The Jazz went into this game as 3rd in the West. They also went into this game riding a 7 game win streak. The Warriors went into this game coming off of a rough loss to the Knicks. The Jazz were also a top 3 defense with great defenders in Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley going into this game. The scoring leaders for each team were Donovan Mitchell who was averaging 24.3 points on good shooting splits for the Jazz and Stephen Curry with 28.2 points on pretty bad shooting splits considering that he is Stephen Curry. Speaking of Stephen Curry he went into this game four 3 pointers away from passing Reggie Miller on the all time 3 pointers made list. James Wiseman vs. Rudy Gobert was looking like it would be an interesting matchup. For the Warriors to win this game Curry likely needed to be able to break through the Jazz great defense, would need to find points out of Oubre Jr. and the bench, and play good defense (especially against Donovan Mitchell). They also needed to lower the amount of fouls from the last game. The Warriors defense should’ve really improved compared to last game though since Draymond Green was back. For the Jazz to win they needed to play good defense, find points out of Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley, and ride their momentum from their win streak. To the game!
To start off the game Royce O’Neale made a 3 to give the Jazz an early lead. At 9:52 Steve Kerr called a timeout after the Jazz took an early 14-0 lead. At 9:34 Kelly Oubre Jr. made a pull-up jumper to give the Warriors their first points of the game. At 2:52 Andrew Wiggins made a 3 to lower the Jazz lead to 10. With about a minute to go Stephen Curry made a layup to make the score 36-28. To end the quarter Kelly Oubre Jr. made a floater to make the score 39-30. During the first quarter the Warriors didn’t have a fouling problem but did have a problem in the Jazz shooting with 55.6% from the field and 53.3% from 3. The Warriors also shot well with 52% from 2 and 44.4% from 3. The Warriors had 2 players with 10 points in Wiggins and Curry. The Jazz were being led by Royce O’Neale with 9 points after the first quarter.
Brad Wannamaker got a 3 point play to lower the deficit to 6. At 10:55 Georges Niang got a jumper for the first points of the 2nd quarter for the Jazz. At 8:06 Steve Kerr got a technical foul. At 4:43 Derrick Favors made a put back layup to give the Jazz their biggest lead of the game to that point at 21. At 3:21 Stephen Curry made a 3 to tie Reggie Miller on the all time 3’s list. At around 2:30 Donovan Mitchell made a layup to give the Jazz their biggest lead of the game to that point at 23. At 1:17 Rudy Gobert got a dunk to give the Jazz a 24 point lead. With 30 seconds to go in the half Mike Conley made a 3 to give the Jazz a 27 point lead. Donovan Mitchell then made a 3 to end the half at a score of 77-47. In the first half the Jazz basically couldn’t miss a shot with shooting splits of 51.9% from 2 and 42.9% from 3. For the Warriors it felt like they couldn’t make a shot with shooting splits of 43.2% from the field and 29.4% from deep. The leaders in scoring were Stephen Curry with 13 for the Warriors and Donovan Mitchell with 18 for the Jazz. The Warriors didn’t do well on rebounding having 8 less rebounds than the Jazz in the first half. They also had 5 more turnovers than the Jazz. In the first half it really felt like there was no defense being played by the Warriors because of how many shots the Jazz were making. On the bright side the Warriors didn’t have a fouling problem in the first half. In reality the Warriors didn’t play too terribly like the score suggests that they did, in the first half the Jazz just played extremely well. To the third!
To start off the second half Donovan Mitchell made a layup to give the Jazz a 32 point lead. At 10:59 Stephen Curry made a corner 3 to pass Reggie Miller on the all time 3’s list. Stephen Curry is now only following Ray Allen on that list. At 8:56 Donovan Mitchell made a 3 to give the Jazz a 31 point lead and their biggest lead to that point. Near the 7 minute mark Mike Conley made a 2 to give the Jazz a 33 point lead. At around 2:15 Georges Niang made a 3 to give the Jazz their biggest lead of the game to that point at 34. At 17.8 seconds to goJoe Ingles made a layup to end the quarter and give the Jazz a 36 point lead. At the end of the third quarter the score was 108-72. The Jazz beat the Warriors on the boards in the third quarter by 8. The Jazz were led in the third by Donovan Mitchell who had 23. The Warriors were being led by Curry who had 24 points to that point. The shooting splits were 41.4% from 2 and 31% from 3. The Jazz shot 50.7% from 2 and 43.9% from 3.
To start the 4th quarter Ingles made a jumper to give the Jazz a 38 point lead. At around the 10 minute mark Jordan Clarkson made a 3 to give the Jazz a 40 point lead. At 6:38 Nico Mannion made his first NBA 3 pointer to lower the Jazz lead to 29. For most of the 4th quarter the young players of the Warriors and Jazz hovered around a 25 point Jazz lead. At 1:04 Jordan Poole made 3 free throws to lower the Jazz lead to 18. To end the game Miye Oni made 1 of 2 free throws to give the Jazz a 127-108 lead. The final score was 127-108.
Leo’s Courtside Commentary: This game was over almost before it had begun. The Jazz took an early 14-0 lead in the first and were up 30 at halftime. The Jazz biggest lead was 40 points and ended at 19. The Warriors never had a lead in this game. The Jazz shot amazingly from 3 with 40%, they also shot well from 2 with 47.9%. The shooting splits didn’t show how well they shot because of the fact that their young players played for 10 minutes of the 4th quarter. The Warriors on the other hand didn’t shoot very well with 45.2% from 2 and 35.9% from 3. Kelly Oubre Jr. in particular didn’t have a very good game only scoring a total of 5 points in 24 minutes played. On the bright side Stephen Curry passed Reggie Miller in all time 3 pointers made putting him in second place all time behind only Ray Allen. Another bright spot was that the Warriors won the 4th quarter by 17 points. Overall this was a terrible game aside from the fact that Curry passed Miller and that the rookies and second year players played well in the 4th quarter.
Out of LF 