The Utah Jazz came into the game on an absolute fire tonight. They brought the heat again tonight, winning the Eastern Conference Champions, the Miami Heat, last year, beating them for their 7th straight win. That’s 18 wins in 17 games for those who count at home. Let’s revisit some of the game’s thoughts, highlights, and comments.
The game started very slowly for the Jazz. This is the first time in a while that it felt like an enemy defense was actually generating stops against the powerful attack. The switches didn’t allow for open shots or mismatches and the Jazz only had 2 points in the first 5 minutes or so. It got a bit worse before it got better, but Bojan Bogdanovic had seen enough and forced a timeout in Miami with the game at 13-8. The three ball just didn’t fall in the first and shot 1-12 in the quarter. That meant a gap of 21-18 after one. Think how badly they played, that could have been a lot worse.
The second quarter was your typical back and forth between two good teams. Bogdanovic showed his offensive versatility this quarter. He can score at all levels and in many different ways. He is much more than just a sniper. Side note: I really wish Royce O’Neale would learn how not to travel on his fake pump and drive from the 3 point line.
This was definitely a matchup of 2 high placed defenses. Neither team really found an attacking rhythm and so far it has been a relatively low-scoring affair. The Jazz took a 47-42 lead at half-time.
Donovan came out swinging in the second half. A very quick 7-0 run by himself caused Miami to call a time-out just a minute and a half after the second half. Jazz jumped to a 12 point lead with that blowout, and it felt like they were going to keep it under control the rest of the way. Goodness! Make that a 16-0 Jazz run to start the 2nd half. Quin Snyder is a mastermind. The Heat was well prepared to get the Jazz out of their game. But yes, halftime have countered the Jazz and their offense clicks anyway.
This was a really close game and suddenly the Jazz 21 have gone up. The Jazz defense is good at the championship level. They just smothered the heat in this third quarter.
The game was essentially decided before the 4th quarter started. The 4th was really just a formality at this point. The Jazz maintained their lead and kept this train rolling.
Choo choo!