The Jazz returned to the friendly confines of the Delta Center, playing host to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who thoroughly dispatched them their last meeting, 137-97. This one was more competitive, with the Jazz even holding a small halftime lead. However, in the third quarter the Jazz were reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ancient dwarves of Khazad-dûm—they dug a deep hole and got obliterated by a transcendent being in their own home. Anthony Edwards scored 21 of his 35 points in the period. The Jazz made a valiant effort to make the game respectable in the 4th, but fell short, 120-113.
1st Quarter
The Jazz won the tip, and Ace Bailey, starting at guard, threw an interception that went the other way for a Donte DiVincenzo brick. Lauri Markkanen opened the scoring with a layup, answered by a Rudy Gobert dunk. The teams exchanged empty trips until Yusuf Nurkic scored after an offensive rebound, making the score 4-2. Ace Bailey showed some nice defense and rebounding, but started the night 0-2 from the field. At the 7:28 mark, the defense completely collapsed, leaving Rudy Gobert all alone for a dunk and prompting a Will Hardy timeout.
Out of the timeout, Nurk drove in only to get his shot blocked out of bounds by Rudy. Svi bricked a three, and Jaden McDaniels hit a bunny on the other end. Rudy continued to have his way in the paint, and the rest of the players on the floor on both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net until Keyonte scored on back-to-back possessions to return the lead to Utah, 15-14.
Anthony Edwards responded with a long ball of his own, and Brice Sensabaugh drew an and-1 on a Jordan Clarkson-esque play. Ant caught Kyle Filipowski in the air twice, but distributed to Naz Reid, who hit a corner three and put the Wolves up 2 once again. Brice tried to answer, missed a three, and Ant soared over Flip and Kevin Love, dunking with authority, leading to another Jazz timeout.
Kevin Love cut the lead in half with a three following the timeout and Naz Reid hit a floater on the other end. Mike Conley drained a three on the next Wolves possession, extending the lead back to 6. But the Jazz opened up a 7-0 run, led by Flip and Key, the latter of whom blew past the entire Wolves defense for a 1-handed dunk.
Nurk made the run 9-0 after he was left alone by Rudy at the top of the key, and the Jazz found themselves in possession of a 30-26 lead at the end of the frame.
2nd Quarter
Will Hardy went big to open the 2nd, with a WCJ/Ace/Flip/Lauri/Nurk lineup. Minny ended the Jazz run with a deep ball from Donte DiVincenzo and the teams exchanged empty trips on the next two possessions. Flip channeled his inner Stockton and hit Lauri on a no-look pass, who drained one from deep. Naz Reid cut the lead back to one on a hook shot against Flip, and the teams traded misses for the next few possessions until Svi Mykhailiuk scored his first points of the night from beyond the arc on a nice find from Flip. The Wolves ended their scoring drought on a driving layup from Rudy, Svi missed on the other end, and Isaiah Collier fouled Jaden McDaniels (non-shooting). Out of the media timeout, Lauri hit a three and Rudy got an easy dunk for the Wolves.
Isaiah Collier responded with a layup, the teams traded turnovers, and Mike Conley drew a shooting foul from Kevin Love, hitting both free throws. Collier, seeing a wide-open lane on the other end, drew an and-1 from a late-arriving Rudy Gobert, stretching the Jazz lead to 7. On the next Jazz possession, Collier bulleted an outlet pass to Lauri, who found Key for a decisive alley-oop—one of the most beautiful sequences of the season so far for the Jazz.
Minnesota called timeout, trying to stop the momentum, and cut the lead back to 7 on a Julius Randle dunk following a fortunate offensive rebound. After an empty trip by the Jazz, Minny responded with one of their own, Collier charged into Naz Reid, and Donte DiVincenzo drew an and-1 on their end, making it 46-42 in favor of Utah. Julius Randle drew another and-1, hit the free throw. Jalen Clark capped a 9-0 run by Minnesota from inside, and Lauri Markkanen finally stopped the bleeding with a pair of free throws at the 1:20 mark. After an exchange of buckets, including a putback by Ace Bailey for his first points of the night, Julius Randle hit a tough layup at the horn. When the dust settled, the score stood at 55-53, Jazz.
3rd Quarter
Minnesota had the opening possession, and Ant hit a nice midrange jumper over Svi to tie the game at 55. Naz Reid missed, Key dribbled off his foot, McDaniels, missed a turnaround, and Svi bricked a three-point attempt. Ant finally ended the drought by catching Ace in the air and hitting two free throws. Nurk responded at the other end by drawing contact from Rudy, but missed both tries from the charity stripe. Ant extended the Wolves lead to 5 from deep, Nurk missed a silly floater, and Julius Randle punished the Jazz at the other end, drawing a Will Hardy timeout with 9:46 to go, his team down 62-55.
