Game Summary

The Utah Jazz faced off against the Miami Heat at the Vivint. This was a basketball game that resembled a rugby game. The Jazz came out looking great in the first half, but ended up looking absolutely awful in the second half. The Utah Jazz managed only 25 points of offense in the entire second half.

The Jazz came out with a different starting lineup tonight and a bit more energy in the 1st half. The Jazz attacked the paint in the first quarter, going 50% from the field while only taking two three pointers.

While the offense looked good, the defense didn’t quite have the mustard, letting Tyler Johnson and the Miami bench have their way in the last five minutes of the quarter. Favors was looking spry on defense with a couple of nice early blocks.

In the second quarter, the shots started falling for the Jazz, with Alec Burks and Rodney Hood powering the offense. Alec had two nice three pointers and a sweet jam off the Rudy-Jingles break.

The shooting guards were scoring in the first half, with Mitchell, Hood, and Burks scoring 12, 11, and 8 points, respectively. More importantly, the defense shut the Heat down in the second quarter, limiting them to 12 points.

The third quarter started disastrously. Five early turnovers let the Heat right back in it. Ricky Rubio was unplayable. Replacing Rubio had no effect, as no one else could score even when Utah weren’t turning it over. Rudy Gobert suffered an injury scare when his knee got taken out by a diving Dion Waiters. The Jazz ended up scoring 8 points in the quarter on one (ONE) made field goal. The only good news in the third quarter was Rudy Gobert had only suffered an knee contusion.

The score was a Jazz-like 57-57 going into the 4th.

The fourth quarter was a slugfest. The Jazz got to the line but couldn’t hit shots from the field. In the end, Utah folded when Waiters stepped up in closing time.

Game Notes

The Jazz shooting was good in the first half, but reverted to a horrible mean in the second half. They finished the night with 34% from the field and 24% from 3. Utah hit 86% from the free throw line, but can’t score from anywhere else.

The starters had only two players in double figures, Gobert and Mitchell with 12 a piece.

Hood scored 19 on 19 shots off the bench.

Burks had a good game with 12 points on 8 shots, 5 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. He gets a happy Picard, insofar as one can be happy when an NBA team only puts up 74 points.

Overall, the Jazz starters still look terrible together. Favors can’t get rebounds or the ball. Jingles didn’t take enough 3s. Rubio isn’t meshing with the main players. And Mitchell played the most minutes while having the lowest +/- on the team.

The Utah Jazz play again tomorrow night against the Brooklyn Nets.