Tonight was a case of a stoppable force meeting a movable object. The Raptors rested most of their team, and the Jazz sat Lauri Markkanen, John Collins, Keyonte George, and Jaden Springer. Still, it was not a close contest, with the Raptors in control for most of the game and never trailing.
1st Quarter
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The Jazz started out slowly, yielding a 9-2 run and eventually going down 14-6, mostly owing to six turnovers. Whether Keyonte George would play was doubtful until gametime, but he checked in at the 6:09 mark and promptly turned the ball over on a dubious attempt to reach Kyle Filipowski. A beautiful pair of assists from Isaiah Collier to Flip and Micah Potter cut the deficit to 8.
The Raptors continued to stymie the Jazz, as Scottie Barnes viciously spiked a Keyonte George drive, but Kyle Filipowski went on a 4-0 mini run by himself and cut the gap to 20-25.
The teams traded both buckets and bricks, and Johnny Juzang beat the buzzer at the end of the period, leaving the Raptors clinging to a 1-point lead.
2nd Quarter
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It didn’t take the Jazz long to tie the game, as a Walker Kessler putback knotted the teams at 32.
Toronto combined a 3-pointer with a pair of free throws, and the lead was back to 5. The Raptors expanded the lead to 7, and the lead hovered around there until the Jazz put together a few in a row, anchored by stout defense by Walker Kessler and cold shooting by Toronto, who went without a bucket for nearly four minutes. The Jazz came as close as 40-42, but couldn’t quite get over the hump. They continued to scuffle and found themselves down by 9 with 1:26 to go. Walker pulled down his 18th rebound of the half, though, which was good for a tie with Rudy Gobert for the team record for boards in a half. By the time the halftime horn sounded, the Raptors had expanded their lead to 11 points, 57-46. Besides the Kessler rebound total, it was a forgettable quarter of basketball. Not even the Jazz X account could find a decent video highlight to post.
3rd Quarter
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The Jazz opened the 2nd half scoring with a Sexton-to-Kessler dunk, and the Raptors responded with a dunk of their own. The teams played evenly for the next 5 minutes, as the Raptors held a 74-63 lead with 6:40 left. The game ground along and turned into something of a free throw contest for the rest of the quarter, with the Jazz shooting about 42% from the field to the Raptors’ 38%. Flip hit a three with about four minutes left, cutting the Raptors lead to 8, but Jamison Battle answered with a triple of his own. The Jazz continued to stumble and bumble along, and the Raptors, though by no means perfect, were faster on offense and more synchronized on defense. They stretched their lead to as many as 16 points, ending the frame with a 92-78 advantage.
4th Quarter
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The Jazz opened the scoring, and were able to gain a little ground by the 8:40 mark, working the lead down to ten on a nifty Keyonte Eurostep.
> sheesh, key [pic.twitter.com/u8xAd27aWS](https://t.co/u8xAd27aWS)
>
> — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) [March 8, 2025](https://twitter.com/utahjazz/status/1898201880108666889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
The Raptors answered, Colin Sexton missed at the other end. They trapped the Raptors on the baseline, but Orlando Robinson threw the ball off Walker Kessler, and the refs awarded the possession to Toronto. The Jazz challenged, arguing that Robinson’s foot was out of bounds when he did so, and were successful, though they were charged a timeout in the process. Walker scored out of the timeout, he blocked Robinson at the other end, and Cody Williams hit a floater to cut the lead to single-digits. KJ Martin Jr completed a 3-point play off another Kessler block, cutting it to 6. Toronto stopped the bleeding with a Jamal Shead bucket.
Kessler buried two free throws, building the Jazz run to 9-2, followed by a Scottie Barnes layup off an offensive rebound. Immanuel Quickley closed the door on the Jazz for good when he nailed a transition three with about 4 minutes to go, followed by another one on the next possession. The Jazz kept fighting, but it wasn’t enough. The Raptors achieved a pyrrhic victory, tying Brooklyn and Philadelphia (who is giving their pick to OKC) in the win column with 21. The Jazz tied Charlotte in the loss column with 48.
Walker Kessler was the most interesting player of the night by far for the Jazz, finishing with 18 points, 25 rebounds, and 8 blocks. Kyle Filipowski had a nice game as well, putting up 17 points on 10 shots, with 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals to boot.
Not much went well for the Jazz tonight, but they were mainly doomed by their cold shooting, (46% from the field) turnovers, (24) and missed free throws (16). They will regroup and head to Philadelphia, where they need to lose again to maintain position in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.