The Jazz woes continued. Ace missed from deep, Nurk fouled Rudy on the rebound, and the Wolves scored on the other end. At the 8:57 mark, Julius Randle grew the lead to 11 points as he hit two free throws. Ace ended the run with two free throws of his own. The quarter dragged on. Utah’s offense looked listless, and on defense they looked like they were playing in two inches of maple syrup. Donte DiVincenzo hit still more free throws, and the Wolves were on an 18-4 run. Isaiah Collier and Kevin Love checked in, Ace Bailey checked out, and Donte DiVincenzo hit Jaden McDaniels on a nasty lob, which was called a goaltend/basket interference. Minnesota challenged the play successfully, and the Wolves took a 15-point lead. Rudy scored over Love to extend it to 17. Love stopped the run with a corner three—technically, I guess.
The run remained 25-7 since the score was knotted at 55. At the 4:04 mark, it was a 30-7 run. Kevin Love and Brice Sensabaugh teamed up for back-to-back buckets, but the Jazz still found themselves—as David Locke likes to say—on the wrong side of a palindrome, 86-68 with 3:08 left in the period. But the Wolves went cold. Love hit two free throws to cut the lead to 16, and Flip hit two more to cut it to 14 with about two minutes remaining. Brice hit a 3, capping the run at 11-0 before Ant hit a midrange jumper. Lauri fouled Randle with 18.9 seconds left, who casually dropped in two free throws. Lauri drew two free throws of his own, splitting them and making the score 93-80 in favor of the Wolves.
4th Quarter
Ace Bailey took the first possession of the final frame, and got a little too creative on a drive to the rim, missing the contested layup. Nurkic missed the putback. Mike Conley missed on the other end. Donte DiVincenzo and WCJ exchanged buckets, and Svi hit from deep to cut the lead to 9—for about 5 seconds, until Jaden McDaniel answered. Nurkic split two free throws on the other end, and DiVincenzo bricked a three and fouled WCJ. Ace drove in the paint, stumbled, recovered, and hit a silky stepback off one foot to cut the deficit back to 9—still on the wrong side of a palindrome, but a much more manageable one, 98-89.
Nurk hit Ace for a nice dunk, Jaden McDaniels hit a floater on the other end, and McDaniels drew a pair of free throws, hitting both. The Jazz had two more empty trips, Minnesota capitalized, and WCJ hit a long three to cut the lead to 10. Ace missed a transition three on the next Jazz possession, and Ant made him pay on the other end. Will Hardy called timeout, trailing by 12 with 5:49 to go.
Lauri hit from deep out of the timeout, but he erased it on the other end when he allowed an and-1 on the baseline to Jaden McDaniels. Svi responded with yet another three-pointer, once again bringing the deficit down to single-digits. Julius Randle missed on the other end, but the Jazz couldn’t capitalize. Randle drew two free throws shortly afterwards, missing the first, but dashing the hometown crowd’s dreams of free chicken by hitting the second. Flip challenged Rudy at the top of the key, thought better of it, and tried to find Lauri in the paint. Ant fouled him before he could get a shot off, and the Jazz missed after the inbound. Julius Randle hit a pair of free throws, Rudy fouled Keyonte on a drive at the other end, he hit both, and the score hung at 112-102 at the 2:47 mark. Flip drew a charge from Randle, the Wolves forgot that you’re allowed to move on defense, and Key drove in for an uncontested dunk. Donte DiVinenzo answered, and Lauri took and missed an ill-advised turnaround jumper. The teams continued to trade baskets, with one being an incredible drive and reverse yam by Ace Bailey.
The Wolves coasted to a 120-113 victory.
Keyonte George continues to impress. He had a rough night from beyond the arc, but his bounce, his court vision, and his ability to slash to the rim have all improved since last season. He put up 27 points on 18 shots and was perfect from the line.
Ace Bailey had a respectable game. He made some rookie mistakes, but he showed flashes of brilliance. This was his first start, and I hope to see more starts and more sets run for him as the season progresses.
Brice Sensabaugh played well with the time he was given, scoring 10 points and grabbing 3 boards. He also made serious effort on defense.
The Jazz fall to 3-7 on the season, bumping them to 6th-worst in the NBA.
Tomorrow, the Jazz host the reeling Indiana Pacers in an important tank-off game, as Indiana is 1-9 so far.