by Alma Bean
After suffering their first loss of the season, the Utah Jazz have the opportunity to redeem themselves against the Houston Rockets.
Utah traveled to Houston on Monday night after an overtime win against the New Orleans Pelicans. The exhaustion was very noticeable in the first quarter. Shots were struggling to find the bottom of the net. An overabundance of turnovers and overall energy was a constant during the game. Though the result of the game is a loss for Utah, it doesn’t mean there weren’t positive notes.
What to Look For
Utah Jazz Coach Will Hardy started using more of his bench Monday night. The player that has had a big impact off the bench is Simone Fontecchio. Fontecchio played 16 minutes and scored 13 points. Unfortunately, he got into foul trouble very quickly receiving four fouls. This will come with Fontecchio learning the pace of NBA basketball as the season goes on.
Houston will look to repeat their performance from Monday as they had five players score in double digits, three scoring 20 or more points. Kevin Porter Jr. (26p/10r/4a) was all over the floor and looked like he was doing anything he wanted. Porter’s performance was hard to ignore given that he’s a point guard and led the team in rebounds. Jabari Smith Jr. created space on the floor for Houston with his three-point ability, shooting 60 percent for the game.
Both teams played their brand of basketball which means Utah fouled often and kept Houston in the game. Houston shot 27-32 from the free throw line compared to Utah going 9-16. Without the free throws, Utah wins the game by double digits. It’s a simplistic way to look at the game, but these stats can’t be ignored.
Injury Report
Houston-Bruno Fernando: Out (knee), Alperen Sengun: Out (illness), Jae’Sean Tate: Questionable (ankle), TyTy Washington Jr.: Out (knee)
Utah- Udoka Azubuike: Out (ankle)
Where to Watch
Tip-off between Houston and Utah will be at 7:00 p.m. MT on AT&T SportsNet.