San Antonio Spurs 118 - Utah Jazz 81 Game Recap

The Utah Jazz were savagely defeated by the San Antonio Spurs 118-81 tonight. It was brutal. Utah, already playing on the road, on the second night of a back-to-back, and without two regular starters (Rudy Gobert and Dante Exum ) were heading into this game as a schedule loss. And they lost. They lost by a lot. You could say that they lost almost double what a team should lose. The Spurs are great. And Las Vegas put the line at something like 12.5 or somewhere in that ballpark. The Jazz were down by 14 after one. This was devastating as national writers even stood up for the Jazz.

They were a really good team before the Gobert injury. And still really are. Spurs are just Spurs. https://t.co/vQujnzrZkI

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) December 15, 2015

Since when does that ever happen?

But all that said, I am dumb enough to think that one loss doesn't dismantle all the good work this team has done, and the achievements they have built upon over the last few seasons. Even John Stockton and Karl Malone lost in blowouts before. Why should our squad of perpetual rookies do something different?

Starters:

• Raul Neto (PG, 21 mins) - 12 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 threes
  
• Rodney Hood (SG, 23 mins) - 4 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds
  
• Gordon Hayward (SF, 22 mins) - 4 points, 2 assists, 1 steal
  
• Trey Lyles (PF, 19 mins) - 2 points, 2 rebounds
  
• Derrick Favors (C, 24 mins) - 16 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block
  

Bench:

• Trey Burke (PG, 24 mins) - 10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 three
  
• Alec Burks (SG, 18 mins) - 8 points, 3 assists, 1 rebound
  
• Joe Ingles (SF, 22 mins) - 4 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals
  
• Trevor Booker (PF, 21 mins) - 4 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal
  
• Jeff Withey (C, 20 mins) - 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 steal
  
• Elijah Millsap (SG, 16 mins) - 4 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds
  
• Chris Johnson (SF, 9 mins) - 4 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal
  

Utah has now lost three games in a row, and life without Rudy is as hard as imagined. But what did you expect when you play OKC, OKC, and SAS? Something other than the most logical outcome -- a three game losing streak? The Jazz will lick their wounds then open up a very rare three game homestand on Wednesday, hosting the New Orleans Pelicans, then the Denver Nuggets, and then the Phoenix Suns. Those are all games where our guys are at home, did not play the night before, and against teams they should defeat.

Being 10-13 is not great. But the schedule should allow the team to be 13-13 and .500 again.