The Utah Jazz visited division rival Minnesota for their first away game of the season. Minnesota gave a warm welcome to Ricky Rubio on his first homecoming game as a member of another team.

The first quarter was an ugly affair. Rudy had a few nice paint moves inside, but both teams were struggling in the paint with lots of botched layups.

The Jazz clamped down and caused a lot of turnovers in the second quarter, but the half-court offense was not putting the ball in the hoop as Alec Burks and Donovan Mitchell combined to put up a lot of badly missed shots. The last two minutes of the half were terrible, with the TWolves putting up 10 points to close out the half and take the lead into the half.

Rodney Hood caught fire in the second with three consecutive threes to take back the lead, but the Timberwolves kept getting to the line and getting every 50/50 ball and every 50/50 call.

The bench unit that powered the team to victory against Denver wasn’t nearly as useful. In addition to the struggles by Donovan Mitchell and Alec Burks, Joe Johnson was a huge negative on the floor. Only Ekpe Udoh and Thabo Sefolosha showed up for the bench unit.

Rodney went down with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter, ending a very hot streak where he was putting the team on his back.

The Jazz brought it back in the last 5 minutes of the fourth quarter, with some timely Favors dunks and three point shooting from Joe Ingles and Rubio. Rubio hit a three, then got fouled shooting a three.

Game Notes

Rodney Hood went down with an ankle injury. As of this writing, Rodney Hood was diagnosed with a left calf strain. He led the team in scoring with 20 points.

Derrick Favors was beasting down low and from range. He had 16 points, 4 boards, and 3 steals.

Gobert had a double-double, but was still a step slow on defense. He did get 2 steals but had no blocks and wasn’t really protecting the paint and gobbling up the boards like he can. The turnover at the end was a back breaker.

Ricky Rubio had 19 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and 4 TOVs. He also got in the head of Jimmy Butler.

The Jazz were beaten on the boards, and turned it over 19 times.

Next game is tomorrow at the Aunt Viv vs the OKC Thunder.

[Correction: An earlier version of this post had Ricky with only 18 points. He had 19. Sorry, Ricky.]