Donovan Mitchell welcomes Lonzo Ball to the Big Baller Brand.
The Utah Jazz hosted the Los Angeles Lakers. The Jazz led this one from start to finish off of decent three point shooting, a big rebounding advantage, and strong defense. The final score was
The Jazz opened the first quarter with a lot more energy than they had in their previous two games. Favors was hitting some shots.
The defense was on point and the good guys took a 31-16 lead at the end of the first.
The Lakers bench got it a bit closer against the Jazz bench. Ricky Rubio led the team in points, but some careless turnovers and a bunch of transition baskets were going the wrong way until Donovan Mitchell found one for the Jazz. Jazz led at the half 56 to 45.
The third quarter was a bit of a slop fest. The Lakers got a bunch of offensive boards with Andrew Bogut and Larry Nance, Jr and got a whole bunch of turnovers from a very careless Jazz squad. The lead was whittled to within 6, before Spida threw down an absolutely filthy putback dunk.
The Jazz held strong on defense in the fourth and put the game away.
Game Notes
Scoring was again done by committee. Rubio, Mitchell, Favors, Ingles, and Hood were all in double figures, led by Mitchell with 22 points.
The Jazz won the rebounding game, getting enough second chances to keep them ahead despite the turnovers.
The defense was tight, keeping a high scoring Lakers team to under 20 points in the first, third, and fourth quarter.
Another game, more turnovers. The first quarter was good, but the jazz quickly reverted to sloppy passing and careless ball handling and ended with 21 turnovers.
Rudy had his poorest stat line in a long time, with 6 points, 8 boards, and 3 blocks. He was a +22 on the night though, and was definitely a disruptive force on defense.