SALT LAKE CITY – The big question before Saturday's Utah-Dallas game was how the Jazz would react after playing a nearly-three-hour double-overtime game the night before in Oklahoma City when the Jazz suffered a heartbreaking one-point loss.
Prior to Saturday's game with Dallas, coach Quin Snyder brushed it off, saying the media was more concerned than his team was and said, "That was last night and not today," and "We've got a game to play tonight."
While the Jazz looked a little tired and ragged at times Saturday night, they had enough in their tanks to come away with a 125-109 win at Vivint Arena over a short-handed Dallas squad that was missing two starters including star rookie Luka Doncic.
The Jazz were led by Ricky Rubio and Donovan Mitchell with 25 points apiece, while Jae Crowder scored 22 points off the bench and Joe Ingles chipped in 18 points, including four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Rudy Gobert also had his 48th double-double of the season with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Dirk Nowitzki, making his first start of the season for the Mavs, scored 15 points, while Tim Hardaway Jr. led the Mavs with 21 points and former Jazzman Trey Burke was close behind with 20 points off the bench.
The most encouraging performance on the night was by Rubio, who had eight of Utah's season-high 25 turnovers in the 148-147 loss. Rubio played under control all night and besides his game-high 25 points, he also finished with five assists and zero turnovers.
"It's next-play mentality," said Snyder about Rubio's improvement in turnovers. "It's no different tonight than if Ricky hit a game-winner last night. That's who we need to be as a team and individually. Every game is different — we learn from every game and whatever we can learn from last night to help make us better, that's what we need to do."
Turnovers weren't a problem for either team as the Jazz finished with seven, while the Mavericks only had three. Utah shot 48.2 percent from the field, while Dallas shot 42.3 percent. Both teams sank 41 field goals, but the Jazz were 29 of 33 from the line compared to 14 of 18 for the Mavs.
Rick Bowmer
Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (45) dunks Dallas Mavericks center Salah Mejri (50) looks on in the first half during an NBA basketball game Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
The Jazz came into the game in a three-way tie for sixth place in the Western Conference standings, 10 games behind Golden State, and moved ahead of the idle Clippers and Spurs with the victory. They stand at 33-26 on the season.
The Mavericks had played the night before in Dallas, losing by 10 to Denver, and both teams looked a little tired in the first half as the Jazz led by as many as 11 before the Mavs made a run and cut the lead to 61-58 by halftime.
In the second half, neither team could find the basket early as the Mavs missed their first 10 shots, while the Jazz only made two of their first 11. Eventually the Jazz started making shots and pushed the lead to 15 at 78-63.
The pesky Mavs pulled within eight by the end of the quarter at 86-78, but Ingles, who had made 5 of 9 from beyond the arc the night before, heated up in the fourth quarter with four 3-pointers to push the lead to 107-90 midway through the quarter.
Dallas made one more run to cut the lead to 10 before the Jazz pushed it back to 16 at the final buzzer.
"We had a late night, got some rest this morning and were able to pick it up in the second half," said Ingles. "I had heavy legs, able to get it going a little bit in the fourth quarter. We're happy to get a win and now we can get home and get some sleep."
The Jazz will get another break for a few days with their next game scheduled for Wednesday at home against the Los Angeles Clippers. Then they play at Denver Thursday before playing Milwaukee at home Saturday night.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2TeIMTb
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