Jazz’s Early 19-4 Run Closes Door on Hornets

January 10th, 2020 | by Dan Clayton

Bogdanovic helped the Jazz put the visiting Hornets away early. (Melissa Majchrzak via espn.com)

It took the Utah Jazz all of about a quarter and a half to erase any doubt in what would become their eighth straight win on Friday night. The Jazz would eventually lock up a win against the struggling Charlotte Hornets, 109-92. And while that final margin was Utah’s fourth-largest victory of the season, it oversells how close of a contest it really was.

The Jazz’s lead ballooned to 25 before intermission, and would reach 33 after foward Joe Ingles knocked down a 3-pointer to complete a personal 8-0 run. The Hornets, losers of nine of their 11, never even got within single digits outside the game’s first nine minutes.

No Utah starter logged time in the game’s fourth quarter, but the Jazz’s deep bench still maintained a 20-plus margin for most of the period. The Hornets’ 9-2 run in the game’s final minute and a half allowed the visitors to put some lipstick on this particular pig, but the outcome had been decided long before.

Rudy Gobert and Bojan Bogdanovic had a lot to do with the game getting out of Charlotte’s reach before halftime. The Hornets had no answer for either one. Gobert deterred, denied and discouraged any Hornet who had designs of getting close to the basket, and on the other end scored 15 points. Two of the big man’s three assists went to the other star of this game, Bogdanovic. The Croatian forward scored 16 points in just 25 minutes, keeping his recent hot streak intact. In the last three games, Bogey has scored 71 points on just 44 field goal attempts.

Ingles added 11 points, and a trio of bench players reached double figures. Jordan Clarkson missed five of his first six shots, but then bounced back with a 10-point second quarter on his way to 20 overall. Georges Niang stayed hot with five triples and 15 points, and is shooting 55% since Christmas, when the Jazz moved Niang into the role of full-time backup power forward. And Emmanuel Mudiay continued his recent good play, adding a 10-point performance after his season high of 20 on Wednesday night.

The balanced scoring helped the Jazz survive an off-night from star guard Donovan Mitchell, who was playing ill for the second straight game. Mitchell would finish with just four points, nine lower than his previous season low.

“He fought through some stuff tonight,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said of his team’s leading scorer. Snyder also made it clear that, while Mitchell didn’t do his usual offensive damange, he still competed on the other side of the court. “He didn’t let his team down on the defensive end.”

The Jazz are now 13-1 since an early December loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Their last six wins have all come at the expense of teams with losing records, but they’re doing what they need to during this soft stretch, piling up wins against lesser opponents before things get rough again later this month.

Utah’s hot month has vaulted them forward in the tight Western Conference scrum, with five teams jockeying between second and sixth place. The Jazz spent much of December at No. 6, but as their Western peers finally have caught some losses, Utah climbed to the third spot briefly on Friday night, before the Clippers took No. 3 back with their own late win. Utah is now fourth in the conference, a half game behind both the Clippers and Nuggets.

Houston is just half a game back at 25-12, with Dallas trailing just behind at 23-14. OKC (22-16) is lurking not far back at No. 7 after winning eight of their last 10, and then there’s a wide chasm separating the top seven from the conference’s eight sub-.500 teams. The Lakers still hold down the top spot, 4.5 games ahead of the Nuggets and Clippers and five ahead of the Jazz.

Stats of the Game

36.7%: Gobert grabbed 36.7% of available defensive rebounds during his 29 minutes. Charlotte has just not had an answer for him in either of this season’s Jazz-Hornets matchups.

29:07: No Jazz starter played more than Gobert’s 29:07. The four starting perimeter players logged between 21 and 25 minutes, including just 22:20 for the ailing Mitchell. Hopefully that will help the third-year guard get his legs back before Utah’s imminent 3-game trip.

42.9%: The Jazz hit or exceeded the 40% mark from downtown for the third time in four games. Friday’s game was the Jazz’s third highest game of the season for both 3-point makes (18) and attempts (42)

23: The Jazz are now 13-2 in games where they share 23 assists or more. They had 28 on Friday.

Line of the Game

There weren’t any truly meaty lines given the reduced minutes, but Gobert’s 15 points, 13 boards, five blocks, three assists and a steal are a pretty good hint as to why he was a game-best +25. He was +16 in the first quarter alone.

Decisive Moment

The score was 10-9 in Utah’s favor when Mitchell sat down for his first quarter rest, a little earlier than usual due to his sickness, per Snyder. Utah would close the quarter on a 19-4 run from that point forward. Bogey (eight) and Gobert (five) combined for 13 of those points, and did it on perfect 5-for-5 shooting. Niang and Royce O’Neale each added a 3-point shot as well, while Charlotte went 2-for-11 during that stretch. After that run, Utah led by double digits the rest of the way. 

Highlight of the Game

Great dish by Mitchell here, and then Gobert with the tricky finish, double-clutching for one of his five dunks in the game.

Social

Ingles’ trifecta from downtown put him on pace to do something pretty historic this season, our Ken Clayton noted on Twitter tonight.

Notes

  • The Jazz starters were +9 which means that Utah was +8 anytime at least a single sub was in the game. That’s one of the best recent performances by the bench squad, and even that is probably selling them short; the garbage time crew was -12, meaning that the non-garbage minutes with one to five subs were +20. That is really solid.
  • The Jazz finished the season series with Charlotte, sweeping them over the course of three weeks. They’ve also already swept Orlando, and have already assured a season series win over Golden State, against whom they are 3-0. 
  • They’ve also guaranteed no worse than a series split against the Clippers, Grizzlies, Wolves, Pelicans and five Eastern Conference squads (Atlanta, Brooklyn, Chicago, Detroit and New York). They already wrapped up 1-1 splits with Philadelphia and Milwaukee.

    Up Next

    The Jazz’s next game is a rare Sunday matinee, a 1:30 p.m. MDT start in Washington against the Wizards. It’s the first of three straight on the road, but all three opponents will be teams with losing records. The Nets and Pelicans will host the Jazz next.

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