One evening when the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Going full throttle, with some big surprises, the Utah Jazz continued their road trip against the Dallas Mavericks, who were tied with the Sacramento Kings and the Phoenix Suns, in hopes of moving from 8th to 6th place in the Western Conference playoff race.
The Jazz faced Cinderella early on, taking an 8-1 lead just under 3 minutes into the game, before Dallas responded with a 9-2 run to tie things up midway through the 1st quarter. -time. The Jazz ended up leading 27-26 after 12 minutes.
In the 2nd quarter, the Jazz cooled off, going scoreless for nearly 4 minutes until Lauri Markkanen made 2 free throws at 8:22 to cut Dallas’ lead to six (35-29) . A few dunks from Walker Kessler later and the Jazz reduced the gap, trailing only 42-39. And then Luka Doncic took over, scoring 8 points during an 11-3 Dallas run to close the half with Dallas leading 53-42 at the break.
The 3rd quarter was tough for the Jazz, as Dallas outscored them 14-6 in the 7th minute, and the game became choppy and the Jazz got frustrated with the officiating. Keyonte George and Omer Yurtseven did their best to keep the Jazz in the game, combining for 13 points as the Jazz trailed 83-73 heading into the 4th.
Dallas went on a 17-7 run to open the 4th, building a 20-point lead with just over 5 minutes left. The Jazz returned to their starting 5 and reduced the gap with a 15-6 sequence, before Dallas closed the match by winning 113-97.
Not many positive points in this match, the 18 turnovers were a reminder of the Jazz’s difficulties at the start of the season in taking care of the ball. Dallas had 27 fast break points on the night.
The Jazz’s 3-point shooting (4/30, 13.3%) was bad. And they seemed to become less aggressive with each failure.
Lauri Markkanen led the Jazz with 21 points, but didn’t look entirely healthy: he struggled much of the night on the road, perhaps still suffering from the lingering effects of his recent injuries . Dallas, as many teams have done, confronted Lauri physically and took him out of his game for periods of time. He needs to respond and rise above this to reach the next level of stardom in the NBA.
Collin Sexton had 20 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists, while Walker Kessler had 14 points and 9 rebounds in 27 minutes.
The Jazz remain in the Lone Star State to face the Houston Rockets on Saturday, before returning home for a rematch Monday with the Dallas Mavericks.
Following. Would the Jazz trade their own 1st round pick this year?. The Jazz could trade their first-round pick this year. dark
