutes).

Keep in mind, the Raptors are 8-2 this season, so losing the game in the 4th quarter like this is not embarassing or anything like that. The Jazz just went cold and looked tired to end a busy road trip.

Anyways, here are the things I liked this game:

• Jazz finished with 22 assists on 33 field goals, a great ratio indeed.
• Gobert led our bench with 8 points and 8 rebounds, it's nice to see him do well on the offensive end.
• Jazz had one man with a double-double, any guesses? He goes by his government name, Alec Burks (10 points, 10 boards, 3 assists).
• All Jazz starters were in double figures with both of our big men Favors and Kanter leading the way with 18 points each.
• Favors shooting a straight-up disrespectful 9 for 11 tonight.
• Ingles channeling his inner-Kirilenko with 3-4-3-2 tonight.
• Our team putting up a good fight and looking like they had a good chance to win the game for 40 of the 48 minutes tonight.
• Beautiful offensive movement and plays in the first half.
• Favors has been working on his supervillain face from Coach Q:

Why the Jazz lost tonight:

• Jazz made 0 three pointers in the 2nd half.
• Raptors shot over 20 free throws in the 2nd half.
• Hayward doesn't play as well when he's sick as Michael Jordan
• Jazz didn't put on enough defensive pressure tonight: only 8 turnovers for the raptors, 51 FG% for them, as well as them having more offensive rebounds than us.
• Jazz didn't exploit the Raptors with our efficient big men tonight.