FanPost

Game thread, Baby!!! Jazz vs Mavs.


Karl asked me to start a game thread.

After a Miller-esque seven points in the last 10.8 seconds of regulation, Donovan Mitchell forced an overtime against the Nuggets two nights ago. Another crazy Mitchell-led comeback in the first overtime led to a second overtime where the Jazz promptly forgot how to play defense with Rudy sitting on the bench after fouling out in the first OT on a terrible call. Despite Mitchell's late-game heroics, he shot only 36% (31% on threes) on 33 attempts.

Oh yeah, and with only 3.4 seconds left in the 1st OT and the game on the line, the Jazz decided to guard 7'0" superstar Jokic one-on-one with 6'4" Royce O'Neale. The result was predictable. It look the Joker only 3.1 seconds to take the ball baseline and lazily put in an easy layup against his smaller defender (although it took about 10 minutes to figure out just how long it took for that to happen because the NBA apparently asked the guy in the Winnie The Pooh costume to work the game clock). The Jazz lost by two in double OT.

The loss put the Jazz in 6th place in the West--right where they want to be. They won't fall lower, and they likely won't climb higher. A first-round matchup against the Nuggets is becoming more and more likely.

The Jazz play the Mavericks today, a team that is fresh off of an OT win against Milwaukee.

Keys to the game:

How will the Jazz defend Doncic?

Can Rudy get 16 FGA again?

What will the bench look like? We know we will see lots of Clarkson, but after that, it's becoming unpredictable. Bradley and Niang? Oni and Brantley? Is Ed Davis done?

Game starts at 3 pm EST, 1 pm MST. Can be streamed here:

http://nbastreams.xyz/schedules/

All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.