by Daniel Olsen
The Jazz experienced a wild first 24-hour stretch in a new era where Dwyane Wade was announced as a part-owner of the NBA franchise in Utah. It was full of new faces, an exciting win and a close loss. With these back to back games, a double timeout is in order to dive into this. It’s time for a few 30-second timeouts to get caught up on all the action that took place.
1. Jazz defeat Pacers in first game of Wade era
Wade was announced before the game as the newest addition to the ownership group of the Utah Jazz. It resulted in a 119-111 win. The Jazz had a scare when Donovan Mitchell left the game with a lower ankle injury as reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Jazz rallied from down 17 at one point to tie the game at 89 at the end of the third quarter.
The Jazz caught fire in the fourth in the paint and on a few above-the-break threes. They scored 30 points and held the Pacers to just 22 points. Georges Niang, Joe Ingles and Bojan Bogdanovic all got in on the action. Bogdanovic led with 24 points on the game. Mitchell had 22 despite only getting 21 minutes of action. It was a celebratory day as Wade went to Twitter to express his excitement to be a part of this team.
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• This marks the fifth game this season that Rudy Gobert has recorded at least a 20-rebound game.
• With Donovan Mitchell sidelined in the fourth quarter, the Jazz out-scored the Pacers 33-20 in the fourth quarter.
• Gobert had four blocks, 23 rebounds and 13 points. This has to be his most impressive statistical output in a win this year. He grabbed 28 boards and blocked four shots in a loss to the Golden State Warriors last month.
• Mike Conley has recorded his second double-double in a row and fourth of the season.
• With the win, the Jazz are undefeated over the Central Division in the Eastern Conference. They are a perfect 10-0 over Indiana, Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit.
• At 78-straight games with a made three, Jordan Clarkson tied Dennis Scott for the tenth longest three streak in NBA history.
• Bogdanovic saved one of his better shooting nights for his former team. While he shot just 33 percent from three, he was 100 percent from the charity stripe and 56.3 percent from the field. His field goal percentage was the best it’s been in the month of April.
2. Undermanned Jazz fight hard but lose again in overtime
The next game was a little more of a challenge as Conley, Gobert, Favors joined Mitchell on the sidelines. However, the Jazz personnel in the game did not make excuses. While the Lakers were the better team after three quarters, the Jazz came back with a 28-16 run in the fourth to send the game to overtime. Once again, the short- handed Jazz lost another overtime game. However, they did not go down without a fight.
In the fourth quarter, Ersan Ilyasova had the play of the game with a monster block. The guy he swatted was none other than the former Ute Kyle Kuzma.
Clarkson had the offensive play of the game with a three to go up by two points with 9.2 seconds left. Less than six seconds later, Dennis Schroder made a driving lay-up. It seemed like uncharacteristically poor defense from O’Neale. He just let himself get beat. It’s good he didn’t give too much space and allow a three. However, he could have stayed in between his man and the basket a little more. He should have fouled if he needed to. The only danger in that would be the risk of allowing the and-1, but that’s why he should make a good hard foul if he can tell he’s about to get beat.
While both teams were short-handed, the Jazz were missing a bigger chunk of their depth which is what makes them great. They over-achieved in regulation but were too tired to achieve anything in overtime. They lost 5-17 in the scoring battle in the extra five minutes.
Now, the Jazz lead Phoenix by 1.5 games for first in the Western Conference. This is thanks to a surprising 26 point loss you the Suns to the San Antonio Spurs. The Jazz have another national TV game tonight against the Lakers. The game will once again be broadcast on ESPN and will start at 8 PM Mountain Time.
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• The Jazz have now lost seven straight overtime games per McCade Pearson. They haven’t won in extra time for over three years.
• Three Jazz players recorded over 40 minutes in the long game.
• It was a great workout with three of the starters being guys who normally come off the bench (Ilyasova, Clarkson, Ingles).
• The bench struggled as they only put up 15 points to the Lakers’ 27. Niang and Juwan Morgan were the only players to score.
• Clarkson (27), Ilyasova (20) and Ingles (20) all did the heavy lifting as they each scored 20 or more points in the contest.
• The Jazz were perfect from the free throw line and averaged almost 40 percent from three. The difference was the turnovers. With the Jazz being undermanned, they caused 15 turnovers by the Lakers and still lost the battle 16-15. That can’t happen if they expect to win.
• in addition to the giveaways, the Jazz lost the rebound battle 52-37. It’s understandable with their best two big men out. However, Davis and James were out too. It doesn’t matter how well they shoot if the Jazz give up extra possessions.
Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images